The final lap: London.

Sights: The British Museum (old and historical, but captions written in lively and engaging fonts, and a mummy with skin and hair that was preserved by sand). Hayward Gallery's Psycho Buildings, among my favorite things I've seen on the trip - artists designing, literally, "psycho buildings," including a clove and pepper scented tent and padding along a flodded balcony on recycled boats with Mandee. Walked past Big Ben and all the South Bank stuff. Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging red carpet event - boring and depressing how much British teens and weird lonely perv tourists love nubile young people. Saw the Pipettes with their new non-Pipette lineup. Chinatown - bad. The play Brief Encounter - I should have taken the "not the movie" warning more literally, it was sweet and sort of hacky, and what did I expect only choosing something because I thought it was "the most romantic" ? Tate Britain - incredible, Francis Bacon and my love Tracey Emin. Wonderful modern art and it wasn't even the Tate Modern. ICA tiny (especially since I was comparing it to the one in Boston), but they made me a free poster! Borough Market - revealed myself as a true fatty as I sampled everything and bought overpriced but delicious dried cranberries, jam, coconut sugar, etc. Tried wild boar. Went to White Cube Gallery and Whitechapel, both sort of lackluster. V&A Children's Museum I thought would be more sociological but it was just tons of toys and crying kids running around. I stole two pictures children drew of what the London Olympics will look like and incredulously took a picture of a pipe they had on display in the "clothing and style" section - "Cannibus Pipe (1995): many young people identify with the paraphernalia, culture, and feeling of smoking cannibus." Went clubbing at Fabric. Threw up. Supremes Exhibit at the V&A, it was weird how they had to "teach" British people about, like, who MLK was. Rest of the museum was great, my favorite stuff was the stuff I'm not usually drawn to (medieval casts, sculptures). Markets sort of bored me, lots of whimsical cheap clothing. Walked around tons of neighborhoods. Tate Modern, awesome urban photography exhibit (Cindy Sherman in blackface!). Karaoke at "The Happy Man" with Mandee, where the audience literally loved me and I felt flattered until I realized they were all drunk/mostly handicapped. National Portrait Gallery was awesome, loved the chronological aspect, and mostly looked at the pictures of women - actresses, kings' mistresses. Viktor and Rolf exhibit was EPIC, their shows are "shows." Hyde Park with Nirja. Then now.

Transport & Living: EasyJet delayed there so the subway was closed when I got back. Met the nicest Danish guy ever who showed me the exact bus route to get home. Now Travelocity changed my flight to last night and just alerted me so had to get a new flight. Stayed with Mandee at Manor House, conveniently on the Picadilly line. Shared a bed with her, used her facilities, owe her forever. The subways are expensive but I felt immortal with an unlimited pass (something I never have in New York). The buses are great, obviously. If I knew the city well I would have walked everywhere, but ... I don't know the city well. I get lost very easily. So I took the "tube" a bunch and asked for directions many, many times.

People: I was super lucky to have friends in London who I could hang out with. But my review of London people: hm. The guys are kind of bellig and the girls dress and do their hair and makeup like they're trying way too hard. It looks good but forced. The teens are intimidating and the dogs are so-so. A guy on the subway freaked out at me because I couldn't understand what he was saying. To me some of London seemed like the worst parts of New York: expensive, terrible theater (Zorro musical with the Gipsy Kings?), materialistic, swarming crowds of loud people. But obviously everyone was also very nice ... I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm a dick.

The Finer Things: Ate Indian food once and fish and chips once; if I lived here long term I would be very large from my favorite foods being so popular here. McDonalds here are beautiful and impressive. I like their weird potato chip flavors, like shrimp cocktail and roast chicken. I do not recommend their supermarket wine. I bought hippie Toms shoes at Selfridges so my feet could breathe, high waisted shorts and blue tights at Top Shop Oxford Circus (a genuinely overwhelming experience, sort of turned me off shopping - so crowded and so much to do), and a Tracey Emin book. And Viktor and Rolf postcards, and aformentioned British jam.

And that's it: Assuming my plane actually leaves today, my trip's over. Do I regret anything? Sort of. I wish I'd gone to Vienna between Germany and Denmark, and I wish I'd maybe spent two less days in London so I could have ended in Edinburgh and flown back from there. I'm so glad I did this staying with people rather than in hotels. I regret bringing travel scrabble, I only played like twice with my mom. I'm ready to go back to America and see my loved ones and have phone access but I don't know if I'm ready to chose and acquire a career.

Bye Europe! Hopefully when I have the time I'll scan in the Polaroids ... and if you didn't get the postcard I wrote you, I just realized I forgot to write USA on all of them. Damn.