Jolly Old London

For our trip across the pond, we flew from Sea-Tac to London Heathrow. Our friend Jim was at the airport waiting for us. What a good feeling it is the have someone to pick you up at the airport - especially when you're loopy from jet lag and not sure where you're headed after you leave the airport.

Jim took us down to the Underground and we took the Picadilly line out of Heathrow. Our friends Jim and Kim live in southeast London, so we transferred to a train after the tube and then walked to their house from the train station. It took about and hour and a half and we were wiped out by the time we got to their flat!

Kim and their dog, Chewy, were there to greet us when we arrived. We hung out for a while and then took a nap. They had an extra bedroom, so we had our own room the whole time we stayed with them. We wanted to rest up so that we could go see the play "Tropicana" that evening. (see the Tropicana post for more exciting details about the play.)

The next day, we slept in really late and then set off to do some shopping. We headed to Oxford Street and to H&M. I had forgotten how insane the crowds on Oxford Street can be. It was wall to wall people everywhere we went. Jim left to go to his studio to avoid the shopping madness. Aaron was close behind him. Kim and I pushed on, but I have to admit that the throngs of people were even getting to me.

We packed it in and headed off to Soho to meet up with Aaron and Jim. They were at a bar called Garlic and Shots, but Kim couldn't remember how to get there. After many phone calls back and forth and asking people for directions (I even went into a naughty adult store to ask directions, but they didn't know the bar we were looking for), we eventually made our way to the bar.

It was May 1st, so we were celebrating my birthday. I turned 30 this year, so it was a big one! All the better to celebrate in London! We had a couple beers at Garlic and Shots, which was a cool bar. It had a lot of references to vampires (hence the garlic) and was divey, like most bars that we frequent in Seattle.

After that, we decided some food was in order, so we went to a tapas restaurant that Kim and Jim recommended. We ordered a bunch of different starters and some sangria. The night was off to a good start! The waiter found out it was my birthday, so he brought me some flan with a candle on it after we finished eating.

When we polished off the flan, Kim and Jim asked me where I'd like to go next, seeing as how it was my birthday. I wanted a fruity drink, so we left the tapas restaurant in search of a place that served shi shi girl drinks. We found a place that had deals all day on Sunday - pitchers of drinks for 8 pounds! The bar was posh and full of people that you would find in Belltown in Seattle. We had a pitcher of cosmos, a pitcher of pina colada and Aaron and Jim got a pitcher of Long Island Iced tea.

We decided that the British version of Belltown wasn't our bag after all, so Jim suggested a pub called Chandos near Leicester Square. It was walking distance and took us through China town and past Leicester Square. On the way, we saw two guys sprint past us. The first guy had a camera in his hand, which he threw down, but the guy behind him didn't stop. The the guy chasing the theif guy was bigger, so we were pretty sure the thief got his head kicked in.

Once we got to the pub, we settled in with a few pints and hung out for a while. It was just like being at the Pacific Inn in Seattle. It was a wonderful evening and totally distracted me from the fact that I am not in my late 20s anymore.

The next day was Monday, but it was a bank holiday, so Kim and Jim had the day off. (Jim has no set schedule anyway, because he is going to art school, so he sets his own schedule. But Kim works at a gallery, so she has a regular 9-5 schedule.) The itinerary for the day said "The Tate Modern and the London Eye", so we set off for the Tate Modern first. Jim was going to meet us at the London Eye later in the day.

The Tate Modern is huge and it's free. I was still exhausted from my birthday hi-jinks the night before, so when we found a peaceful area with overstuffed chairs, I decided to park my rump for a while. Aaron and Kim went off to look at art, and I watched the people on the Thames below. The resting area had enormous windows that looked out over the Thames and beyond. After a rest, I met up with them in the gift shop.

After the Tate Modern, we took the Tate to Tate boat on the Thames to get to the London Eye. The weather was beautiful that day, so we sat on the back of the boat. When the conductor came by to take our money, Kim was on her phone and Aaron and I acted like dumb tourists, so we eneded up getting a free ride.

When we got to the London Eye, we had to wait in line. We had booked ahead of time, though, so we already had our tickets. The London Eye is a large ferris wheel with large pods instead of open seats. It was built to celebrate the millenium in 2000. It is right over the Thames and each pod is all glass except for the floor, so the view is amazing!

When it was our turn, we loaded into our pod and got situated. The doors closed and we were off. The Eye moves very slowly, so it won't make you motion sick or anything. It could be a bit of a problem if you are scared of heights, though. My friend Kim got a little uncomfortable as we climbed higher and higher.

I was having a blast, though! You could see all of London and the sun was shining bright. We took pictures of each other, of Big Ben, of the other pods on the Eye, and the Thames. It was excellent! That evening, we went out to a pub for fish and chips and a few pints.

The next morning, Tuesday, we headed out on the Eurostar from Waterloo station to Belgium and then onto Paris. Check for details on our explorations on "the Continent" in separate posts.

We returned to London the following Saturday. We left from Paris Gar du Nord and came back to Waterloo station in London. We followed our friend Kim's directions and made our way back to their flat. We were tired from travelling, so we took rested at the flat for a while. Kim, Jim and their friend David (who had just arrived the day before for a visit) were out sightseeing.

After a brief respite, we decided to go meet up with everyone at a pub near the Tower of London. We had a few beers there and got to announce to everyone that we'd gotten engaged in Paris - cheers! We moved onto a different pub, but I don't remember where it was located. I do know that we took lots of pictures of each other at the pub and when we left, when we got off at the tube stop near their flat, my friend Kim decided it would be a good idea to take a wheel barrow that she found at a worksite. Ok, yes, we had had quite a lot of beer by this point.

When we got back and docked the wheel barrow by the garden, we got some kebab takeways from Kebab World. I am not lying, that was the name of the restaurant. I had a lamb kebab and it hit the spot!

The next day was Sunday and was our last full day before our flight back to Seattle. We planned to go to Camden Market and poke around. Camden is full of all kinds of people and has market stalls for everything you can imagine. We had a lot of fun looking around and shopping. There is a whole area where you can get different kinds of food - kind of like a food court, only at a market with tents. I got some kind of Moroccon dish that I didn't like, so I traded Jim for Thai green curry chicken.

When we'd had enough of the market, we - you guessed it! - headed to a pub. It was a rather swanky pub and had big windows with a view of the Camden Locks. We got to watch a couple boats go through and get lowered into the locks. It was neat. We also had a view of all the people walking by. We took a ton more pictures of each other and just enjoyed drinking and chatting together.

We decided we needed something to eat, so Jim suggested a great pizza place near his studio. It was so awesome! I had a pepperoni pizza with black olives and some Coke. It was East Coast style pizza with a thin crust and a spicy sauce. There was some discussion of going to another pub after we finished our pizza, but Aaron and I thought it would be best not to be completely hung over for our flight back to the States. So we hopped back on the tube and went back to the flat.

The next morning, our cab came to pick us up at 7am and we had to bid farewell to Jim, Kim and Chewy.

It was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad that we had an opportunity to visit. We got to do everything that I wanted and still had time to just relax and hang out with our friends - just like we would in the summer on our deck in Seattle.