London, Day 11

Wednesday was a free day, as my class schedule slots so that I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  After sleeping in, I went for a run and had breakfast before taking the bus down to Piccadilly and walking to Buckingham Palace.  I had planned to take a tour of the royal residence with my friend Jack, but we learned upon our arrival that we needed to book tickets in advance, meaning that we had to do something else in the afternoon.

In order to cure our boredom, we took the short walk down the Mall to the Horse Guards Parade and looked at the household cavalry museum before getting on the tube and heading down to Knightsbridge to visit the famous Harrods department store.  Harrods is an institution, a one-of-a-kind, one-square-block, upscale store that has anything and everything from all corners of the world.  It is ridiculously overpriced and contains all kinds of luxury goods - for example, I saw a £29,000 (US$47,000) case of wine and a £5,000 (US$8,100) cell phone on the racks.  When you're walking around, you also get the feeling that you're doing something wrong because of all the security and attendants.

After Harrods, we took the tube home and I did some homework before we had dinner.  I finished up some reading before heading to bed, and watching a little South Park (America).