London, like most big cities, is always seen as being super busy and full of people (rush hour on the tube is one great example). While living in London, there is a compulsion to go away outside of London (some nice European town perhaps?) in order to get away from the noise of the city, but there is actually a veritable array of places inside where you can find peace and quiet. At the end of the road where I live, for example is Hyde Park.

London has an amazing number of parks all spread throughout the various suburbs and most of them are quiet lush and substantially sized. One such park is Holland Park, one that I am lucky enough to walk by on the way to work everyday. Despite the larger number of times I have passed it, I had never actually really entered the park, so yesterday I went for a quick stroll into its vast greenery. Like most parks here, I’ve been completely surprised by how big it is, and the number of things it contains. It has a number of football (read: soccer) fields, an open air theatre, an Orangery, a mansion, and even a fully operating Youth Hostel.

It also houses the Kyoto Gardens, my most favourite part of the park. This place was first built in 1991 as part of the Japanese Festival, but has been touched up a couple of times since then. Like most other Japanese gardens, this one is set about a carp-filled pond constantly refreshed by a cascading waterfall and surrounded by well trimmed shrubbery, all giving this place a true feeling of tranquillity. It was nice simply sitting there, absorbing the sun’s warmth and indulging in the quietness of the area. My other highlights of the visit included the huge peacocks walking around and the live black rabbits jumping around in the bushes.