This won’t be a very long post since I didn’t really do anything that exciting on Saturday and Sunday, mostly just catching up on sleep, spending time outside and hanging out at Tate Modern.
Saturday morning I took the tube to St. Paul’s and from there walked across Millennium Bridge towards Tate Modern, where the Matisse cut-out exhibition is being held until mid-September. The exhibition is very popular and because of this I had a 1.5 hour wait before I could queue up to enter the space. And what is a girl to do during lunch time on the South Bank? I bet my dad can tell you… Borough Market, of course! I was excited to try the pies from Pieminster, which I had heard and read are amazing, so I jumped in line and ordered their ‘Lighter than a Feta’ pie. Honestly I was let down because, although I liked the chunks of sweet potato and feta, I didn’t like the pie crust that much and I was a huge fan of the crumble on the top of the pie. Not wanting my visit to Borough Market to go to waste I stopped by my favorite pastry stand to get a spelt almond croissant, which had been my favorite since I first tried one for the first time last fall.
I made my way back over to Tate and I didn’t have much of a wait before I was allowed into the show. I’ve been a fan of Matisse’s work in the Fauvist movement but I have to admit that I never had much interest in his works in the latter part of the 20th century. Matisse apparently was a fan of using paper cut-outs throughout his career to plan the paintings he is famous for today, but never considered the process an art form until later in his life when he found he could not hold a paintbrush for long periods of time. His cut-outs are absolutely incredible and some are monumental in size, taking up entire walls up the exhibition space. If anybody is in London between now and September I would definitely recommend stopping by the exhibition because it is not one to miss. And if you have a student ID there’s even a discount available!
At this point I decided that it would be a good idea to walk back home to Earl’s Court from the South Bank, which ended up being about five miles (I had just finished Chrissie Wellington’s book Life Without Limits, so five miles sounded like nothing compared to how many miles she puts under her belt ever day). Unfortunately it began to pour ten minutes into my walk and I totally forgot that I would have to pass the London Eye, so it took me a lot longer to get back than I thought it would. I passed several well-known sites including the London Eye, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Harrod’s on my rather wet journey. I stopped halfway through to Skype with my mom, so I did get a little break from the rain. After getting back I went for a run before grabbing a quick dinner from Whole Foods.
Sunday was a calm day as well—I slept in, ran through Hyde Park and had a picnic in Kensington Gardens, enjoying the surprisingly nice weather (which was to be rudely interrupted by all of the rain later that evening). I met up with friends for dinner at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, where I ordered the Pesterella chicken burger and their signature skinny fries which taste just like Steak ‘N Shake’s french fries.
“Sweet summer days #100happydays 59/100 at Round Pond, Kensington Gardens“
