389 - London 6- Trafalgar Square

(note on the image: this is one of my own photos, shot with the Cubot X18 phone. The national gallery is seen on the left corner above the fountain).

I continue my UK1018 blog series, with day 7 of our UK visit. 

That was on Thursday 11th, our  visit to Trafalgar Square. There, we split for a shortwhile. I went searching for bookshops while my wife drew. I had misunderstood recomendations made by my friend Nicole, and the two shops were full price, not second, so I didn't buy anything. 


Then, I rejoined my wife and we headed to grab veg sandwitches at Subway. Usually, I don't enter Subway at all, to avoid seing the food. My wife goes in, orders and we go eat it somewhere. This time, I thought sitting at the table from the start, because I'd managed eating at Subway itself a couple years ago, in Paris, I thoguht I'd try again and would have done so this time once more, but the space was smaller and they played unpleasant music, so I decided to go out instead. We ate right next to the National Gallery - our next stop. 

The mueseum was alright, but I felt overwhelmed by the constant represetation of religious art, and the fact that it was full of paintings but no variery in mediums annoyed me a bit. I did love seing Van Gogh paintings in person, as you can really see his anguish in the lines, which isn't the same as seing photos in books or even on TV. So, I'm glad we went, but did prefer the V&A by a long shot.

After the Gallery, we headed to Café Nero, right on the Square. There, we met my friend Laura B, with whom discussions are unique : they flow naturally each time we chat, no matter how long between chats, with no formalities, no chosen topic, and we often continue previous conversations as if we'd never stopped. 

By this time, even a busy and rather noisy café in a new city, I was quite at ease in our little niche in the café, and we had a lovely time talking and spending time with Laura, until we all had to head back to our  abodes. Sadly, this time we didn't think to take pics of us together, so it'll be a perfect chance to do so on next visit (YES, can you imagine ? I'm actually talking of another trip to the UK!. The previous me would never think it possible).

That evening, walking between the bus stop and the flat, I saw my very first wild fox, some meters away. It was a different experience, but since I wasn't really close enough to see clearly, and it was dark, it wasn't an amazing one either. Just a notable small event, I'd say.

All in all, anxiety this day wasn't the worse. I managed eating in a public place, surrounded by people all over the square. There were some next to us, and I just avoided looking at them, past a glance for safety, and thus had a positive experience in travelling to and from this location, and staying at it. Even walking alone to the book shops and taking photos around was easier than I expected, so I'm quite happy with the progress in this particular outing. 

That evening we did a quick series of research for our next trip: next morning's visit to Oxford, which hadn't been initially planned and only added after Graham saw me reading Tolkien's book of lost tales 2.