London has it all!!!
Hello, hello!
Sorry to any readers out there who have been long awaiting an update from me! I just went to London for the weekend, and I warn you there are many pictures, and they are BIG (as per usual).
My roommate, Christine, our friend, Stacey, and I went to London to visit Stacey's friend, Sarah, with whom we stayed.
Thursday evening, Christine and I traveled to Lille by bus halfway due to restricted times and locations because of the railway strike and then continued our journey by train to Stacey's.
Our train for London left at 7:35 am, and we had to check-in with Eurostar a half hour before departure...that meant an EARLY morning. Fortunately, Stacey's foyer offers residents free breakfast!
After meeting Sarah, having breakfast with her, and dropping our stuff at her apartment, Christine, Stacey, and I did some sightseeing...
The train station!
An English telephone booth!
Telephone booth and big ben!
Now just BIG BEN!!!
we had a lot of problems with the wind...
The London Eye!
Souvenir stand or two
Next to it, there was a food stand with food like hotdogs and hamburgers...as well as veggie burgers! that's pretty fn cool.
We watched the changing of the guard...
walking to see the rest of the ceremony at Buckingham Palace
Police!
A statue of Nelson Mandela (one of the middle school students on probably a fieldtrip brought it to my attention, as well as his classmates')
and Churchill...
Westminster Abbey!
I've never heard of this man before...but he looks scarily similar to his brother...
Protesters
Scenery:
When we were hungry again, we went to this AMAZING vegetarian restaurant:
I LOVE YOU, FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
It was pretty jampacked in there. First available seating was basically a glammed-up / refurbished hole in the wall with a short table and floor pillows. I foolishly didnt get a good picture of the space, though.
All three of us got this Greek-something-or-other-"bake". It was AMAZING. I cannot stress this point enough.
It basically consisted of potatoes, feta (which I have yet to come by in France), olives (which I normally cannot eat whole, but did so in this case), onions, and zucchini.
Here is me enjoying it!
Here is Stacey enjoying it!
And just as soon it was there, it was gone!
Wall decoration within the alcove:
Outside of the restaurant was a MAC makeup store with Dame Edna as the spokesmodel. That was pretty awesome.
I'm not sure exactly when I took this...but I like this bird's style.
Some girls were freaking out about him because he swaggered out of a small store within the metro.
After this, we went to a tea store, which was awesome. I'm by no means a tea expert, but I was pretty excited to see chai tea with a green tea base, rather than a black tea base there.
A little bit later, we went back to Sarah's apartment. Stacey went on to her friend's concert (his band was touring), I went and sat in on Sarah's grad class (She is getting her master's in international development), and Christine got some much needed rest as her cold/flu/sinus infection continued to plague her.
Later on, Christine and I just ended up both falling asleep pretty early and deciding not to go out with Sarah.
The next day!!! Saturday:
Sarah's foyer was EXTREMELY conveniently located. It was an easy walk to St. Pancras Station and King's Cross Station. Her university was just around the corner, AND there is a bakery down the street that donates all of its day-old bread to the foyer.
Naturally, then, we feasted upon this bread for breakfast with peanut butter, nutella, and jame. And, it of course tasted amazing, hearty and healthy, and was only sweetened by the fact that it was free!
After that, we went to the National Gallery Art Museum.
All of the museums in London are FREE, like Washington DC, which I think is absolutely AMAZING and wish such a policy could be replicated everywhere.
Afterwards, we went to an extremely cute shop where everything was moderately priced (I'm talking 20 pounds on sale moderately priced). Before really hitting a lot of vintage stores and cute shops, we stopped off at Patisserie Valerie!
Down the street from the restaurant:
The menu:
A cute jam lazysusan:
My coffee!
And me enjoying it!
Stacey lookin' sad...
And now happy!
Here's Sarah!
And Christine!
What did I get, you ask?
I GOT PORRIDGE!!!!!
AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!
Honestly, who orders porridge?!?! and when doing so, who is ever COMPLETELY satisfied--nay, overjoyed by choosing such?
Answer: Anyone who goes to Patisserie Valerie and orders the porridge, THAT'S WHO!!!
There were SO many berries in it, it was extremely filling, and tasted amazing.
After a ton of hitting up a few vintage mega stores and other shops strewn about throughout back alleys and side streets and landing in hipster heaven (not that i'm making fun! I thought it was awesome.), we stopped at an extremely cute bar!
Chandeliers galore!
Just water for me!
Afterwards, we went to dinner! I don't remember what the restaurant was called, but it was Bangladeshi (Bengali?) and delicious!
Here's my dinner:
The rest of the food!
Christine and I:
My scarf is always doing something weird...
Sarah and Stacey:
PS: Charles-freaking-Darwin is on their money!!!
as well as the queen...but that's less exciting...
