England Recap, Part the Last!

Oh, so here's something I forgot to tell you about Portsmouth. After the ships, Claire and I got cake and this cafe and the guy serving us was a) like seventeen, and b) obsessed with Claire. He tried to make small talk by asking about the 52 American states and was super embarrassed when we told him there were only fifty. Claire tried to save him face by telling him that Puerto Rico confuses everyone, haha!

Okay, our final two stops on the England trip!

First up, Camden!

First story, on our way to London, Claire and I made a train friend who sat next to me and listened to me tell Claire stories about the very silly things I used to in high school to not read books but still get As. In retrospect, definitely substantiated every horrible thing he's ever heard about the American school system.

Anyway, Claire and I had both been to London multiple times before, so this time we decided to hit up a place neither of us had seen: Camden. Aka Amy Winehouse's neighborhood. Having see it, I can say with certainty that a) it is awesome, and b) Amy Winehouse makes so much more sense to me now

Most of what he saw in Camden was the horse markets, a massive market that has built up, in, and around old horse-trading barns. In case you weren't sure about what animal used to live there, they put up massive statues to make it clear.

Camden was full of really cool stores selling funky everything. Also, we ate the best pizza of our lives there. And the guy made it in front of us. 

These were the bathrooms.

After Camden we headed over to Kensington Palace to sit in the grass and wish we had small children we could send to British private school so that they could get awesome uniforms. Eventually we met up with Claire's sister and friend and got more cake because it was Sister's Friend's birthday. Yay!

Final stop on our epic tour was Igtham Mote, pronounced Item Moat. A very appropriate name because it was both filled with items and surrounded by a moat.

The gardens were lovely!

And then we went inside. Ightam Mote is a giant square house, and every room you go to has someone in it that you can ask questions at. Our favorite was a guy who called us "very sharp" when we listened, enraptured, to all his stories about the psycho monarchy and then remarked that England was basically real-life Game of Thrones. Another guy thought we were weird. I can't remember what we were talking about when we got to his room, but he was evidently not a fan.

Here's a suit of Cromwellian armor they found in the moat, because that's a good place for it.

And that's it, that's the end of our England trip! In summary, it was an absolutely amazing time and not only did I get to see Claire, I also got to hang with her family and they are awesome and I love them. That will be all.

Thus endeth the England recap! It's July in 10 minutes, so I can at least say I got this blog post in under the wire!