Laine and I took the Eurostar from Paris to London (under the english channel, also phrased through the chunnel). We arrived shortly after 1 London time and went to Kensel Green by tube. Kensel Green is a nice little ghetto in west London where there is appropriately one of the finest cemeteries in London:
The view from our room
our room
the cemetery
As soon as we checked out we decided to get the heck out of Kensel Green and see real London while we waited for Jeanna to fly in from Dublin.
Our first stop was Portobello Road in Notting Hill, possibly one of the coolest places ever:
My new home:
The stores there are full of antique/vintage stuff which kind of rocks my socks
Because Laine and I are serious nerds and read the London Times on a regular basis we found an article about cupcakes and a specific store in London called The Hummingbird Bakery. The hummingbird is famous for its red velvet cupcakes which Laine and I promptly bought:
We then in our usual fashion stumbled upon an amazing church
and an auto body shop where Mom and Dad, I found something I want for chirstmas
This:
While in Notting Hill we were given a card for a nightclub/bar in London which played music we actually like! So we went a venturing to find it. In the midst of of it all we found Hyde Park and the club (not at all close to each other I might add).That night Jeanna arrived and we went to Paddington to get some bomb Turkish food. We were staying in a mixed female room with only the 3 of us in it. Day one London = success
Day two, it started off with free breakfast at the hostel consisting of 4 pieces of toast with butter and jam, 1 bowel of cereal, 1 cup of instant coffee, and a glass of orange juice (that was just my breakfast by the way).
While waiting for the tube I was utterly distracted by this attractive british boy and I went to swipe off what I thought was a leave on my sweater only to be a bee which stung me.
Luckily I am not my mother and I just popped an ibuprofen and I persisted through the pain and swelling:
That morning we were heading back to Portobello to show Jeanna our discovery where our magical skills of stumbling on things kicked in again and we found this:
Yeah that's right we found his houseLunch then consisted of some pretty decent kebabs and Laine's delicious vegetarian chinese food.
To Hyde Park!!!
I had to take a photo in honor of the movie Hook
For mom
Princess Diana memorial fountain:
We frolicked
The gap here is filled by us being completely overwhelmed by Harrod's Department store and back to Portobello road for legit pizza.
Then we decided it would be way more fun to see Big Ben, Parliment, and the London Eye at night.
It was REALLY cold!
That night we went home and found 2 very nice women staying in our room with us who wanted to sleep so we went down to karaoke in the hostel bar and met 2 very creepy brazilian guys who really wanted us to sing, which didn't happen.
In the middle of the night we were woken up by the hostel staff claiming that we hadn't paid yet for our room however we had 2 receipt proving that we had. Someone almost died from our grumpiness.
Day three = tate modern
The entire first half and some of the day was spent wandering around the Tate Modern which was ridiculously awesome
London Tower bridge from the millennium bridge:
After the Tate we got lunch at a place called EAT! and went to the Globe Theatre:
They were having a dress rehearsal so we couldn't go inside but we did get to see a lot of people in crazy period costumes
From the globe we went to St Paul's church were it costs a student 8 quid just to see inside so we decided we liked the outside better
Then we found some pillars to jump so we did:
Classic:
Again we stumbled upon a great find, St Bride's Church on Fleet street
I have no idea what this is but it was pretty
That night we went to whitechapel (after legit fish and chips dinner) in attempt to go to shorditch where a local boy had told us to go for cool bars and such. unfortunately the London tube system is currently undergoing massive engineering and revamping so we couldn't get there. Luckily my former roommate lived in london over the summer and told us about a bar in Angel called Lexington.When we got there we decided that it was a super cool hipster place that apparently only locals go to. Jeanna using her magical powers of awesomeness secured all three of us free drinks. I had a whiskey which was really good. (don't worry mom I normally don't condone this behavior but I'm poor and Jeanna is magic) Then I started talking to this really cute, funny british guy named Joe who was dancing around. He made fun of us being from california and not smoking (he said we probably go to the gym everyday and eat super healthy). He invited us to a pub lock in that night but it was late and we wanted to head home, so he gave me his number (Laine and Jeanna were convinced he liked me) and he invited us to a house party in whitechapel the next night.
We went home very happy (and 80% sober)
Day 4
We started on Camden street Market where it was the most intense maze of stalls all selling crazy stuff from clothes to jewelry to marajuana accessories.
We then using my most amazing talent of finding the best street food around ate this chinese food:
The gap here is filled with us at oxford street specifically topshop and primark wandering around extremely in awe.
Then we went back to Hummingbird in order to allow Jeanna the chance to experience the cupcake ness
From there we went back to the Hostel to get ready for a big night out. First it was back to Angel to eat mexican food and call Joe. Unfortunately he accidentally gave us the wrong number and we couldn't get a hold of him. so we went to the M&S in Euston and bought some biscuits and wine and had a really good laugh (I cried from laughing so hard at one point) and just overall enjoyed ourselves.
Then the swedish girl in our room told us about a place in central london that was pretty good for nightlife. Unfortunately it was more of a dinner and drinks place. Since we had to get up god awful early we decided to go home to bed.
Jeanna outside a bar in Angel all three of us have an addiction to nutella but Jeanna's is the worst.
This is after our adventure back at the hostel
in the morning we got up an hour earlier than planned which turned out to be a really good thing because the tube was being worked on in the area we were staying which meant we had to take the bus into town and switch. Luckily we made it in plenty of time and got onto our train with loads of food. I had exactly 35 pence left of my 150 pounds for the trip I was an awesome budgeter.
This last photo is the train station in London. I hope to see it again soon. I love London and hearing english in the street. I had an amazing time that I will very cheesily cherish forever.
