Sight Seeing Sam: Stratford City Mall, the Museum of Science & Kensington Gardens

Thursday afternoon, a few friends and I went on a university-sponsored bus tour of London. In true London fashion, we sat on the top of the double-decker bus, and in even truer London fashion, we got rained on.

This having been my first time actually seeing West London (where all the tourist attractions are), this bus tour sort of felt like a 2 hour whirlwind. At the least, I was able to appreciate how large London really is and it made me more excited to get more into the city center.

That afternoon, we took the tube one stop in the eastern direction to the Westfield-Stratford City mall, which is the most impressive mall I've ever been to in my life.

This mall was built directly next to Olympic Park from the 2012 Olympic Games. They basically built the mall because they were spending exorbitant amounts of money on the Games and needed a way to make money back. The mall is five floors high and excessively large in floor space, and decked out with all of the latest technologies, including touch screen computers that give you directions to any of their dozens upon dozens of stores, a gourmet selection at the food court, and little boxes that you can put your phone in to charge for 30 minutes. From the food court, you can get an awesome view of Olympic park.

The fact that this mall is only one stop away by tube is going to make shopping hard to resist.

The next day, we decided to head West into the city center to check out the Science Museum, conveniently located by Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens.

There are 5 floors of interesting exhibits, ranging from outer space exploration to the Earth's atmosphere to medical and genetic discovery. And to top it off, the museum (like so many other great museums in London) is free!

After spending our time wandering through the museum, we headed over to the parks to take a stroll. Out behind the trees in Kensington Gardens, this monument suddenly appeared.

The monument is called the Albert Memorial, dedicated to Queen Victoria's beloved husband Prince Albert, who she clearly was very fond of. The memorial is really beautiful and features pillars representing commerce, agriculture, engineering, and manufactures, as well as Asia, Africa, Americas, and Europe.

We then took a dip into Hyde Park, a hugely expansive green area right smack in the middle of London, dotted with wild birds and views of the London Eye.