London 2011
Jun. 26th, 2011 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulOkay, I've been mentally planning this post for awhile now and I figured I better write it before we're not even in the same damn MONTH as the trip!!!! I'll try to keep it from getting too long, but I was there a week!
Tuesday/Wednesday:
Got to the airport nice and early, went through security with no problems. My friend had warned me that the UK was using Chip & Pin credit cards so in a moment of panic, I went to the currency place and not only got sound pounds but also one of the cards. (In the end, I shouldn't have bothered - London is too much of a tourist town to not take our old magnetic cards...plus I could never remember the damn PIN!) My flight left with no problems at all. Had a yummy chicken curry dinner on the plane and watched episodes 6 & 7 of 'Game of Thrones' on my iPhone, then passed out for a little while.
At the last minute, I managed to convince Perri, one of my bestest buds, to travel with me. She flew Virgin Atlantic and made it to Heathrow BEFORE me LOL! So she was waiting at the gate when I landed. We headed over to the hostel, Palmer's Lodge. This was my first hostel experience and, let me say, I do not think I'm cut out for hostel vacationing. I like my own space, even if it is just to sleep in. Had a little bit of a shock when we went into the room and found that it was twin-sized bunkbeds. And Perri & I had gotten a TOP bed. You can see how thrilled I am about this in the photo Perri took of me "settling in".
Even though we were running on fumes at this point, we decided we better keep moving so we didn't fall asleep! We wandered back out in to the city and ended up at St. Pancras station. Perri drooled over the Eurostar train for awhile, then we went outside and found an Irish pub for lunch. The food was okay, but the highlight of the meal was the little ol' Irishman sitting next to us. You could tell he was a regular by the amount of *eyeroll* he got from the young waitresses every time he ordered another Guiness. Perri got a Guiness with her meal and he took this as an opportunity to chat with us and tell us about all the great vitamins contained in Guiness beer and how pregnant women should be encouraged to drink it!
We ate our food (Perri got a Shepard's Pie, I went with an Irish burger) and then we realized we were right next to the British Library! We went inside and wandered around. It was being heavily used, lots of floors, though many of them were for special collections and studying so you couldn't just go walking. The "King's Collection" was in the middle of the building. We did manage to wander into the Science Fiction exhibit they had going on, though at this point, we were SO tired, we just sort of walked through and glanced at everything. It was pretty cool though. You forget that mankind has been fantasizing about going to space since before there were even rockets or cars or any technology that could make it seem possible.
At this point, we stumbled back to Palmer's Lodge (after getting ourselfs a week-long Oyster card for the Tube -- which means we bought a subway pass that would last us all week). I think it was only 6 or 7...but we were so tired. Perri was smart and brought along earplugs so we took quick shower (oh god, hostel showers, never again!) and passed OUT! We both woke up around 11pm because people were shuffling in and the bass beat from the bar below was thumping loud enough to penetrate our earplugs. Plus we were REALLY HUNGRY! Unfortunately, there were no places to eat at the lodge, but a little Deli was open down the street, so we walked down and got a yummy sub and a water and I picked up a Cadbury chocolate bar, which hit the spot. So then we passed back out again.
Thursday:
Our first mission of Day 2 was to find Jamie Oliver's FIFTEEN restaurant. Since we slept through our "continental breakfast", we decided to just start heading that way and enjoy a big lunch. We got there before the restaurant proper opened so the waitress sat us at the bar to wait. I got a delicious strawberry-lemonade (fresh squeezed on both accounts, I could see the strawberry seeds floating in my glass) which hit the spot on that warm day (I think it was in the low 80s?) Perri got a really yummy margarita which came with a sliver of chile pepper floating in it, giving it this great hint of spice.
We took advantage of the nice weather and our location and walked to the British Museum. Perri had her AAA guide which gave us a nice, quick tour route, hitting all the major ancient civilizations. Saw the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon etc.. Blew my mind that they now think that most of the Greek/Roman sculptures were painted back in the day! Trying to envision the Parthenon brightly colored is hard to wrap my brain around. But it makes sense!
Perri had told me we had to check out The London Eye. Last time I was in London, it was right after it had been built and the wind was giving it issues so we didn't get to go inside. We managed to navigate all the tube stations and find our way to the South London area. There was some kind of festival going on so there were lots of people around. We got tickets for the Eye (and discounted tickets to Madame Tussauds!) but decided we wanted to wait until the sun went down a bit before we got in line (not realizing that the sun doesn't set in England until 9:30pm in the summer!). We did a bit of people watching while I tried to make a headache go away. Eventually, we got up into the Eye, which was really cool. It was a sunny, clear day so the view was stunning. I had to LOL as we came back down and I saw this ad for the London Film Museum. EXTERMINATE! :)
Next up we did a bit of wandering. Perri thought it would be cool to see Picadilly Circus at night. I was totally up for it, getting a second wind. We started walking and talking and just enjoying the night...and then we realized that we had forgotten to actually TURN on the street we meant to turn on (this was the theme of the trip - TURN AROUND!). But it was such a lovely night that we didn't care so we turned around and began to meander back. Actually turned out well because we got to see this lovely view of Big Ben all lit up
We managed to walk all the way to Picadilly, spying lots of restaurants we wanted to check out later. We didn't realize it but we also ended up wandering through some of SOHO and the Theater district. Everything was bright and shiny. We realized how hungry we were and started to search for food. For some reason I can't remember where we stopped that night...I remember looking at a lot of windows, trying to find someplace we could pop in and get some food...but I'm blanking on what we finally went with haha. It was pretty late!
