At Home In The Wasteland Travel Blog

Despite living in London for a year, I didn’t travel around the United Kingdom very much. There were plenty of trips my friends and I contemplated taking, and we would occasionally research rates for a bed and breakfast in the Cotswolds, a few days at the beach in Brighton, a short trip to Edinburgh, or [...]

The above photos shows the Tate Modern and Millennium Bridge in London, UK. I lived in London from 2004-05 when I was a student at the London School of Economics. My dorm was located in the Bankside neighborhood, right behind the Tate Modern. At the time, Bankside was undergoing a transition, and many restaurants and [...]

The civic building for Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This is Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the British monarch. It did not become the official royal palace of the British monarch until the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. Queen Elizabeth II now resides here. Typically, the public isn’t allowed to tour Buckingham Palace, but in 2009 the Palace began to hold [...]

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’d appreciate this cathedral. The cloisters here were transformed into the halls of Hogwarts for several of the movies. Built in 1089, this is probably one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve seen, especially with a blanket of snow covering the grounds. I stopped in to the cathedral when [...]

View of the Tate Modern art museum from the Millennium Bridge. The building that now houses the art museum was formerly the oil-fired Bankside Power Station, which closed in 1981. As a grad student at the LSE, I was lucky enough to live in the Bankside dormitory that was located directly behind the Tate Modern.

This is one of the guards who protects Windsor Castle, an official residence of the British monarch. I’ve always thought these guys sport one of the coolest uniforms out there. The “cap” they wear is 18 inches tall, weighs 1.5 pounds, is made from the fur of the Canadian black bear.

These dragons mark the boundary between the City of London and Greater London: “The City of London is a small area within Greater London, United Kingdom. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since [...]

Despite living in London for a year, I never made it out to Oxford. I finally ventured out there during a January 2010 trip to London, the day after a major snowstorm hit the region. While it was a pain navigating the snow-covered streets and sidewalks, the scenery was incredibly beautiful. This structure was built [...]

The first time I walked by the Texas Embassy, I did a double take. Surely Texas doesn’t have its own embassy in the UK? That would be bizarre, but not completely unexpected given the inflated ego of the state’s residents (and I say this as a Californian ). Well, as it turns out, it is [...]