Last Night in London
Sunday - Managed to wake up relatively early considering I was out until 2am drinking the night before (good times). The plan for today was to go to the markets over in East London and then check out Parliament, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. However, Kris and Will didn't get much sleep at all apparently, and were having a hard time getting out of bed. I knew they would rather go to the markets, so I told them I'd head out and see the Royal parts of London, and come back at 1pm and then we could go to the markets. They agreed, so I headed out.
Can you believe it was actually sunny!? Blue skies and sunshine, it's a miracle. Though still incredibly cold. My first stop was Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I took a zillion pictures, because everything looked so pretty with the sun shining on it. I wanted to tour the Westminster Abbey, but on Sunday's it is closed to tourists, and is only open for regular masses. Then I walked across the street to Parliament, thinking I could take a tour of that, but it must have been closed on Sunday as well because I didn't see an entrance, or queue to get in. So I just walked around the outside, taking more pictures.
Once I was done there, I headed over to Buckingham Palace, but for some reason I had trouble figuring out where the entrance was for this place. Maybe Sunday is just a bad day for tours. I continued to walk around the property, feeling a bit disappointed when I noticed a huge crowd of people had gathered outside of the gate to Buckingham Palace, and there was music. I made my way to the fence, stood on my tiptoes and saw what all the comotion was about- it was the chagning of the guards. It was towards the end, but at least I saw something today. Took pictures, then walked over to one of the parks lining the palace. I decided to take a stroll through St. James' Park, and as I was walking, the royal guards were leaving the palace gates, and making their way down the street I was on, so I got a front seat of watching these guys march on by. Very cool.
The walk through the park was so nice and peaceful, and the fact that it was sunny really helped. There were a ton of birds all over the place, as there is a pond that runs down the middle length of the park, and everyone was feeding the birds. The animals here are so domesticated. I saw one guy wearing a glove and a pidgeon was on his hand and the guy was totally petting it like a pet! Oh and then I saw more British Squirrels, and those guys are super friendly. When I got to the end of the park and rounded the corner I had made a full circle and was back at Parliament and Big Ben. I found a payphone and called our hotel room to see if Kris and Will were up yet. They were, so I made my way back to the hotel, then we headed out for the markets.
Spitalfields Market is the first one we went to, and it was pretty cool. Tons of booths with cool stuff, but after a while we all felt that some of the stuff that was being sold wasn't very unique as we saw the same things in several booths. Still cool to look at. Then we went down the street to Brick Lane, which definitly seemed like a more authentic market. Kristine even bought a cute coat. I wanted to visit Harrod's, so we took the tube over there and checked it out very briefly. Wasn't exactly Kris and Will's type of store. Suppose I'll get to check it out in more detail when I move there. It is pretty amazing though. There are a bunch of rooms, some with various themes. There were rooms for buying meat, candies, etc. along with all the other department store items like clothes, cosmetics, etc.
After Harrod's I needed to go back to the hotel for a little cat nap before we headed out for the night. And since it was my last night in London, we wanted to find a really good, authentic fish & chips place. Will did some research and found 2 restaurants in Notting Hill that were supposed to be good. We took the tube there, but when we got to Notting Hill, and finally found the resturants, they were both closed. Other than bars closing early in England, apparently restaurants do to on Sundays. We obviously were still thinking things around here ran 24-7 like in America, and because of that got slapped in the face. So no fish and chips, bummer. But I was really getting hungry and so were Kris and Will and because it was so late we feared traveling anywhere else to find food, because by the time we would get there, they'd be closed. So we desperately searched the one main street of the area and found a few places but we were having a hard time agreeing on a place. Just when I thought I was going to go crazy and just eat on my own, Kris found a Portugese/Brazilian place that she liked, and i didn't care so we ate there. Turned out to be a really cool place, however when they say things are 'spicy" they mean it. I ordered my meal as "medium" and should have stuck with "mild". I couldn't even finish my chicken. But at least the crisps were yummy and they had bottomless soda.
After dinner we wanted to find a pub for drinks but once again it was already really late and if bars close early on weekdays then they were sure to close just as early, if not earlier, on a Sunday. I suggested we find a pub near our hotel, that way we didn't have to worry about getting home. Once we were back in our neighborhood, nearly all the places were already closed or stopped serving alcohol. We had almost given up but then we came across St. Geroge's Tavern, and decided to try there. When I walked in I saw one of the guys I had met the night before, Oula. I quickly said hi to him, then went to the bar to get my drink before they shut down. The guy at the bar served us, though apparently they had stopped serving drinks 30 minutes ago. So we sat, had to quickly down our pints as they were closing, and then attempted to find another pub butt they were all closed. They must think us Americans are a bunch of lushes always trying to get alcohol at odd hours. lol.