Some other money (pounds and pences):
Here we are on our way back to Sarah's after dinner:
(I'm lookin' pretty dowdy here, not gun front)
Here's us before we went to a club in camden called The Proud Gallery. It used to be a horse hospital, but now it is an art gallery by day and a dance club by night!
Big thanks to Sarah for letting me borrow her tights! I would have frozen if I hadn't had them on!
On our way there!
The only picture of the interior...
SUNDAY!!!
Down the road a bit from Sarah's.
The next day, we once again feasted upon free bread from the bakery. Short on top, because Christine and I were leaving at 4:30 and Stacey an hour later, we headed over to King's Cross to check out the FAMOUS HARRY POTTER PLATFORM 9 & 3/4!!!!
The three of us!
Stacey! (I like this picture, but Stacey does not)
ME!
and Christine!
We also went to St. Paul's Cathedral!
On our way
Side entrance to St. Paul's
Stacey!
Christine and Stacey
and me, too!
The fountain outside of the cathedral
Guess how good my eyes are! Can you see anything unusual about this fountain?!?!
I COULD!
BAM! She's wearing glasses!
Here's me at Millennium Bridge.
looking back!
And another one just for good measure!
Tower bridge!
London has some sweet hodgepodge architecture that can be seen from here:
Onto Tower Bridge!
We saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!
I saw this and thought it was pretty cool because of Golden Girls!
We walked between these really cool buildings...
Some weird mini fountains in the ground
We actually didnt get closer to the bridge than this because it was freezing, EXTREMELY windy, and we were in a time crunch. It's cool though, because that freed up some time to go to Whole Foods (which is an AMAZING supermarket that I wish we had here) at which Stacey and I stocked up on vegetarian food (especially tofu!)!
So after checking out the Tower Bridge from that distance, we hightailed it to a coffee shop and warmed up and then proceeded to Whole Foods!
A crazy building with some construction
Saw these and thought they were pretty cool
I think I'd like to go to this museum next time
On the tube, I saw this girl wearing the cutest outfit and couldnt take a good picture of it, but boy, did I try and probably looked extremely creepy.
At Whole Foods, I bought a samosa-burrito, a vegan burrito, and some microwaveable meals that I have not finished yet, because I am saving them for a rainy day (when I am really desperate for something easy and healthy). I also picked up two different kinds of tofu, one with almonds in it! I don't really like the other one, it tastes grainy or something, but thats alright, and I'm sure I'll end up eating it anyways! I picked up some teas, as well.
All in all, an excellent trip!!!
Sorry to any readers out there who have been long awaiting an update from me! I just went to London for the weekend, and I warn you there are many pictures, and they are BIG (as per usual).
My roommate, Christine, our friend, Stacey, and I went to London to visit Stacey's friend, Sarah, with whom we stayed.
Thursday evening, Christine and I traveled to Lille by bus halfway due to restricted times and locations because of the railway strike and then continued our journey by train to Stacey's.
Our train for London left at 7:35 am, and we had to check-in with Eurostar a half hour before departure...that meant an EARLY morning. Fortunately, Stacey's foyer offers residents free breakfast!
After meeting Sarah, having breakfast with her, and dropping our stuff at her apartment, Christine, Stacey, and I did some sightseeing...
The train station!
An English telephone booth!
Telephone booth and big ben!
Now just BIG BEN!!!
we had a lot of problems with the wind...
The London Eye!
Souvenir stand or two
Next to it, there was a food stand with food like hotdogs and hamburgers...as well as veggie burgers! that's pretty fn cool.
We watched the changing of the guard...
walking to see the rest of the ceremony at Buckingham Palace
Police!
A statue of Nelson Mandela (one of the middle school students on probably a fieldtrip brought it to my attention, as well as his classmates')
and Churchill...
Westminster Abbey!
I've never heard of this man before...but he looks scarily similar to his brother...
Protesters
Scenery:
When we were hungry again, we went to this AMAZING vegetarian restaurant:
I LOVE YOU, FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
It was pretty jampacked in there. First available seating was basically a glammed-up / refurbished hole in the wall with a short table and floor pillows. I foolishly didnt get a good picture of the space, though.
All three of us got this Greek-something-or-other-"bake". It was AMAZING. I cannot stress this point enough.
It basically consisted of potatoes, feta (which I have yet to come by in France), olives (which I normally cannot eat whole, but did so in this case), onions, and zucchini.
Here is me enjoying it!
Here is Stacey enjoying it!
And just as soon it was there, it was gone!
Wall decoration within the alcove:
Outside of the restaurant was a MAC makeup store with Dame Edna as the spokesmodel. That was pretty awesome.
I'm not sure exactly when I took this...but I like this bird's style.
Some girls were freaking out about him because he swaggered out of a small store within the metro.
After this, we went to a tea store, which was awesome. I'm by no means a tea expert, but I was pretty excited to see chai tea with a green tea base, rather than a black tea base there.
