The first couple days in London...lots of cool buses and red phone booths...

For my winter break, I flew to London with 6 other TASIS teachers. Hayley's boyfriend lives in St.John's Wood, Allie's friends from home live in Sloane Square and then the other girls decided to go for the break. I went to meet my friend Kelly from home! It was nice because I traveled over there with the TASIS girls and then met Kelly at our hotel. We both arrived in different airports at around the same time and we were hoping to get to the hotel around the same time. It was perfect, right as I was checking in Kelly walked in the door, looking refreshed and not as if she had just flown for 15 hours. We freshened up and went out right away to meet my friends at the O Bar in Soho. That night we decided to for go the tube and took a taxi. Plus Kelly needed to have her first ride in the taxi, we promised it would be our only expensive taxi ride. It was an adventure already when the driver was trying to fit down small one way roads, because of a construction detour. I felt like I was still in Italy! We had a nice night and it was fun having Kelly meet the other teachers, that way she knows what I am talking about when we are skyping. The next day, we attempted to still get up at a reasonable time even though we were out until about 130am. At the Hilton, we had a great breakfast included, which I enjoyed especially! Saturday we tackled the city, visiting every possible neighborhood. Our first tube experience was with a pigeon. It decided to snuggle into the same car we were on. Luckily, it flew the coop before it started moving. I was getting a bit nervous the nasty flying rat was going to be flying around the car once it started moving. We started in Notting Hill at the Portobello Market. This is definitely one of my favorite neighborhoods and pastime. I love soaking up all the sights, the cute little shops, the bands performing on the side of the street and the hustle and bustle of market workers. The quaint neighborhood streets are so appealing and of course we found the shopping area. From Notting Hill we walked south through Hyde Park to reach Kensington and Knightsbridge. Kelly had to experience the ritzy neighborhoods and see Harrod's. Again we were mesmerized by the selection in the food halls, but we decide to stay out of the meat and fish section. After perusing the neighboring streets we took the tube up to the Leicester Square area. Even though I've been to London a few times before, I never really needed to navigate on my own since I've been with people who know London well. This time we were on our own and I was surprised how easy it was to figure out when everything is in English, unlike what I am used to. We didn't get lost once! We found a comfortable looking pub and experienced our first meal of fish and chips. I also had to order my favorite pub drink, a snakebite (half cider and half lager beer with a splash of blackcurrant cordial or creme de cassis). From Leicester Square we walked through Piccadilly and then through Covent Garden (a favorite of mine). I love London because of the liveliness, lots of people watching street performers and crowded pubs. There is always something to do, something to see, and definitely something to buy. Before going home, we walked along Oxford Street. This busy area is always a site to see! After a lot of walking and talking, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a night out. We decided to go to a Wagamamas because I knew it was good from eating there before and a taste different than italian was calling my name. Kelly was flexible and was most interested in a fun environment. From dinner we took our home away from home, the tube, where we encountered "the tube tease" or so we called him. After dinner we tried to go a "club" called the Notting Hill Gate Arts Club where they had live music, but the line and assumed age of most of the clientele didn't look too appeasing. Instead we found a pub nearby to enjoy a few drinks, catch up and meet some locals, or so we thought. Rather than meeting English blokes we chatted with these two Australian guys, one a musician and the other claimed he makes documentaries for the BBC. We hung out with them a bit and then stopped in at a club in nearby Kensington. They were interesting to talk to, but when we found out one of their credit cards was denied and they didn't seem to have another way to pay...we graciously left to return home. On Sunday we were planning on spending the day seeing the sights of London...like the famous sights, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben...it was a busy day!