My London: A Photo Essay

Exactly 23 months ago, to the day, I got on a red-eye flight to London. It was my first time in the city after years of wanting to go, and I fully expected to love it. I did love it, but I also hated it sometimes. London is a study in contradictions - English, but completely un-English; grey and rainy except when it's beautiful; alienating and unfriendly but with some of the loveliest people I've ever met; edgy but traditional; proud but sometimes ridiculous, and generally completely incomprehensible but wonderful.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't miss it.

In honour of the Olympics beginning on Friday and all of the coverage that London will be receiving, I've put together a photo essay of the city as I experienced it.

Historic

Of course this has to make it into my experience of London - the interior of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the South Bank. 

Nostalgic

Echoes of Britain's imperial past abound in this statue at the Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

Blended

London Stone in the City, the point from which all distances were measured in Roman Londoninium. Now it's located in the base of a building in the financial district, a small reminder of the layers of history that lie underneath London, as well as Britain's multicultural past. After the Romans arrived in 43 A.D., England was invaded by Angles, Saxons, Danes, and Normans.Immigrants have always been a part of the fabric of Great Britain, and nowhere is that more apparent than in London.

Glitzy

Victoria Palace Theatre in Victoria, part of London's famous West End.

Grim

A plague graveyard in the City commemorates the decimation of the London's population. 

Full of tourists (myself included)...

But in a literary kind of way...

...And other residents

Pigeons, perhaps London's most populous group, make themselves at home in St. James Park.

Traditional

Looking through the gates of Kensington Palace.

Whimsical

Yes, that shed is flying the Jolly Roger.

Grey

The view from St. Paul's Cathedral.

Colourful

The complete sensory experience at Borough Market, under London Bridge.

Human

Memorial to Princess Diana on the gates outside of Kensington Palace

Puzzling

Because 'cross-walk' is too dull.

 Serious

The clocktower at Parliament in Westminster. The name 'Big Ben' actually refers to the bell inside of the tower, not the clock.

 Sometimes too serious

Ah, the Changing of the Guards. Blocking traffic every morning since Victorian times...

But still able to have fun

This doesn't even really need a caption, does it?

Literary

J. M. Barrie's much-beloved Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.

 Or not...

Stopping to smell the roses in Queen Mary's Garden in Regent's Park led to a mid-afternoon nap in the sunshine for this Londoner.

Brilliant

Parliament from the London Eye.

 Best of luck with the Olympics, London. I can't wait to see what you've got for the world.