- Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill
Despite the DOWNPOUR and my Uggs being ruined, Portobello Road Market was really cool. It was the exact site of one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill, with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts - if you've never seen it, rent it immediately! It was nice to get out of the posh neighborhood of Kensington and into a more "real" place like Notting Hill. The flats were multi-colored, there were cute little stores and restaurants, and I didn't feel out of place. The market was filled with pictures, jewelry, books, fresh fruit and food, among an abundance of other items. We stopped in Hummingbird Bakery (a must for any London visitors) and had the most delicious red velvet cupcakes on this planet. Later in the day, Alyssa and I stopped at a cool Thai restaurant for lunch, but my favorite is still the Pad Thai from Churchhill Arms, a pub close by our flat. I will definitely be visiting Notting Hill again once it warms up a little and will post pictures then because, like everything else in London, words are not adequate in describing these places.
- Vivaldi Four Seasons Candlelit Concert
These tickets were one of the "pound trips" organized through my program. The Church was in Trafalgar Square, an area in London which holds the National Portrait Gallery. The Church was gorgeous and the concert was beautifully done and well worth going to, but it lasted two hours and we were all pretty tired at this point. The music was so soothing which made it a little bit of a struggle to stay awake.
- Holland Park/Kyoto Gardens
Holland Park is a huge area about 7 blocks from my flat filled with people running down paths and owners walking their dogs (no leashes required). This will definitely be a much frequented spot once it's about 10 degrees warmer. The best part of it though is a little hidden gem inside the park called Kyoto Gardens. I had been told peacocks live there, but I didn't believe it until Lindsey and I stumbled across one... about 5 feet away from us. The garden also has a waterfall, a bridge crossing a pond filled with Koi, and benches surrounding vibrant green grass. It's the most peaceful and quiet spot I've found so far in London.
- Day trip to Windsor Castle
This was my favorite pound trip thus far. Windsor Castle is about 50 minutes outside Kensington and is the Queens weekend home. Lucky for us, the Queen was not visiting at the time so we were able to go inside the State Apartments. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside, but it was incredible. There was room after room filled with armor and swords, elaborate furniture, molding and decorations, dozens of paintings, statutes, and everything you would imagine would be inside a castle. Outside the State Apartments we saw the changing of the guard and (another) beautiful church where we walked directly over the tomb of King Henry the VIII.
The town surrounding Windsor Castle was another one of my favorite spots. I was expecting the castle to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields, but instead, about 30 feet outside the castle grounds were pubs, coffee shops, and clothing stores. We ate lunch at a little pub called Horse and Groom and I had a delicious burger and "chunky chips." The burgers here taste 100x better than in the States and I've become obsessed with them!
- 3 plays: Inspector Calls, 39 Steps, and 6 Degrees of Separation
All 3 of these plays were required for me to see through my Into to London Theatre class. Inspector Calls was decent, 39 Steps was hilarious, and 6 Degrees of Separation was a huge thumbs down. 39 Steps was put on by 4 actors and was a parody of the old Alfred Hitchcock film. It was my favorite play we have seen thus far and I felt slightly bad for the gentlemen sitting next to me who was forced to hear my loud and obnoxious laugh... I tried holding it in, but the comedy was too random and at unexpected points to try.
- Historic Pub Crawl
This was also a pound trip where Simon, the good old tour guide who made was trek through snow on our second day here, took us to 3 historical and famous pubs. I tried ESB - an extremely strong beer that Brit told us to be careful with because it'll sneak up on you - but otherwise stuck to my tasty and trusty cider. Sidenote: Cider is another thing I have become obsessed with on this trip.
- Seonah visited from Spain!!! :)
Seah ventured on her first weekend trip from Barcelona to join me in the lovely city of London. I have to give myself some credit, for I was quite the tour guide. She got here Thursday night and I met her at her hostel, we grabbed dinner, and then went out to 2 different clubs in Piccadilly Circus.