A little bit later, we went back to Sarah's apartment. Stacey went on to her friend's concert (his band was touring), I went and sat in on Sarah's grad class (She is getting her master's in international development), and Christine got some much needed rest as her cold/flu/sinus infection continued to plague her.
Later on, Christine and I just ended up both falling asleep pretty early and deciding not to go out with Sarah.
The next day!!! Saturday:
Sarah's foyer was EXTREMELY conveniently located. It was an easy walk to St. Pancras Station and King's Cross Station. Her university was just around the corner, AND there is a bakery down the street that donates all of its day-old bread to the foyer.
Naturally, then, we feasted upon this bread for breakfast with peanut butter, nutella, and jame. And, it of course tasted amazing, hearty and healthy, and was only sweetened by the fact that it was free!
After that, we went to the National Gallery Art Museum.
All of the museums in London are FREE, like Washington DC, which I think is absolutely AMAZING and wish such a policy could be replicated everywhere.
Afterwards, we went to an extremely cute shop where everything was moderately priced (I'm talking 20 pounds on sale moderately priced). Before really hitting a lot of vintage stores and cute shops, we stopped off at Patisserie Valerie!
Down the street from the restaurant:
The menu:
A cute jam lazysusan:
My coffee!
And me enjoying it!
Stacey lookin' sad...
And now happy!
Here's Sarah!
And Christine!
What did I get, you ask?
I GOT PORRIDGE!!!!!
AND IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!
Honestly, who orders porridge?!?! and when doing so, who is ever COMPLETELY satisfied--nay, overjoyed by choosing such?
Answer: Anyone who goes to Patisserie Valerie and orders the porridge, THAT'S WHO!!!
There were SO many berries in it, it was extremely filling, and tasted amazing.
After a ton of hitting up a few vintage mega stores and other shops strewn about throughout back alleys and side streets and landing in hipster heaven (not that i'm making fun! I thought it was awesome.), we stopped at an extremely cute bar!
Chandeliers galore!
Just water for me!
Afterwards, we went to dinner! I don't remember what the restaurant was called, but it was Bangladeshi (Bengali?) and delicious!
Here's my dinner:
The rest of the food!
Christine and I:
My scarf is always doing something weird...
Sarah and Stacey:
PS: Charles-freaking-Darwin is on their money!!!
as well as the queen...but that's less exciting...
Some other money (pounds and pences):
Here we are on our way back to Sarah's after dinner:
(I'm lookin' pretty dowdy here, not gun front)
Here's us before we went to a club in camden called The Proud Gallery. It used to be a horse hospital, but now it is an art gallery by day and a dance club by night!
Big thanks to Sarah for letting me borrow her tights! I would have frozen if I hadn't had them on!
On our way there!
The only picture of the interior...
SUNDAY!!!
Down the road a bit from Sarah's.
The next day, we once again feasted upon free bread from the bakery. Short on top, because Christine and I were leaving at 4:30 and Stacey an hour later, we headed over to King's Cross to check out the FAMOUS HARRY POTTER PLATFORM 9 & 3/4!!!!
The three of us!
Stacey! (I like this picture, but Stacey does not)
ME!
and Christine!
We also went to St. Paul's Cathedral!
On our way
Side entrance to St. Paul's
Stacey!
Christine and Stacey
and me, too!
The fountain outside of the cathedral
Guess how good my eyes are! Can you see anything unusual about this fountain?!?!
I COULD!
BAM! She's wearing glasses!
Here's me at Millennium Bridge.
looking back!
And another one just for good measure!
Tower bridge!
London has some sweet hodgepodge architecture that can be seen from here:
Onto Tower Bridge!
We saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!
I saw this and thought it was pretty cool because of Golden Girls!
We walked between these really cool buildings...
Some weird mini fountains in the ground
We actually didnt get closer to the bridge than this because it was freezing, EXTREMELY windy, and we were in a time crunch. It's cool though, because that freed up some time to go to Whole Foods (which is an AMAZING supermarket that I wish we had here) at which Stacey and I stocked up on vegetarian food (especially tofu!)!
So after checking out the Tower Bridge from that distance, we hightailed it to a coffee shop and warmed up and then proceeded to Whole Foods!
A crazy building with some construction
Saw these and thought they were pretty cool
I think I'd like to go to this museum next time
On the tube, I saw this girl wearing the cutest outfit and couldnt take a good picture of it, but boy, did I try and probably looked extremely creepy.
At Whole Foods, I bought a samosa-burrito, a vegan burrito, and some microwaveable meals that I have not finished yet, because I am saving them for a rainy day (when I am really desperate for something easy and healthy). I also picked up two different kinds of tofu, one with almonds in it! I don't really like the other one, it tastes grainy or something, but thats alright, and I'm sure I'll end up eating it anyways! I picked up some teas, as well.
All in all, an excellent trip!!!