TFC: London life

two [Fri, 11-Dec]

Lauren, John and I began our day at the Geffrye Museum to learn about the history of the British middle class through their interiors.  It was a very interesting and approachable museum.  Displaying rooms as a guide to presenting lifestyle was a great approach, especially during their “Christmas Past” exhibition where all of the period rooms are decorated with traditional festivity.  Obviously I loved learning about the history of Christmas and its celebration!

From Old Street we headed south across the London Bridge to Southwark for a evening of pub/bar hopping.  We began at The Anchor, a riverside multi-room pub recommended by our teacher Giles.  Lauren and I had our first and last pint of London Gold while John savored a Guinness.  With that coating over our stomachs, we sought dinner and the easiest/quickest solution was Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a chain in London voted as having the best burgers in town.  We walked it off along the Thames Path to Waterloo Bridge and The Riverfront bar/restaurant at the BFI Southbank Centre.  I always love spending time Thames-side and looking out onto a twinkling London was precisely where I wanted to be on my final Friday night.  I’m so glad I got to catch a few final glimpses at the breathtakingly lit Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s, London Eye, Houses of Parliament, etc…

Before catching the Tube at Waterloo, we stopped for a final pint at Hole in the Wall, a pub located next to the station and under a train overpass; the sounds of passing trains could be heard and felt, a very cool feature.  We then embarked on my last late-night, just-before-it-closes Tube ride, and I savored every second of it.

Sunday: home across the pond

I can’t even begin to express how amazing it was to have Madre here and on how many levels.  Above all, though, it was great to have a bit of home in London with me — it was still an adventure, but I got to have my favorite companion by my side.

In typical Sunday style, we headed to mass at Our Lady of Victories, but the London flare was definitely there: 11:30am Latin mass with a gorgeous choir (personal highlight: being able to kiss Madre during the sign of peace! It was great to not be a loner for once!)!  We then headed up Kensington High Street to Kensington Church Street, where we stopped for brunch at the Kensington Wine Rooms (another establishment I frequently pass and always dreamed of going to!).  Sufficiently fortified, we headed up to Notting Hill Gate and back onto The Big Bus for another sightseeing route through London!  We hopped off at Westminster Bridge to spend some quality Kodak time with the London Eye and Big Ben, Madre’s new crush.  Once we were chilled to the bone, we hopped on the Tube at Westminster station and got off at South Kensington.  Yet another dining dream of mine came true when we stopped for a light dinner at Carluccio’s before heading home to the LVH for another sound snuggly sleepover.

More details in the picture captions and descriptions below!

Jeeves & Big Head

British pedestrian

Our Lady of Victories

Sticky Fingers men!

Riesling Cheers!

Tea Cheers!

Big Heads!

first hole in the wall

back on the Big Bus

Big Head

BBC Bush House & peeps’ Big Head

St. Paul’s

City Hall & Big HEad

Big Ben, aka Madre’s crush

Westminster Bridge

postcard worthy

Janet’s Bar!

Carluccio’s

manga manga manga!

window hologram

that’s my Christmas face

LVH at night

tea & Digestives

Saturday: the madre has landed!

Here it is: the Madre’s Visit series!  Disclaimer: we took a ton of pictures, we ate a lot of food (I almost forgot how much I missed it), and we made a lot of magical memories.  Here’s my attempt at documenting it all; a lot of the posts will be works-in-progress as I update them with little details I forgot/didn’t take the time to initially include–I know we have an eager audience awaiting!  Enjoy   I know we did!

After a very Love Actually airport reunion, Madre and I hit the Londontown running!  First, we headed to the London Visitor’s Hotel in Kensington to drop off Madre’s luggage; the LVH is a quaint little bed & breakfast style hotel with an extremely welcoming staff, but the best part is its close location to my flat in South Kensington!  From there, we walked through our ‘hood to my flat, stopping for a pub lunch at The Gloucester Arms and several Kodak moments — we soon realized that we were capturing Madre’s visit to London, my semester in London (flying solo makes getting pictures with yourself in them quite tricky), and our time together (again, only two makes it tricky, but we definitely capitalized on the kindness of strangers and waiters).  Next on the agenda, taking a very wise arrival activity cue from Madre’s The Unofficial Guide to London (the same trusted series we get all of our Walt Disney World advice from), was to purchase two 48-hour tickets for The Big Bus Company’s hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tour of London.  We caught one of the last buses and, thanks to the ridiculously early sunset at 4:30pm, Madre got to see all of the London sights for the first time in their twilight glory.  We hopped off at Marble Arch, the end of the route, and grabbed a spot o’ tea (like the real Brits) before embarking on Madre’s first ride through London on a red double-decker bus (“yes, those really are the public buses!”).  Then, the jet lag hit, so we made a quick change of route to South Kensington where we stopped for a delicious Italian meal at Il Falconiere (the first of many delicious, spot-hitting meals).  I grabbed sleepover supplies for the next two nights; we were met outside, after already being freezing, by rain and a black cab…magic moment!  We hopped in, headed ‘home’ to the LVH, and snuggled the night away–the one thing I missed about home most of all!

