Date at the Tate

Last week Steven and I finally made it to the Tate Britain. We've been to the Tate Modern quite a few times, and always love that place; but we wanted to check out its big sister this time around. We were not disappointed. It's a beautiful 1897 building, with incredible domed ceilings and gorgeous wood floors, and a very impressive collection of British Art. The museum sits along the River Thames, on Millbank.

The beauty of all of these museums having free entry is that you can just check them out for a little while, and then go on to something else. So that day, we wandered through some of the galleries, but barely scratched the surface of the whole museum, before getting a bit peckish and deciding to head off to lunch. We stumbled upon the Garden Museum and popped in to their cafe for a delicious bite, before walking along the food-stall lined streets of Lambeth and finding freshly baked cookies for dessert. None of these places took credit cards, so we managed to squeak by with just the fourteen pounds I had in my wallet that day, and our trusty oyster cards for taking the tube everywhere.

We spent another hour just walking around, exploring yet another part of the city. How can there possibly be so many different areas of London? And each borough is completely different, just walking down a block you can feel the change- the buildings, the people, the shops, the streets, it's very interesting.

A few days later, Greta and I headed in to London to check out the Dazed and Confused exhibit at the Somerset House (we love going there!). We couldn't take photos in the gallery, but outside we got to see the crew putting up the Christmas Tree and skating rink, which was cool- we definitely want to head back there next month. Reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore's line in "Ordinary People," when she said "Ah, Christmas in London- it's like something out of Dickens!" You may wonder how I remember such a trivial line, but Greta and I just watched that movie last week (it holds up very well, by the way). Anyway, after the exhibit, we got hot drinks and walked all through St. James Park. She even talked me into doing a little shopping and I fell in love with a gorgeous dress at Jigsaw; it was marked down to half price (still ridiculously expensive), so I went for it. I haven't bought many clothes since being here, and this dress just called to me. Plus, I got my first paycheck last week!