Friday morning, on her orders, we got up early after our night out and I met her at the Gloucester tube stop (the one I use most often). I showed her my flat and then we went to the Tower of London with Lindsey, Alyssa, and Kristina. She got to experience the not-so-great random weather - all in a span of 5 hours it was raining, then windy, then sunny, and cold the entire time. But hey, what's a trip to London without the signature rain? The highlight of Tower of London was seeing the Crown Jewels -- AMAZING. I could have spent the entire day inside the vault just staring at the hundreds of diamonds, saffires, rubies, evvvveeerrrything. After Tower of London we did some shopping along Kensington High Street and then went to dinner with Alyssa, Lindsey and Ashley at Sticky Fingers, a restaurant owned by Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones. It was by and far the best burger I have had in my life. On the way home we stopped at Tesco and bought some Cadbury chocolate filled with caramel, which is even better than it is at home. Another sidenote: I have become obsessed with chocolate here. After every meal I need chocolate and even if I have a non-chocolate desert, I still crave chocolate no matter how full I am. It's becoming a problem.
On Saturday I took Seah on a walking tour of London. We took the tube down to the River Thames and walked along the boardwalk, rode the London Eye (the tallest Ferris Wheel in Europe -- amazing!), walked across the London Bridge, saw Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, walked past 10 Downing Street (the home of the Prime Minister), and over to Trafalgar Square (as mentioned above the home of the National Portrait Gallery and Nelson's Column). We then came back to Kensington and walked past the Natural History Museum, around Kensington Palace (former home of Princess Di), and through Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park.
It was a jam packed weekend and I was really sad to walk her back to the tube and say goodbye. It was so nice having a familiar face here and I can't wait to visit her in Barca in April. Her coming here reinforced the fact that I live in London. I was able to get her to all of these sites with no trouble and could recite her facts that I've learned in my 4 and 1/2 weeks here. When walking along Kensington High Street I kept forgetting that we were in London - it's become some comfortable and familiar to me that I felt like we were back in Madison shopping along State Street.
- Day trip to Oxford
I wasn't too impressed by Oxford. It could be partly due to the fact that Ashley and I were sliiiightly hungover, but I think it had more to do with the tour. We got on the bus at 9am, had an hour and a half drive, and then were led around until 1pm. To say the least, we were all pretty tired and crabby from lack of food. The town was, yes I know I say this a lot, really cute, but it didn't feel like a college campus to me which is what I was expecting. The best part of the trip was seeing the staircase Professor McGonagall stands on while welcoming the first years to Hogwarts in the first Harry Potter movie and getting to walk inside the Great Hall from Harry Potter!! The Great Hall was much smaller than it looks in the movie, but exciting none the less.
- Ain't Nothin but the Blues Bar
This place was recommended to us by our Pop Culture professor and Damien, who works with our program. It's a tiny little place in Soho that plays live Blues music. It was jam packed and I was slightly claustrophobic at first, but it was really cool to hear live music and get away from the American music that plays in the pubs/clubs (yes, they play American music here but it's usually not the most up-to-date).
This was my past 3 weeks in a nutshell. Classes are the same as usual - I have a feeling I won't have too many updates about them. This Thursday is the London premiere of Valentine's Day and I reallllly want to go and stand outside for the red carpet! The theatre is a few tube stops away and we might try and queue up early in the day to get a good spot. The only problem is we're leaving for Edinburgh, Scotland this Thursday as well, so unless we can move our train ticket, I'll have to say goodbye to seeing all those beautiful celebrities. As for Edinburg, I am, indeed, venturing on my first weekend trip with Lindsey, Ashley, Alyssa, Kristina, Andrea, Ellie, and Alex! I don't know much about Edinburgh, but everyone we've talked to have said it's really cool and "wicked."
Spring Break is also fastly approaching. I leave in 2 and 1/2 weeks (Feb. 24th) for Athens, Santorini (the island in Greece where The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed), and Rome. We're staying in hostels for 9 nights and overall the trip was fairly cheap considering we're seeing 3 places in Europe!
All of you who have webcams - get on Skype so we can talk!!
Cheers!
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