My last days in London

Yes, that's right, I'm leaving London. I'm leaving in the morning, in a few hours from now. Maybe this year was not my best one, but living in London was undoubtly an interesting experience. It has made me realize, that an image (of a school, a city or even a country), which was created in the past and was planted deeply in people's mind, can be so strong, that people still believe it, eventhough the values behind it do not exist anymore. It has also helped me to learn about myself, and gave me new goals to achieve. Although it has partially altered my way of thinking, it has also streghten my viewpoint on other things.

This monolog could go on for a while, but as the primary function of the blog suppose to be showing off my photos, let me show you the last two images I took in London. They have nothing to do with Christmas, you might not even be able to tell that they were taken in December, or in London, but they (together with some other photos I took this year) might present the city from a different perspective (different from what you usually see in a London tour guide book). London is not just about the Big Ben, red phone booths, guards with funny hats, happiness and wealth. And despite the myth, it is not raining all the time.

The blog will probably be on hold for a while, but I might have posts from time to time, so do not forget to check occasionally.


/the picture was taken at the Elephant & Castle underground station, after I visited my university for the last time/

Christmas in London

The closer Christmas is, the more decorations can be seen on the streets. I walked around the centre of London at the end of November, and took these pictures on my way from the Piccadilly Circus, along Regent Street, to Oxford Street. Although my walk was much longer, I got bored of the decorations quite fast. At some places I found them rather cheesy and tasteless (I have no visual evidence of it, as I tried hard enough not to have them in the frame), and the view just did not inspire me for taking further pictures.

An afternoon around Canary Wharf

The mist is quite usual these days. I saw a couple of times before from my window, that it can look interesting while being lit by the lights of the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf. I decided to take some pictures of it last Sunday. I left home early afternoon, hoping to find some other inspiring places on my way. My first etap happened to be the O2 Arena, at least the closest spot to it, on the northern side of the Thames. I even spotted some cormorants sunbathing at the river bank.




















Then I waited for the "night" at Canary Wharf. Later, I took the same road back home, so I could take some more pictures of the arena, this time, in the dark.

October

I found a few more pictures I took in the beginning of October. These were all taken either on my way to the university or there. The one on the left is the structure of the gasworks at Bromley-by-Bow while the other one was taken from the 11th floor of LCC, at Elephant and Castle. The two pictures at the end of this post are snapshots at the tube station at Bank, which were taken while waiting for my train.

The view from my window at dawn

The last few weeks were all about finishing my major project, and put everything in place. My daily working span increased, and I often finished only after sunrise. Although working till the morning was not that good, I did take a deep breath from the fresh morning air every day, which put a smile on my face before going to sleep. Sometimes, the view even made me take some pictures.

I have some more pictures to show from the last month, but it will take a bit more time to process them.

The London Underground

I thought the London Underground deserves a separate post, especially now when I spend hours on tube on a daily basis. Although all pictures were taken along my road to the uni and back, this time I got off at some stations, just for the sake of a couple of shots.




Over a hundred stairs at Borough station.

For the picture on the top left (at Bank station), I had to stop at the middle of the flow with a tripod. I have foreseen that it is not going to be an easy task, basically because everybody is in rush, no one wants to stop - not even for a moment-, and yes, I am obstructing them. Therefore I prepared my camera and set up the tripod on the side of the corridor, and jumped in the middle at the right moment. It took about 2 or 3 seconds to finish with the picture, but I've already heard the loudspeaker calling on a "guy with the tripod". I guess that was me, so I had to move on.

Rain

Last week I had a friend from Hungary visiting me for a few days. One day, we went to see the business district, where we were caught by the rain. At first, a tree gave us shelter, but a few minutes later, we had to look for a bigger, better one. Fortunately, we were at The Gherkin (which I wrote about earlier in my first post, London, Baby!), and derived from its special shape, we did not get wet while we were standing next to it.



