Kensington Gardens

I am from a tiny rural town in northeast Arkansas with a population of roughly 4,000. If you Google the population of London, you'll see the number 8,174,100. Consequently for me, the hustle and bustle of life in the middle of this big city gets quite exhausting quite quickly. I've gotten used to walking out the door, directly into to the crowded streets, shoving my way through the tube stations, standing in line at each and every place I go... However that doesn't make the situation ideal in the slightest. Sometimes during the past two months, I've needed to get away, and Kensington Gardens was the perfect place to escape.

The Gardens are a HUGE park only a few tube stops away from our flat on Great Russell Street. There are paths for bicycling and running, fountains, beautiful statues, and ducks. (Because a park is not a park without ducks.)  Walking into the garden gates is like stepping outside of London. The park has a such a calm and relaxing atmosphere. It's absolutely the perfect place to spend a day in solitude, reading and soaking up the not-so-common London sunshine.

One of the highlights of the park for me is a sweet statue of Peter Pan. He's standing on a pedestal of rocks, playing music from some kind of flute, and surrounded by little fairies and forest animals.

It's fun to sit and watch children who come to see the statue with their parents. They are always enchanted by it. I can just imagine their imaginations at work, pretending to march through Neverland with Peter and the Lost Boys.

By: Molly Goyne