The second part of our Grand European Adventure (GEA, as you'll recall) brought us to dear old London Town. We were all a bit beat from our 4.5 hour train ride from Edinburgh, so we dropped our stuff off at our hotel and took a rest. I had been raving about England's Indian food so I dragged C and A to the first Indian restaurant I had eaten in when I arrived in the UK: The Chambeli, not too far from our hotel. Though I was having pleasant flashbacks, C and A were not too impressed with their food, especially C, who didn't really want Indian food in the first place. So we let her decide what she wanted for dessert. We ended up with this:
Is that Strongbow and Krispie Kreme donuts? Yes. Did I have a stomach ache in the morning? Yes.
Well, we ended the night by watching Dane Cook stand-up comedy videos on C's netbook and laughed so hard we got a noise complaint and had to be yelled at by the manager of the hotel. Sheesh. Some people just don't know how to have a good time.
The next morning we enjoyed our hotel's complimentary breakfast before hopping on a tour bus to see some of London's most popular sights. Despite a bit of rain (typical), I had a great time showing off my neighbor city.
Our first stop off the bus tour was the Natural History Museum. Last time I went (in the spring), I went an hour before closing and only got to see the dinosaur section. This time we did the whole building. I spent most of my time taking lots of photos of taxidermic birds because I'm a bit of a weirdo like that. C and I clung to each other as we rushed our way through the insect room. We ended our visit there after being trapped like cattle on the upper walkway of the dinosaur room, surrounded by a hundred pushing, shouting children. I'll take velociraptor attacks over that any day, thank you.
Next up on the list: the Victoria and Albert Museum. We looked at a lot of beautiful artwork, my favorite being the front hall of statues. Can I have one of these in my house, please? Though we tried being all posh and whatnot, we couldn't help but act like kids when we found the most amazing and hilarious chairs in the universe. They spun around at crazy angles but somehow defied gravity and kept you from falling out. Much like the Segway of chairs.
After we stopped at a cute French cafe for drinks, and the cafe was so stylish I wanted my bedroom decorated like that place. I ordered a hot chocolate; they gave me a glass of steamed milk and a stick with a massive square of chocolate on the end. Some gentle stirring gave me hand-made hot chocolate minutes later. How fancy!
The night came to an amazing end when we scored some really nice tickets to see Chicago at the Garrick Theatre. Though I started off comparing the musical to the movie, and thinking the singers weren't as good, I soon got over that and was able to appreciate the enormous talent in front of me. The musical numbers were so much fun and full of energy. The accents were a riot. They sounded EXACTLY like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger. You can tell they modeled their American accents off of the actresses. The true highlight of the show, however, was a rather strapping young back-up dancer named Sergio who had, it was determined, abs that could only be created in Photoshop. There was much talk of Sergio the rest of the trip.
The next day we continued our bus tour to see all of the London sights. Yes, London is just THAT BIG that it takes multiple days of just riding around on a bus to see all the main attractions.
We stopped off in Notting Hill at a Princess Diana-themed, Turkish (I think) run cafe for some snacks before adventuring through Kensington Gardens. The Gardens were simply gorgeous, though a bit labyrinthine. It took us over an hour and at least four different maps to figure out where the famous Peter Pan statue was located. Finally we found it. (Fun fact: Apparently, the statue was erected in the middle of the night so children would think fairies put it there. Super cute!)
I took C and A to Camden Market for a delicious dinner of wraps. Sadly the Turkish place I wanted to go to was closed so C and I got Jamaican jerk chicken wraps while A plowed through a massive box of random Thai food. We shopped for a big and haggled with rude vendors. C and A walked away with shirts and necklaces while I scored a cute strapless dress perfect for upcoming garden parties.
And that, my friends, is how we ended our brief stay in London. The next morning arrived too quickly and we were whisked away to our next destination...the continent!
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