After an incredibly busy end to 2011, I jetted off to Chicago to spend the Christmas & New Year holidays with my family. However, this is not what this post is about. After spending 3 weeks in the good ol' American midwest (okay, just Chicago & Milwaukee, but midwest nonetheless), I got on a plane and headed across the pond to good ol' England. I am a self professed Anglophile. I love the UK, I love Britain, I love London. My heart breaks a bit every time I hear about Brits trying to move to America. I understand visiting America, but living here I really don't understand. It's flabbergasting. It's just wrong. It's against everything I'm trying to do (which is leave America & settle down somewhere in the English countryside with a train station I can easily access London with....), but that's another rant all together I should just save for another post. Let me refocus here and keep writing about my holiday in London...
London is my refuge. Whenever I need to refocus, London calls & I answer. It's the place I go whenever life gets carried away & I get carried away along with it. Admittedly, this can happen easily whilst in London, but I revel in all its madness. In fact, the mad rush for the tube during rush hour, the congested Saturday morning markets (whether it be Borough, Portobello, Camden, Brick Lane, Spitalfields, etc..), the slightly worrying sights around SoHo on weekend evenings... I love it all, it calms me all. I suppose every one has that place you dream you want to be, a place where you feel like you're meant to be there. For some it's the hustle and bustle of NYC, for some it's the water, sand, & food offerings of Hawaii, for some it's Paris- the City of Lights, for some its Tuscany, for some it's Italy's food paradise- Emilia Romagna, for some it's the exotic sights in Bangkok, Bali, Delhi, Morocco, etc... In my case, it's London. I don't know if I can ever fully explain why, but this post from last year might shed some light of the significance of London in my life. Anyway, I don't want to bore you to tears explaining why, when I've got pictures to share, because that was meant to be the point of this post. The next post will probably more of a love letter to the big smoke (aka London).
So, I've gone through about 3 drafts of trying to figure out how to post the pictures I took while in London. Each attempt ended with me frustrated, zoning out, & going over to YouTube for a break and well... never coming back here to finish what I started. In desperation to get these posts done, I've decided that in order to get anywhere in terms of posting, I ought to just randomize my instagram pics & just explain each picture. Keep in mind that this is just part one of what will probably be a three part series of me talking about my time spent in London.
So starting from the top left:
- My hotel room. It was small, but clean & modern. It advertised as being in Notting Hill, but in reality its in Bayswater. That said, a quick jaunt two blocks one direction & you're officially in Notting Hill, so not too much of a stretch on its claim. I will review this hotel on a later post.
- Bayswater Tube Station- the closest tube from my hotel room, about a 5 minute walk.
- The view from my hotel room. I was on the 4th floor (5th if you're American).
- The delightful pavlova from Bill's, a quiet respite from the madness of Covent Garden.
- More of Bill's. Because I really just couldn't get enough.
- Trafalgar Square, after visiting the National Gallery... which I visited 3 times this visit.
- Just a walk somewhere between Leicester Square & Covent Garden.
- More of that walk...
- A walk through Notting Hill's white stucco'd neighbourhoods... daydreaming I lived in them.
- Tube station- I can't be sure but I believe this is Notting Hill Gate towards the Central Line.
- View whilst walking along the Golden Jubilee Bridges (adjacent/attached to Hungerford Bridge).
- Sitting & freezing by the London Eye, whilst having a deep convo w/ a friend over hot cocoa.
- Ghost the Musical- I was skeptical watching this, but I couldn't miss the original cast's last night together. I love me an original cast & being able to boast to you got to see their performance.
- Me in my hotel room, marvelling at the sheer beauty of this meringue. I love meringues, they're actually one of the first types of dessert I taught myself to make. This one's from borough market.
- Not having an appetite for the first few days of my holiday, this bowl of paella was my first proper meal in London. It did not disappoint. From borough market as well.
- Looking up. Really it is me looking up while eating paella & seeing Southwark Cathedral.
- JET LAGGED. Enough said.
- Paddington Tube Station from where I stand... waiting for the incredibly slow Circle Line.
- Walking in the dark... drunk... in SoHo. Enough Said.
- More of my local tube station, Bayswater.
- London in a fantastic blur... which really sums up my holiday.
So there is much more to come after this post... because I have not even begun to express my love for London. Did I mention that I love London. What? I have? Oops. Well I do. I really do.