As the time was about 5.30pm, many businessmen and businesswomen were on the streets, or were about to leave work. The rain made many of them stay inside or "under" the building, at least for a while, as the rain did not want to stop. Some of them decided to go anyway, so as I had nothing better to do, I took out my camera, and started taking pictures of the poor creatures from the "safe zone".
Just when I started to get better in it, and the light conditions became better too, the rain stopped. I know, these pictures are not so special, but at least I can prove that it is raining occasionally in London, eventhough my pictures do not usually tell that.

Canary Wharf

Last week I had my first trip to Canary Wharf, the business district on the Isle of Dogs, London, which I have mentioned in my previous post for the first time.
For about 6 months, I did not even know about this place. I have seen some tall buildings in the "far" East of London from the Tower Bridge, but they seemed far enough to walk there.
My interest about these buildings has been raised since I have moved to their other side, and they became reachable on foot.
Once, this peninsula in the river Thames gave place to one of the busiest docks is the world. After its decadence, a regeneration of the area started to take place in the 1980s. Nowadays, you can find some of the tallest buildings of the UK.

Last week, I decided to have a few hours break, and so I went to Canary Wharf. I was really surprised how modern, clean and elegant it is. I have found myself in a Jazz Festival, and bumped into David Hasselhoff as well, who was walking around with a rather young blond. The area reminded me to Oslo's Aker brygge, but the tall office buildings made me feel like I was in New York (I have not been to NY, so I just guess it can be something similar).











































/Left: the view towards central London/

Finally, I would like to conduct a survey. I would like to know if you enjoy reading longer texts about my trips/topics, or should I limit my writings to the minimum, and give a higher priority to the pictures? Thanks for your time!

July

July was not really fruitful regarding the photo topics. It has produced the least photos so far, but I guess it is not completely July's fault. I'm afraid I'm getting bored of central London, and it's just not inspiring me anymore. Even the weather is almost the same since April. Maybe some snow would show London from a new perspective, but probably I will have to wait a little bit more for that.
The only things that captured my attention, are these curious creatures who have been sniffling around my house lately.

I knew that there are foxes having parties on the streets of London during the night, but I never had the chance to observe their activities so closely. Actually I'm kind of a night owl, and one night around 4am, I heard some noises from the street. As it was somewhat different from the usual screaming of drunk people, I went to my window to find out what its source was. It turned out, that it came from not one but 2 foxes who were playing under my window. A minute later they got company by two other foxes. Since then, I could see one of them almost every night around the same time. Once they came later than usually, and the sun already gave enough light that I could take pictures of them.



I took a few pictures along some walks I had, but the majority of my recently posted photos came from the time when my parents visited me.




/Hyde Park/

We've been to Greenwich (which wasn't really special), from where I took a picure of the skyline of Canary Wharf, a major business district of London, which contains many of the UK's tallest buildings^[1].




One day we even visited Brighton, had a fish & chips on the Brighton Pier, and took a look on the Royal Pavilion (took some pictures as well, but finally they did not qualify for publicity) before we headed back to London.






With the beginning of August, I moved to East London, close to the previously mentioned Canary Wharf. Although the moving was not particularly for the sake of seeing a new side of the city, it might also help to inspire me again.

June in London

May and June passed by, and now it's already July. Months change so quickly as the weather here in London. Heavy rain is followed by bright sky, and after a few minutes the clouds are back, and everything starts from the beginning. There are some days, when you can fully enjoy the weather, but sometimes you get caught by an unexpected shower and you just cannot do anything about it. These are the times when you can see people walking peacefully in the rain, without any coat or umbrella. The rain comes so fast, they have no time to find a shelter, they just acquiesce to the situation and continue their way.
The sun, on the other hand, lures people out from their homes.



This Italian girl decided to practice playing accordion on the street, so she could earn some money at the same time. Just like several other people, I stayed listening to her music for a few minutes, when she started to play La Noyée sensationally from Yann Tiersen (one of my favourite composer-musician).
/To get the essence of the environment, why not open this YouTube link, and listen to the song's cover by Dave Thomas/

I had a visit to the TATE Modern gallery (and its amazing bookstore :P),



...took some pictures on my way,



...and had a walk till the sunset.



My school duties did not let me to take too many pictures in the last two months, and I could put all the photos of June into one post. Maybe the upcoming month will result more pictures.