Whirlwind: Changing of the Guard, Parliament, and Tower of London

So this will be my final post about actual events of my time in London.  After this, I'll have a wrap-up post about my experience and final remarks.  Then, I'll finally start PARISSS. 

So by far, my most touristy event in London was going to the changing of the guard.  The changing of the guard happens in front of Buckingham Palace where the Queen resides.  These are the guards who stand very still and act all serious all the time.  Here's a little pic of them:

It was packed with people even though it happens every other day during the winter and everyday from April to October...  We showed up at around 11:10-ish for an 11:30 start.  This event was one of those things where you say you went to it, but that's it.  Not much to comment on.  It took a really long time.  Parts of it were tough to see, and I didn't understand what was going on.  This was ignorant on my part for not reading a little bit about it beforehand.  Oh well, I saw it:

Pretty unspectacular, but later on in my trip, I was lucky enough to eat lunch at Parliament.  My friend is currently doing an internship there, and she got her visitor's pass the LAST day I was in London. What luck! She gave me a little tour of Parliament, and I got to see a debating chamber and few other cool things.  I was worried about taking pictures because I didn't want her to get in trouble for my tourist ways.  Definitely cool to see.  I thought it was funny that they had a pub in Parliament, and there's this picturesque deck.  The MP's can take their lunch out to this deck that overlooks the River Thames.  The food was cafeteria-style, but extremely cheap for the quality.  I ate chicken tikka at Parliament: no big deal. 

After eating at Parliament, I considered just calling it a day.  I was pretty tired, and I was just sort of fed-up (I know this sounds terrible) with constantly doing things.  I decided I would just look at Tower of London for 10 minutes from the outside.  After that, I would just do the same at St. Paul's Cathedral, then go back to my friend's flat and nap.  Keep in mind, this was the day after the Superbowl, which ended at 3:00am here. 

So I took the Tube from Parliament to Tower of London and just all of a sudden got a rush of adrenaline.  I have no idea why, but I'm really glad it happened.  I bought a ticket for ToL and made it just in time for a free tour of the place.  The tours are led by these fools (I mean, respectable gents):

Side Note: I found out in France that they're actually called "Beefeaters".  I went to the grocery store with my Uzbekistani homestay sister (more on this in future posts) and her German friend.  We were in the alcohol section (obviously), and he explained that this one bottle of booze was called Beefeater, and it had a cartoon of a man dressed like the above.  Not a very marketable name for booze if you ask me... "Yeah, just give me a vodka (I think it's vodka) and tonic... which vodka... Beefeater, of course..."

Anyway, after the tour, I got to see the crown jewels of London and other cool stuff.  I wasn't blown away by the crown jewels, but still very appealing stones.  I feel like since I'm one of the heirs to a jewelry empire, I should have a higher appreciation for those luxurious jewels.  I didn't, maybe it skips a generation?  Again, nothing extremely noteworthy, but definitely a great way to spend a day.

After Tower of London, I made a quick stop at St Paul's Cathedral.  Churches haven't gotten old yet, so it was definitely cool to see.  There was a mass that was about to start, and I almost stayed, but I had to meet my friend for dinner.  It's weird how Europe makes me more interested in attending mass.

I will always remember my last landmark seen on my London trip was St Paul's.  My last dinner was delicious Indian food.  I had to order for the group since I was the resident Indian expert (thanks mom). We got mutter paneer (thanks Kev), chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, butter chicken and vegetable biryani.  It was the best Indian food I've ever eaten:

After Indian, we went out one last time. My last night out consisted of Belgian beer.... I did protest.  I wanted to finish at a pub with a few pints of Strongbow, but the Belgian beer was tasty.  It's tough to call it beer since it was strawberry infused and extraordinarily sweet. It was still really good though.  After the Belgian beer, we went back to my friend's flat, and I finished packing up my stuff.  Sadly, the London part of my adventure was over.