Can you believe it was actually sunny!? Blue skies and sunshine, it's a miracle. Though still incredibly cold. My first stop was Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I took a zillion pictures, because everything looked so pretty with the sun shining on it. I wanted to tour the Westminster Abbey, but on Sunday's it is closed to tourists, and is only open for regular masses. Then I walked across the street to Parliament, thinking I could take a tour of that, but it must have been closed on Sunday as well because I didn't see an entrance, or queue to get in. So I just walked around the outside, taking more pictures.
Once I was done there, I headed over to Buckingham Palace, but for some reason I had trouble figuring out where the entrance was for this place. Maybe Sunday is just a bad day for tours. I continued to walk around the property, feeling a bit disappointed when I noticed a huge crowd of people had gathered outside of the gate to Buckingham Palace, and there was music. I made my way to the fence, stood on my tiptoes and saw what all the comotion was about- it was the chagning of the guards. It was towards the end, but at least I saw something today. Took pictures, then walked over to one of the parks lining the palace. I decided to take a stroll through St. James' Park, and as I was walking, the royal guards were leaving the palace gates, and making their way down the street I was on, so I got a front seat of watching these guys march on by. Very cool.
The walk through the park was so nice and peaceful, and the fact that it was sunny really helped. There were a ton of birds all over the place, as there is a pond that runs down the middle length of the park, and everyone was feeding the birds. The animals here are so domesticated. I saw one guy wearing a glove and a pidgeon was on his hand and the guy was totally petting it like a pet! Oh and then I saw more British Squirrels, and those guys are super friendly. When I got to the end of the park and rounded the corner I had made a full circle and was back at Parliament and Big Ben. I found a payphone and called our hotel room to see if Kris and Will were up yet. They were, so I made my way back to the hotel, then we headed out for the markets.
Spitalfields Market is the first one we went to, and it was pretty cool. Tons of booths with cool stuff, but after a while we all felt that some of the stuff that was being sold wasn't very unique as we saw the same things in several booths. Still cool to look at. Then we went down the street to Brick Lane, which definitly seemed like a more authentic market. Kristine even bought a cute coat. I wanted to visit Harrod's, so we took the tube over there and checked it out very briefly. Wasn't exactly Kris and Will's type of store. Suppose I'll get to check it out in more detail when I move there. It is pretty amazing though. There are a bunch of rooms, some with various themes. There were rooms for buying meat, candies, etc. along with all the other department store items like clothes, cosmetics, etc.
After Harrod's I needed to go back to the hotel for a little cat nap before we headed out for the night. And since it was my last night in London, we wanted to find a really good, authentic fish & chips place. Will did some research and found 2 restaurants in Notting Hill that were supposed to be good. We took the tube there, but when we got to Notting Hill, and finally found the resturants, they were both closed. Other than bars closing early in England, apparently restaurants do to on Sundays. We obviously were still thinking things around here ran 24-7 like in America, and because of that got slapped in the face. So no fish and chips, bummer. But I was really getting hungry and so were Kris and Will and because it was so late we feared traveling anywhere else to find food, because by the time we would get there, they'd be closed. So we desperately searched the one main street of the area and found a few places but we were having a hard time agreeing on a place. Just when I thought I was going to go crazy and just eat on my own, Kris found a Portugese/Brazilian place that she liked, and i didn't care so we ate there. Turned out to be a really cool place, however when they say things are 'spicy" they mean it. I ordered my meal as "medium" and should have stuck with "mild". I couldn't even finish my chicken. But at least the crisps were yummy and they had bottomless soda.
After dinner we wanted to find a pub for drinks but once again it was already really late and if bars close early on weekdays then they were sure to close just as early, if not earlier, on a Sunday. I suggested we find a pub near our hotel, that way we didn't have to worry about getting home. Once we were back in our neighborhood, nearly all the places were already closed or stopped serving alcohol. We had almost given up but then we came across St. Geroge's Tavern, and decided to try there. When I walked in I saw one of the guys I had met the night before, Oula. I quickly said hi to him, then went to the bar to get my drink before they shut down. The guy at the bar served us, though apparently they had stopped serving drinks 30 minutes ago. So we sat, had to quickly down our pints as they were closing, and then attempted to find another pub butt they were all closed. They must think us Americans are a bunch of lushes always trying to get alcohol at odd hours. lol.
posted by Triana @ 8:26 PM
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