i'll send an sos to the world

police

Paris and London are fabulous. Grape Ions is the ugliest stupidest country in the world. You can quote me on that.

Highlights of London-Paris trip:

1. Emirates entertainment system. I applaud you, Emirates. You had every movie and song a person could ask for.
2. Architectural gorgeousness of both countries. Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame and Versailles especially.
   
3. Taking photos for people at home. Like Old British Men and cows for certain classmates. We had a cow photography competition that morphed into an artistic photography competition.
4. Watching cool performances: Ian McKellen in Seagull, Othello at the Globe, Chicago.
5. Visiting stupendous art museums like Tate Modern (where we discovered Meshes of the Afternoon) and D’Orsay and the Louvre.
6. Visiting Roland Garros and buying cheap ground passes and seeing Sharapova warm up and being given a rose by the sweet ballkids.
7. The Whoas and the Lookalikes. Examples of Lookalikes: Matthew Bellamy, Christian Bale, Ryan Phillipe, David Beckham, Heath Ledger, Bon Jovi, Lofty, Chris Martin, Rodrigo Santoro, Josh Groban. In the case of Bellamy, Santoro and Groban, it very well could have been them; we just didn’t get a good enough look.
8. Guy Vardi, best and cutest tour guide of all time. Old French Men forever.
9. The (very few) things that I did find time to buy – Urban Outfitters dress, Topshop bag, Special Edition Roland Garros Swatch watch!
10. The cool shops we found, especially the old record shop with cool LPs.

Not-so-Highlights of London-Paris trip:

1. The Chinagora Hotel. Never talk to me about that hotel again.
2. The missed opportunities; such as the Abbey Road pilgrimage, Portabello Market, Hyde Park picnic, and all the hundreds of shops we had no time to go to.
3. Not being able to watch Roland Garros on television. I had to piece together information from stolen French newspapers and glimpses of matches from TVs in dodgy pubs. (That said, THANK YOU IVANOVIC you are now one of my favourite female players. Just don’t beat Henin.)
4. Having to stand up to watch Othello at the Globe. I'm all for authenticity and stuff, but 3.5 hours is crossing the line. We couldn't walk after that.
5. Reading about all the nice artists that were in London at the same time as us (Travis, Rufus Wainwright) but not being able to go watch.
   
6. Being dehydrated every day because of the insane prices of water in France.

We're all so homesick for the UK, I swear; we were about to cry when we arrived at Changi. Anyway, pictures; click to expand.

Sights from England

The endless palace and gardens of Versailles

And the rest of France

Exploring art museums

Food - look, Loon! Creme Brulee!

Hilarious signs


Left to Right: Tennis whoa, Bagchecker whoa, Italian whoa, Ryan Phillipe lookalike, Red and Grey whoas



Ahhh Roland Garros!


The spoils of victory