London Visitor’s Hotel

room 23

the view

FIE Foundation House

The Gloucester Arms

fish & chips

mail at Metrogate

Imperial College

Manson Place

“peeper’s house”

safari piglet

The Big Bus Company!

on board

<3

Trafalger Square

Big Ben & Big Head

London Eye & Big Head

Lion & Big Head

in awe

Tower Bridge

Marble Arch

Marble Arch

tea time!

first bus ride

first dinner: Il Falconiere

first black cab ride!

snuggle time!

Southbank Stroll

I decided to start my day by accompanying Avey to the Ed Ruscha exhibit at the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre…and I am definitely glad I did!  Ruscha is a famous American modern artist whose work explores the themes of language, religion, and American culture, specifically that of automobiles and Los Angeles.  Although I never heard of him, he is one of Avey’s favorite artists and I now know why.  The exhibit’s curation coupled with Ruscha’s talent for describing his own work allowed me to truly grasp and experience the art at first exposure.  It was interesting to think how we were experiencing American culture through art in London, epitomized in Avey buying a “I <3 LA” tote bag in the gift shop.  Several art books on American Culture were also on sale, including one on diners…

 

That’s when I remembered that we were in the same area as Marie’s Cafe, described in my Not For Tourists guide as “A greasy spoon diner” that also features great thai food…and for cheap!  Basically, it was the perfect marriage of the cuisines Avey and I each favor so we naturally headed over.  She satisfied her pad thai craving as I did with my chips & malt vinegar weakness.

Thumbs up to the name and the cheap, perfectly greasy doggy bag of chips!

Avey had to head to an appointment, but I decided to stay in the area and walk along the Thames.  Along the way I stumbled upon some great afternoon happenings.

Carousel & Mini Carnival

Street Performer

Skateboarding & Grafitti

Londinium Used Book Sale

Square

London Television Centre

Gallery at The Oxo Tower

38 Pieces of Jade Exhibit

Before I knew it I had walked from Embankment to Blackfriars on the south side, over the Blackfriars Bridge, and east to Westminster on the north.  These picturesque views kept me going:

Oh London……I love losing hours to you……

London Eye

Thanks to a sweet hook-up through FIE, I got to experience the London Eye for only £10!  I headed over after work on Thursday and was lucky enough to meet up with some other Manson Place residents–3 girls who live in another flat but go to Marist, so hang out in my flat a lot–which means I actually got to be IN photos!

Our “flight” began at 6:30pm, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  We got to experience sunset, seeing London by day on the way up and London by night on the way down.  I know there are a lot of photos of the same views, but I really wanted to document the temporal experience more than anything.

The Capsule

Flash…

…or no flash?

The Westminster Bridge

blurry no flash

not blurry, but not as magical

Bagpipes!

Afterward, I headed back home to the lovely sight of Julia Arena!  We were both on the Cushing house team last year and lived in the same hall.  She is studying in Copenhagen, Denmark but was in London all week with her program for a study tour.  She came over and out with us on Tuesday night, and instead of leaving on Thursday with everyone else from the program she stayed with me until Saturday morning.  It was great to have a true friend here with me, and we had a great time.  We had a true pub dinner Thursday night, cooked an exceptional stir-fry with king prawns and oyster sauce for Friday dinner, invested in Party Rings for dessert, and went out on the London town to Zoo Bar (Leicester Square) on Friday night, where Annie Black met us with two of her flatmates.  It was quite the reunion!  I was so sad to see her go so early on Saturday morning.  It might have been a little too great having her here, cause now not pales in comparison