London: Part Five

So this week I got my work contract signed at the Chilean consulate in London, meaning that it shouldn't be too long before I can start my job in Chile! I'm really happy that things are finally coming together after so many months of waiting!

Because my appointment at the consulate was in the morning, it was more convenient (and less stressful!) for me to travel up to London the afternoon before. This meant that I had the chance to do a bit of sightseeing around the city, which I was glad about, because it seems a shame to go to London and not explore at all. I've got a list of places I want to visit there that I haven't been to before, and I'm going to try to get through as much of it as possible before I go off to Chile.

One of the places on my list was Little Venice, and as my hotel wasn't too far away, it seemed like a good choice on this particular occasion. I guess I was interested in this place because of the name - I wanted to see if it was really like Venice! There are quite a lot of places in this world that have been compared to the famous Italian city, and I've blogged about a few of them before: Sète (the Venice of the Languedoc), Bruges and Stockholm (both known as the Venice of the North), and Bourton-on-the-Water (the Venice of the Cotswolds). I've found that none of the places (except for Sète, maybe) are all that much like Venice, apart from the fact that they're built over water. But I've found all of them to be very beautiful places, and in some ways nicer than Venice itself, as they're less crowded.

Little Venice followed the same pattern: there was nothing particularly Venetian about it except for its canals, but it was very picturesque. I really enjoyed walking around the area and enjoying the autumnal scenery.

I was particularly happy to see that there was a boat with the same name as my cat, Pickle! She died in 2016, so it was nice to be reminded of her.

The following morning I got the tube towards St James's Park (where the consulate is), but as I was running early, I got off at Victoria to see another sight on my way to my appointment. 

Westminster Cathedral is the main Roman Catholic church in this country, and its architecture is said to have been inspired by Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. There's definitely something very Middle Eastern about it, and it's really impressive to see in real life. I only had time for a quick look, but I'd like to come back in the future to explore it in more detail.

Once I'd signed the contract, I still had some time to spare before I needed to go back to Paddington Station, so I picked up a matcha latte from Pret and enjoyed a little walk through Westminster, past some of the capital's most iconic sights. Unfortunately, Big Ben is still not looking at his best, and he doesn't seem to have changed since my first London blogpost, which was in February 2020!

Despite some issues with trains being cancelled, I was able to get back home in time to teach my afternoon lessons. Then I needed to unpack and then pack again in order to get a train to Oxfordshire the next morning, where I'm currently on catsitting duty! And then the day after that (yesterday), I went on a trip to Windsor involving five train journeys, so it's fair to say I've had my fill of trains this week! 

Yesterday's trip was kind of disappointing, as I wasn't able to explore Windsor Castle as much as I'd hoped to. But I made the best of my time in the town, and I'll be blogging about it very soon.

Read about London: Part One here!

Read about London: Part Two here!

Read about me and Claudio's trip to London here!

Read about London: Part Four here!

Read about London: Part Six here!

Read about London: Part Seven here!

Read about London: Part Eight here!