Liv and I took the Eurostar from Paris Thursday afternoon which was supposed to get to London around 630. Unfortunately, we were delayed 45 minutes or so because of immigrants trying to sneak in to the chunnel. So we missed the cocktails and chowder, but we still made it to Liv's just in time for the main meal! We sat down around 8:30 for dinner which would have been blasphemous in the US haha but it was good because I was actually hungry again.
Mrs. Greene made the whole meal with all the works, turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and carrots! There was no bread and the stuffing had cranberries and walnuts in it so michael and brian may have not survived but I was a very happy camper. Mr. Greene made a toast when we sat down to dinner which started off with "To religious persecution!" I nearly died laughing. I think that was the first time I heard that one. Sounded like an Uncle Steve joke. Then for dessert there was pecan pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and an apple berry pie. I had the pecan and apple berry with some homemade whipped cream which were both delicious.
Friday morning Liv and I set out to explore London. She lives in Kensington so we walked her dogs around her neighborhood with her Mom in the morning then stopped at a café for brunch near the high street. I must talk about Liv's dogs for a second because they are SO cute. Maisey is the softest dog I've ever held. You pick her up and she just molds in to whatever shape fits your arms and licks your face. Rolo is an older king charles but still adorable and they cuddle together in their little dog bed :)
Café Phillies: This is the café we had brunch at in Kensington. We had really good scrambled eggs with avocado and smoked salmon, along with a berry smoothie. The café also baked their own cakes which smelled amazing although we didn't have any.
After brunch we took a red double decker bus (yay!) to the corner of Hyde Park (I think..? Liv directed me everywhere...) It was unusually warm that day but "spitting" (as I've discovered it always is in London). From the bus we walked through all the touristy sites like...
Buckingham Palace: If I were to live in a palace I'd probably pick a different one but Buckingham is still pretty dang cool. We missed the changing on the guards but the little guys were still there marching around.
Westminster Abbey:
Me: "What's that building?"
Liv: "Oh I have no idea" *looks at google maps* "Shoot it's Westminster Abbey"
We were going to go inside then found out it was 17 pounds... haha nope!
Big Ben: The clouds started to part just as we were walking by Big Ben so he looked pretty fabulous. Though Liv told me he's not doing so hot and there's a huge debate whether they should spend the millions of pounds to fix him or not :(
Also saw the London eye from a distance, went in a telephone booth, walked along the river and through Picadilly, then took the tube to Shoreditch!
Shoreditch is the cool new area of London that I would equate to Brooklyn. There are a ton of cool concept stores, trendy cafés, graffiti wall murals, and vintage shops. Liv had never been and we both loved it! There was this huge vintage market in the basement of some store that we combed through for a while in search of costumes for our Oxford bop to no avail. But I did buy a cool pair of sunglasses! We also tried to get our nails done at this funky salon that was also a café and cinema but they were all booked.
Dock Kitchen: Liv's family took us out to dinner Friday night to this nice mediterranean restaurant along the canal. I had ceviche and sea bass which were verrrry good. They also gave us stellar flatbread with olive oil to start. For dessert they messed up my order but Liv's pistachio and nutmeg cake was very good. The restaurant also had a really cool ambiance with brick walls, fun lights, and huge windows. Would be really cool to sit outside there in the summer I'm sure.
After dinner we met Liv's other sister and her friend at this pizza restaurant in Kensington for a drink - pizza also looked really good!
Saturday morning Liv and I slept in then went to the gym and came back to her house to make some scrambled eggs. Felt like I was actually at home having a nice lazy morning it was incredible. After that we walked to a costume shop in Kensington to get our gear for white and black swan. Then we took the tube to Sloane Square for tea. (But first we waited at a bus stop for a solid 15 minutes before realizing the bus we needed didn't stop there...)
Saatchi Gallery: My one request while in London was to have tea. So Liv took us to this cool modern little restaurant in a courtyard behind Sloane Square where her sister is going to be having her rehearsal dinner next may. The tea was delicious! They had finger sandwiches, scones, and some little cupcakes/macaroons. We also got a few sides of veggies that went well with the sandwiches. I got sencha green tea. The jam and clotted cream on the scone was the real winner though.
After tea we met up with Liv's friend Megan to drive out to Oxford! The drive was really quick, about an hour to a park and ride just outside town where we took a bus for about 10 minutes to the center. We met at her friend CJ's "accommodation" aka dorm room to cook dinner. We had chips and guac and made fajitas while drinking wine in their kitchen - everyone was so nice and fun and I got to learn a bit about Oxford life haha. It was cool to see what a British university is like. Then we got ready and went to the "bop"! Bop's are basically a party that each college throws, usually twice or three times a term. There are 30 colleges at Oxford and this one was thrown by Christ Church which is apparently the most famous for their bops. One year apparently a guy lit himself on fire in the middle of the costume (to be fair it was part of his costume). This year the theme was "celebrity duos" so Liv and I dressed up as white and black swan. We had originally planned on wearing nice dresses since they were the only things Liv had... but then we were told to "wear nothing you care about" and "there will be jelly involved". So we each borrowed tshirts to wear over our dresses. Thank god we did because my white shirt was tie-dyed pink by the end of the night. I only got to see Oxford at night but it was GORGEOUS. Straight out of Harry Potter. The courtyards were majestic looking and there was a huge christmas tree in the middle of them. The bop was in what was probably a common room or event space in one of the dorms. It had wooden floors, a little stage with lights and speakers at one end, and a bar at the other. They serve "bop juice" which is basically punch (don't ask me what's in it). You pay 1 pound for 3 drinks (if i had to guess it was some sort of alcohol with red bull in one cup, orange juice in another, and a cola in the third). But since the party is run by the students it's all your friends behind the bar. So I paid for our first round of drinks and then the guy with the blue frozen glasses and orange carrot nose is just like "nah nah no more, free drinks all night!" The party ended at 12 pretty early but then everyone was in the dorms for a lot longer. They're dorm rooms are again BEAUTIFUL. The one we were in had two single rooms and then a common area with dark mahogany walls, sofas and chairs and huge windows. Looks like some prime minister's office - not a college kid's dorm room.
Sunday morning was pretty rough - but Liv made it up to drive us home to London in time for me to catch my flight. So I thanked the Greene's again for having me, ate some thanksgiving leftovers of turkey soup and stuffing, then headed to the airport! I bought some Cadbury chocolate on the way out of course.
This was my last big trip (though stay tuned for Strasbourg on Friday!) which is pretty sad. Can't believe my semester in Paris is coming to an end. But London was a great last weekend trip and I know I will be back :)
No comments:
Post a Comment