Friday was our last full day in London, which was depressing for a number of reasons. We didn’t want our trip to be over so soon, and there was so much more we wanted to do .. but we decided to make the most of our time and headed out (slightly later than we had on previous days; Paris wore us out).

Our Friday plan was to have a proper Full English Breakfast, then hit up the British Museum to eyeball some more history. I also wanted to pick up some more tights (shut up), so we tubed back to Covent Gardens for tights and plates of beans. I personally skipped the beans in exchange for additional mushrooms, and gave Heather my bacon for her sausages. I had sadly discovered earlier in the week that British bacon did NOT agree with my insides, so I wisely passed it over so I wouldn’t spend the next several hours with a bad stomach ache. Sated and full of beans/meats, we consulted the internet and made our way to the closest station to the museum; King’s Cross.

If you’re familiar with London, you may have  noticed something really wrong with that last sentence. In some sort of dastardly Machiavellian plan, Google Maps decided to give us fantastically wrong information about the location of the museum; telling us it was by King’s Cross and not three blocks from the damn place we ate breakfast, in Covent Gardens. For some reason, Google shows the British Library as being the British Museum – and while books are awesome and stuff, we didn’t want to be there. We lost several hours on the snafu, but it wasn’t all bad: King’s Cross is the location of Platform 9 and 3/4, which we found on the way to the Not Museum:

domo is off to fight dementors!

We figured out the map issue, swore at Google Maps a lot, then made our way back to where we started; finally arriving at the British Museum. Luckily, the two museums we were planning to go to were open late on Friday nights, so we sat outside for a bit to rest our feet and people watch before going inside.

The British Museum was incredible. After staring around the Great Court in awe, we made a beeline for the Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian exhibit.

great court is great

You can easily spend days upon days in the museum (and you should – it’s free!), but the website has guides for 1 and 3-hour tours that take you through the highlights. We did the 1-hour tour, and while Heather and Renee admired the artifacts and history, I took pictures of nudity:

ancient roman wang!

bathing aphrodite!

ANCIENT GRECIAN CENTAUR PUNCH

In addition to admiring all the old stone wangs, we also saw mummies, the Japanese exhibit, incredible pieces of religious imagery and jewellery, and so much more. We bought some souvenirs at the gift shop (including my favourite new bag ever), then set off on our next adventure: a late lunch, and the next museum.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is open until 10pm on Friday nights, and unbeknownst to us, is THE hot spot for London’s hippest people. We felt drastically out of place among all the beautiful ones, but quickly forgot our awkwardness when we looked at the exhibits within. The V&A might be my favourite place in the world, and I desperately wish we had more time to explore – as it was, the 3+ hours we spent wasn’t nearly enough.

the john madejski garden at night

a mosaic within a mosaic

more old timey wangs

and one in green just for fun!

the building was damaged during wwii

london why are you so pretty

If I lived in London, I’d explore every inch of the V&A. We got to see the Power of Making exhibit, lounge on the giant carpet field in the Raphael room, the amazing sculptures and mosaic pieces .. and for every stunning exhibit we walked through, there were four more that we didn’t have time to see. Even looking at the V&A website is making me sad, because I’m realizing just how much more there was to look at – I need to go back to London. Who’s with me? Let’s go!

After valiantly not buying the entire beautiful gift shop, we sadly headed back to the house to pack our bags – it was time to go home. The cab was called for 5am, we frantically traded suitcase contents to come under the baggage limits, and went to sleep after an amazing week in London.

heather, renee and kimli