The day after the #DWGMF wrapped, Thursday, I jetted off to London. The last day of the
conference had also been P's last day at work before moving to Kenya, but he was already gone by the time I got back to the office. But as luck would have it, P ended up being on the same bus heading to the airport the next morning!
So getting to London involved: street car - bus - plane - train - and then I was at Victoria Station, where
S came and picked me up. (Originally he'd considered coming to get me from Gatwick - and holding up a sign with my name and then pretend not to recognize me on purpose - but decided that he only values our friendship at £18, so it wasn't worth the train ticket haha.)
So all summer, S has been pulling 'I told you so's all over the place. Before leaving for London, I asked if I should bring shorts to London, and he was all like, "no, it's London, we don't wear shorts here." I arrive, and of course this is the one day when it's boiling hot in London. -_-
We ended up doing a quick walk by some of the major points (Buckingham Palace, a park, the London Eye, Big Ben, etc.) and then booking it over to Piccadilly Circus so I could go buy shorts. Sticky jeans are no fun!
London is just so
alive. So many people (and so well-dressed and polite too!), so much activity, so much cool stuff to see. It was actually pretty impressive how far we managed to walk in one day.
There are Union Jack flags all over the place in London, but in preparation for the Olympics, there were other flags adorning the streets as well ^.
British telephone booths! (Although I've seen identical ones in Canada as well.) I don't imagine these see as much use nowadays, what with the prevalence of cell phones and what not. (Or
handy, if you're German ;) I went inside one for a photo and it smelled like urine, unfortunately.
Food is always important, so we hit up
The Icecreamists in Covent Garden. You have to order a minimum of two scoops, and these things are massive! They have really interesting flavours though - including one made with real breast milk. Wasn't feeling YOLO enough to try it that day though - I opted for a scoop of Ferrero Rocher (bottom) and a scoop of caramel popcorn (top) instead. Delicious, but melted really quickly in the summer heat and got kind of messy.
We ended up just grabbing dinner at Covent Garden as well. Alas, can't remember the name of the place we ate at. It was pretty good though! (Although I'm not a huge fan of rocket/arugula.)
Trafalgar Square! This would be a place where we would end up many times over the course of the next couple of days.
All in all, the London trip started off with a fully packed, insanely awesome first day!
breastmilk ice cream??? nooo way. who donates to this cause?
ReplyDeleteWait...so your telling me I didn't have to go all the way across the Atlantic to see the "British" phone booths?
ReplyDeleteOmg breast milk ice cream?! What the heck... Did people actually try that?
ReplyDeletegreat photos. wtf, breast milk ice-cream! very glad you didn't feel carpe diem that day, that sounds disgusting!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to visit London some day. When I do, I'm not going near breast milk ice cream...
ReplyDeleteAlex - I have no idea! We were wondering the same thing when we were there!
ReplyDeleteChristine - Essentially - although the ones in England are probably much more authentic, what with being in their natural environment and all ;)
rooth - Neither of us were up to it, but it definitely looked like scoops had been taken, so I guess people must've ordered some!
Little Missy Me - haha yeah. Although I am a little curious...
Stephanie - YES London is awesome! Stracciatella is delicious - you can't go wrong with that flavour at least :)
i miss london! i've heard about that breast milk ice cream, i thought it was a joke though.
ReplyDeletei took a photo in one of those telephone booths in gibraltar and it smelled like the worst b.o ever... (where have you seen them in canada?)
looks like you had a great time!