A Tale of Two Cities Part II: London

This bonus blog will get you up to speed on my travel adventures. This edition concerns my long weekend voyage to London. It may be just a 2.5 hour high speed train ride from Paris but it's really a world away...



Friday Feb 13th was the commencement of our whirlwind tour. We left our apartment around 5:30 am to make it to Gare du Nord (the train station) for our 7am train. Neither Becky or myself slept for more than an hour or two the night before, not sure why, all I know is it involved viewing of Sex and the City at about 3am. As we walked to the metro station is was snowing. We made it to the station and through airport-like security and customs and onto our train. The portion of the ride where you are actually in the chunnel under the english channel is probably the most uninteresting part of the trip. It's silent and black. I thought there would be a clear tunnel where you could see all the fish. I'm sort of kidding.

Upon our arrival amist being excited to speak english again we were handed roses by englishmen and free apples...why not? Next step was to buy tube tickets for the weekend and head to our hostel to drop our bags off. Our hostel was located in Kennington which is just south of the center of the city. We wasted no time in getting started on the city.



Friday Feb 13th

-Our first task was to find the London School of Economics where Becky is considering attending grad school. We grabbed a quick lunch beforehand and then visted some of the schools buildings. Seems pretty impressive to me. And then because I just can't resist, we stopped in a bookstore and I got sucked into a 3 for 2 book deal. At least they're english authors.

-Our next plan was to visit the British Museum but got sidetracked and ended up at Covent Garden-a famous shopping/market area. We enjoyed the shopping, entertainment, and amazing cookies for a couple hours before finally making it to the museum. The attractive aspect of much of London's sightseeing is that things are free. One of my favorite words. The British museum has an amazing collection of art and artifacts from all over the world along with the famous Rosetta Stone. We spent time walking through the Egyptian rooms and got to see an amazing preserved mummy that still had all its skin and even some hair still on it. I've seen great mummies quite a few times and they just never get old.

-For dinner we headed to a place called Belgo Centrale-another Rick Steves suggestion, and of course it was great. I had an amazing Vegetable and goat cheese tarte and some great cherry beer. Afterwards we walked around for a while and got to see Trafalger Square at night-think a mini Times Square.

-For a true British tradition and experience we headed to a classic pub called "Ye old Cheshire Cheese." Tacky name but amazing and cheap beer. I'm really into hard cider here and this place had the best stuff I've had here hands down and it was less than a pound and 1/2 for a pint. Can't beat that. We met a couple British guys, Mike and Guy who were fun to talk to and learn more about city from. Becky and I also managed to get free drinks from this random guy at the bar and our new friends. Reason number 574 it pays to be a female.



Saturday Feb 14th

-Got up way earlier than intended and started our day at Westminster Abbey, in the top 4 of largest churches in the world. It's absoultely beautiful and so cool to think about the history of kings and queens being crowned there as well as high profile weddings and funerals. A walk through St. James park was next on the adgenda which led us to Buckingham Palace. I'll have to say France does have something going for it with it's castles. The ones in London just seemed to look like big government buildings. It was really crowded around the palace and we were't planning on going inside so we started walking down the main road away from the palace and all the guards on black stallions were riding up to the palace for changing of the guards. We didn't stick around but Becky did almost get run-over by a horse while taking pictures so that was exciting.

-We decided going to a show/play in London was a good idea and since it was Valentines day we needed to do something special. We headed to Trafalger Square where there were some discount ticket lines. We ended up getting 6th row tickets to The Taming of the Shrew. It's a modernized Shakespearen play and the theatre troop was from Stratford so it was truly a British show. The actors were really funny and the entire experience was very enjoyable. After the show got over we stopped at an Italian restaurant for some dessert and then headed out for our last night in London.
We ended up meeting some young French guys at the first bar we went to...figures we can't even escape them for one weekend. That bar closed at midnight so we went in seach of something different. Club Inferno was our final destination and it ended up being a very unique place to be. The atmosphere was dark lighting, somewhat spanish/salsa themed loud music with some people dancing in small areas and then scattered areas for seating. Something for everyone. At this point I was feeling a little fed up with Valentines day, watching everyone hold hands and kiss each other and by this time I was nearing a breaking point. So when a wannabe Usher was creeping on Becky and his buddy who thought he was God's gift to American women started chatting us up I had lost all patience. Once Mr. Texas (thats what I'm going to call him since he continued to tell me he lived in Texas for 2 years) offered me a suspicious looking piece of "gum" I pretty much gave him the cold shoulder. And no I wasn't being mean-he asked me at least 3 times where I was from and how long I was going to be in London. Again, I had no patience. All in all it was a really great night and we even utilized the night buses and arrived back at our hostel just in time to watch the clock turn to 4am.

Sunday Feb 15th

-We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little bit, but I was insistant on getting my free breakfast before 9am. By 10:30 we were out the door on the way to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels. Apparentley everyone else had the same idea. We bought our tickets to get into what I came to find out was not just a tower, but an entire castle complex where the kings used to live. We were both in dire need of a cup of coffee so we thought we would sit for a minute with a warm beverage. I of course had to ruin the mood by knocking over half of my coffee all over the counter we were sitting at. You just can't take me anywhere. And mom, Becky is learning that if it's not spilled on it's not mine. :)
The whole Tower of London experience was really amazing actually. We got to see everything from the famous crowned jewels, (one of them is the largest diamond in the world with 3, 075 carats!!!) torture devices, the exact spot Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and much to Becky's liking, Henry VIII bed.
Finally around 2pm we decided it was time for lunch and at the suggestion of our buddy Rick headed to Wagamamma noodle bar which had a location convienently located just outside the grounds of the castle. Again, another amazing place to eat with decent prices and all the FREE green tea you can drink.

-Our last stop of the day was the British Library which has a collection of original and priceless pieces of literature. I was most impressed by the original writings of musical composers like Beethoven and The Beatles, the Gutenberg Bible, DaVinci's notebooks. original manuscripts by Shakespere himself and Charlotte Bronte and the impressive Magna Carta. Thats one intense room let me tell you.

-We ended our day camped out at a Starbucks before dinner journaling and reading and then headed back to our favorite part of town (Coveant Garden) to find a place to eat. We ended up at a truly British place called the Cole Hole where we indulged in British food and drink for our last night.

*Monday morning we headed back to Paris just in time for a quick lunch and then back to reality with class. We had an incredible weekend and I can't wait until I can go back again someday.
And no worries, I did have fish and chips, and it was all it's cracked up to be. If Paris is about fancy cuisine, London is all about comfort food, and that is something I can relate to.

Until my next adventure,
<3 Katie