Days 4, 5 & 6

I have had a hectic few days!
On Saturday I caught the train down to London and met up with my friend Ben, who is originally from WA but now lives in Paris. I arrived and Kings Cross station and he asked me to meet him at Paddington station. This required navigation of the dreaded London Underground, but once the Oyster card system had been explained to me I found Paddington alright. Ben and I had lunch, pizza and pasta, in a small Italian restaurant surrounded by many other small Italian restaurants near the entrance to the Paddington underground. We then walked to Hyde Park, and walked around most of Hyde Park. We visited Buckingham Palace and St James Gardens in front of the palace. We then set off to Trafalgar Square, which took a lot of navigating as most of the streets and parks were sectioned off in preparation for the Olympic torch arriving there in a few week's time. Eventually we reached Trafalgar Square, and were most surprised to discover that that particular day was the London gay pride parade. This made for some fascinating viewing, and we were squashed along with the crowd until we found ourselves in the West End. There we stumbled upon M & Ms World. Now, I may just be a total sucker for targeted marketing, but I loves M & Ms, and this place was incredible. I bought a few over-priced presents for friends and family, but the props and statues were worth going in themselves: four floors of M & Ms awesomeness!
After the joy that was M & Ms World we rested up in a nearby Starbucks (I also love Starbucks :D), then Ben bought a last-minute standing ticket for Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre for that night. We then caught the underground to Embankment, which is right on the river Thames. We wandered along the river and in some beautiful gardens around the Savoy Hotel. Then we crossed the Thames on a footbridge and stumbled upon the Festival of the World, which is all a part of the impending Olympics, and at that time consisted of an open-air Welsh choir and an entire crowd singing hymns. We then had dinner at Giraffe cafe (I also love Giraffe cafe :D), which went much longer than expected and Ben had to rush off to his show. I then braved the underground on my own back to Kings Cross and caught a train back to Cambridge, not getting into my room until 11pm, although it was barely dark then.
And that was what I did on Saturday! By the end of the day my feet very sore and quite blistered, but it was completely worth it. It was lovely to catch up with Bent too, and we had a wonderful time tripping around London!