I ate lunch with dead people!

This was written on January 29th but posted today.

Today I explored London a little bit.  I got in last night and have been staying with Maggie.  She and her flatmates are awesome.  Plus, it's so warm here!! I'm loving the heat.  So today I ventured around London by myself and re-learned the tube system.  It really wasn't that bad or scary.  In fact, it was quite enjoyable.  First off, I met Maggie during her lunch hour in Trafalgar Square next to the George Washington statue.  Appropriate for the Americans, I know.  We went to this little cafe that Maggie has been wanting to try.  it was in a crypt.  It was AWESOME!  Hence my title.  They had identifiers of what food was gluten free, so nice!  Maggie and I enjoyed a hauntingly pleasant lunch.  Sadly, she could not spend the rest of the day with me.  Being a grown up sucks.

Into the National Gallery I went! Once inside, I realized that I totally forgot my original reasons for wanting to see the gallery.  Whoops!  So I started wandering around seeing if anything caught my eye.  The whole building is so extravagant and all the paintings are so well done.  It's a bit overwhelming to be honest. As I was wandering around I remembered that they probably had some DaVinci pieces.  Turns out I was right.  Since he is my favorite artist, naturally I went to find them.  I found the first DaVinci and was admiring it when my day really began.

As I was admiring the beauty of the artwork, a couple around my parent's age came up to the artwork as well.  We were all admiring the art and started talking about it.  Suddenly I found myself being shown to the other DaVinci painting by the husband who proved to be quite the art in enthusiast.  His name was John and the wife's name was Janine.  John was so passionate about all the art and Janine was very kind and easy to talk to.  Showing me to one painting turned into a guided tour of the National Gallery and the National Portrait gallery.  It was absolutely splendid!

We talked about their lives, where they were from and their kids.  Then they asked me about why I was in England, what home was like and what my ambitions were.  All the while John was taking me to another random painting that sprung to his mind.  I have to say, my tour of the National Gallery turned out to be so much more entertaining and educational that I ever thought it would be!  Interesting fact, both of them didn't understand why Van Gogh is famous.  They just didn't see what was so special about his work.  I'm not saying if I agree or disagree, but it was just an interesting observation.  As the day went on, they invited me to go to another museum with them.  But I couldn't because I was meeting up with Maggie after she got out of work.  I took a lovely picture with them which is included below.

After we took the picture we all thanked each other for a lovely day and went our separate ways.  I still had a bit of time before I had to meet up with Maggie, so I decided to take advantage of my beautiful surroundings at night.  I took some nights shots of Trafalgar Square and I rather like what I came up with for not having a tripod.  Hope you enjoy!

I met up with Maggie and we headed back to her place.  Now lucky for us, Maggie's roommate works in a pub and hooked us up with free food.  So dinner that night was free of charge!  It was lovely and I had a great time in London.