Hampstead Heath and Columbia Road Flower Market

Since I planned so many trips outside of UK, I forget that there are many places in London that I haven't seen. I'm committed to see one new place every weekend, whether a museum, a play, a park, a walk, a market anything. Last week I went to Natural History Museum after church. This weekend I went to Hampstead Heath, North of London. You can go up to the Parliament Hill and get the view of the City of London.

I went with Amelia, a Kiwi that I met from church. 

 You can swim in this pond in the summer, but it's kinda dirty.

 So picturesque... Looks like an English country side but it's actually still in London.

 Unfortunately it was foggy. Couldn't really see the city.

 I'm not sure what the white buildings in the background are. But I just loved the sight. Green pasture.

Then on Sunday, I hit East with Jessica to Columbia Road Flower Market. Karen talked about it when I was still in Atlanta. Since then, it was in my-to-do list. They are very reasonably priced. We got there around 10.30AM. It was over crowded. It's cute to hear people shouting what they're selling in East London accent.

 Tulips... My favorite!!! We walked down until the end of the street and made some purchases.

 I bought tulips and hyacinth, which smells really nice. They should last over 10 days. 7 pounds for the whole thing.

 Jessica picked roses.

My first purchase! Flowers just make me happy.

We then went to Brick Lane market and had a really good Indian food at House of Spices. I had chicken bhatia and naan. Perfect way to end the afternoon.

Iceland Day 3

I waited too long to post Day 3 that I almost forgot about it. Anyway, we did another tour. This time is with Gateway to Iceland. The tour guide is a native Icelandic. He's quite annoying. First he doesn't count how many people in the van before he takes off. He just doesn't think it's important. Isn't that crazy? He loved to talk about himself. Lastly, I sat behind him, and he definitely needed a shower. In this tour, we drove South and reached the most Southern point in Iceland.

We drove about a couple of hours and reached the first waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, a tall thin beauty of 73 meters which you can walk behind, which we didn't because that day was windy and since it was still cold, the rocks were pretty icy and slick. I tried to get up to one of the platforms and it was just covered with ice. I decided not to climb up, plus you could get wet. 

We passed the E15 mountain. The barn that sat at the foot of the mountain surprisingly survived. Look at the rainbow in the middle.

A pot of gold!!! So beautiful with the rainbow in the background. At this time, it just got windier. This is the second waterfall, Skogafoss, a 60 meter roaring giant.

 And windier... and ... when we got to the Glacier walk, we got out for 2 minutes. We couldn't even walk straight. The tour guide asked us to come inside the van. It was too dangerous. I managed to take a selfie.

There is also the beautiful black sand Reynisfjara Beach, Iceland´s southern most point with a few magnificent sea caves to explore. We continued to the village of Vik, Iceland´s southern most village with its beautiful sea stacks just off-shore (rumoured to be Trolls playing in the sea but caught in the rising sunlight turning to stone).We had lunch there, and walked (or crawled since it was windy). I'm curious to find out how strong the wind was. I'm sure it was over 50 MPH. We couldn't walk straight, sometimes, had to be sideways. Barely could hear each other. I got dragged about 3 feet and had to really my feet in the sand. Regardless, it was beautiful. Fortunately it wasn't too cold. 

 Around 3PM, we were going back to Reykjavik, suddenly the van turned around. Apparently the wind died down, we went back to the glacier place, that we had to skip this morning. I have to give it to the tour guide, even though he was annoying but he made an effort to make sure we don't miss any important parts of the tour. This is the glacier snout of Solheimajökull, an ever changing and moving natural wonder.

 That night, Lauren and I took a taxi to meet up with Ann and Denise, the Aussies that we met on the first tour (they also did the second tour with us) for dinner. It was a local seafood place. We had Lobster soup, scallops, cod and whale steak (the last one is not for me, too gamey).

 Good bye Iceland! It was so nice to get to know you in 3 short days!