"Time is much slower here. You have time to stop and take pictures and breathe and just take it all in. You’re still in the city, in fact you can see the skyline if you look out past the open horse fields. This contrast between old and new creates a sort of imbalance, like one of these two things is out of place. Whichever you believe to be the thing that’s out of place is entirely up to you—it just depends on how you see London. Eltham Palace had that power over you though—to take its guests in the modern era and transport them back to the Victorian era in which it was inhabited and even the several centuries prior to then. It took you back to a time when that classical Victorian quote wasn’t cliché or overdramatic, but hopelessly romantic and fitting. The palace’s exuding elegance and class made for any ordinary Westerner (hi), with all my Americanness, modernity, and lack of elegance seem quite unfit. Yet, at the same time, its budding orchids and open daffodils that peaked out of the vibrant green and freshly cut grass that contrasted perfectly against the tainted, dusted, and weathered brown brick that laid the exterior of the palace could make any foreigner feel at home." - Kelly Schwager