Sunday, September 20, 2009

London and other such nonsense.


After three spectacular days in London, it is now in the running for my favorite city in the whole world. I had a fabulous time and am already counting down the days until I return (40!). I'll start from the beginning:

I woke up Thursday morning at 4:30 a.m. and was out of the house by 5:10. I arrived at the métro station about 5 minutes later, only to find out that the first train doesn't reach Place de Clichey until 5:35. Unfortunately, it's not just early-risers who take the metro at 5:30 in the morning. There was a rather large contingent of people still up from the night before, most of whom smelled pretty ripe. However, I made it to Gare du Nord safely, went through customs (not without a little hassle when I didn't know the address I'd be staying at in the UK), boarded the train and immediately passed out.

Stephen met me in the train station. It was so good to see a familiar face! We ran back to his aunt and uncle's house where I met his aunt Marianne and dropped off my stuff before we headed out to get breakfast in Hampstead. I chickened out and did not get the full English Breakfast like Stephen did. However, I did pick sausages, tomatoes and mushrooms off his plate (as per usual) to add to my order of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and toast.

After breakfast we hopped on the tube (which was infinitely cleaner than the Métro) and took it down to Trafalgar Square. We walked by the National Gallery and spontaneously decided to breeze through a special exhibit of landscapes by Corot, Monet and others. Afterwards, we walked...and walked...and walked...down Bond Street, Oxford Street, New Oxford Street... By the time we stopped for tea around 3:30 my feet were killing me, but I couldn't have been happier. I love just walking around a new city, enjoying the architecture and atmosphere.

Tea at the Wolseley was absolutely wonderful. We each got a pot of tea, scones, assorted finger sandwiches and pastries. Everything was delicious and we left full and well rested. We even saw a minor celebrity there! As we got there, Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) was just leaving.

After tea, we walked along the Thames and across the Millenium Bridge towards the Tate Modern. It was our plan to explore the museum before going to see As You Like It at the Globe. However, we got there with only an hour to spare before we were supposed to line up for the show. So instead, we got drinks and oysters at the Swan, a little pub attached to the Globe. As You Like It was amazing. The entire cast was absolutely hilarious, and there's nothing like dirty Elizabethan jokes. However, we were groundlings and had to stand. The atmosphere was unbeatable--there was only one row of people between us and the stage--but by the end both of us could hardly stand our feet hurt so badly. So, we went home and immediately crashed.

The next day we had planned to sleep in but I accidentally got up early. I didn't know that my phone wouldn't automatically switch timezones so it was set an hour later! Apparently, Orange (my cellphone company here) has technology advanced enough to know when I leave France and then bombard me with text messages about Concierge services, etc. but switching timezones is just too difficult.

We ate breakfast at the house and then set off again for some sightseeing. We started off at the Natural History museum. I had read on the website that they had a blue whale there so obviously, I had to go see how big the largest mammal actually is. Stephen informed by that this is a standard attraction at most Natural History museums, and is not in fact, unique to London. However, never having been to a Natural History museum, I dragged him there anyway. It turns out, that what they actually have is a real blue whale skeleton. The "whale" is a life-size model with the actual skeleton hanging over it. Lame. But the building was really lovely and we had fun looking around a bit.

Next we headed over to the Victoria & Albert museum which houses an enormous collection of decorative arts. The museum is absolutely massive. To see it all would take days, so we limited ourselves to the fashion and jewelry exhibits. The jewelry was my favorite part. The collection was stunning, spanning from 2500 B.C. to present and housed in an ultra modern two-story series of rooms that reminded me of some high-security bank vault you would see in a movie. Everything was black and the room was dark save the light from the display cases.

After the B&A we were starving so we wandered around looking at restaurant menus until we decided on Dim Sum. The food was fabulous. I have a weakness for the little pork buns, and they had a prawn dumpling in chili sauce that was fabulous.

After lunch, we ran across the street to Harrods to browse. We ran all around the store looking at pretty things we can't afford and then went down to the food stalls, where there were free Champagne and rum tastings. So, after two glasses of Champagne and a few samples of rum, we headed over to Ladurée for a snack. I had a really pretty pastry with raspberries, hazelnut meringue, and many other layers of yumminess I can't remember. It was amazing.

Finally, after another long day, we headed back for my first ever Rosh Hashanah dinner. Stephen's family is hilarious and the food was amazing. After dinner, we watched a couple episodes of Mad Men and turned in early.

Saturday we were so exhausted from running all over London for two days straight, we slept until 10:30 and were still exhausted so we decided to take it easy and stay in the neighborhood for the day. We ate breakfast then went out to explore Hampstead. We walked around, visiting different shops, and stopped at a pub for lunch and a pint of cider. We shared fish and chips with mushy peas and an antipasti platter, before heading off to visit the Keats' House. Apparently, Keats lived in Hampstead right down the road from Stephen's aunt and uncle. The house was cute with a nice little garden in back.

After the Keats' house, we were ready to rest our sore feet again so we headed back to relax, grab some food and watch The Graduate before my train left. Stephen had never seen it before and I thought he would really like it. He did, but I destroyed all respect he had for Wes Anderson when he realized that Anderson's entire style was stolen from that movie.

I got back to France without any problems, but I already miss London! I had an amazing three days and can't wait to go back.

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