Friday:
After another night in the hostel, we decided we didn't want to stay there anymore, it wasn't our style. We began to ponder ideas for other adventures. BUT FIRST - THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!
I had bought tickets for this before I left because it was the one other thing I really really wanted to do while in London. Our tickets were for 12:30, so we woke up early and headed out towards the Olympia location, which was sort of on the outskirts of the city. We found a lovely little diner and grabbed some breakfast. I got a classic English breakfast because I LOVE THEM! If I could have them every day, I would because they are SO delicious!!!!! Except, because I'm an American, I got coffee instead of tea. But otherwise - classic.
We found the location of the DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE and I immediately started fangirling. I really did not know what to expect. The first 20 minutes is an interactive thing, where you walk into a room that is the Starship UK from The Beast Below episode, except one of the librarians from Silence in the Library is there and begins to talk to you about the Starship UK - but she is interruped by The Doctor on the big screen! He's managed to get himself locked in the Pandorica AGAIN (he's very upset about it, I <3 Matt). Anyway, he asks us to look for a blue box and THERE IS THE TARDIS IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM!!!!! The doors swing open and The Doctor tells us to GO INSIDE!! My little fangirl heart was like OMG!!! I think the only people more excited than me were the 3 9-year old boys who were dressed in their Doctor Who costumes. Maybe.
YES, I GOT TO FLY THE TARDIS! The Doctor led us through how to steer and the floor buckled and rocked and we watched the control panel glow. So cool. Then we evacuated the TARDIS and ran into the DALEKS! They tried to take us prisoner, but the old Daleks showed up and tried to destroy the NEW Daleks and while they were all "EXTERMINATE WE ARE THE MASTER RACE" we snuck out the other door. WHICH LED US INTO A REALLY DARK FOREST!!! I could see the shadows of Weeping Angels on the wall!!! AIEE!!
They gave us some 3D glasses and we went into another room and watch the Pandorica fly through space and all the monsters tried to "attack" us from the screen, but then the Doctor managed to fix it all and reclaim the TARDIS and we were let out into the more museum portion of the Experience. Still, it was awesome.
This is me right after - I'm GLOWING! I really liked the exhibit half of the Experience, which is sorta what I expected it to be the whole time so the interactive bit with Matt was just icing on an already delicious and moist cake. They had some props from the show, Tenant's TARDIS control room, K-9...
Then I started to get goofy because you can only have so many pictures of you posing next to an inanimate object:
Cybermen
Daleks
After that, it's all sort of a blur...
And since I was already having so much fun posing next to statues and replicas, we decided to head towards Madame Tussaud's and use our tickets we had purchased the day before. I swear, it was totally different than the last time I was there. I feel like they had tried to make it more interactive and themed. It was so much fun, even if it was really crowded.
After that, we walked back to Picadilly to find those yummy sushi restaraunts we had passed the night before. We went to TOKU, which was really nice.
About this time, we had the brilliant idea to run away to Cardiff. I mean, why not??? So we went back to the hostel, hopped on the computers, and booked a hotel and prepared our bags so we could head out in the morning.
Saturday
We checked out of Palmer's Lodge and headed to the train station. OH HOW I LOVE BRITISH RAIL! So easy to get around, even when you don't have a car. Love love love it. We were both pretty tired and we fell asleep on the train ride there. It was a bit delayed due to some vandalization the night before. But we arrived in Cardiff and found our hotel. YES HOTEL! WITH OUR OWN FULL SIZE BATH AND A TV AND OUR OWN BEDS!!!!!!! We dropped our stuff in the lobby because we couldn't check in yet, and went in search of lunch. We had some food at a little Welsh pub and slowly began to realize that there was a Rugby game that night (not that hard to figure out with all the guys in rugby shirts walking around...).
Let me just say that Cardiff is gorgeous. It started to rain a bit so we grabbed one of the hop-on-hop-off bus tours and got a nice quick history of the city. After that, we headed back to the hotel to officially check-in and then we each took turns enjoying a shower without paranoia. SO CLEAN! SO FRESH! Now these ladies can hit the town!
Because we are librarians, we had to visit the beautiful Cardiff library. The building is just 2 years old and it was so cool! I would love to work in a library like this. 5 floors of awesome. They have a GRAND PIANO!!!! Just...so cool.
And, I swear I did not plan this, but Jamie Oliver has a restaurant in Cardiff! How could we NOT eat there?? Jamie's Italian. Perri & I had some cosmos while we waited for a table to open up. The weather had cleared up so we managed to snag a table outside. Our super-nice hostess and waitress chatted with us. This was probably my favorite place that we ate. The service was great, the food was superb, and the people watching was great. There were several bacherlorette/pub crawl things going on, which I had never seen before so it took us awhile to figure out what was going on. But it was fine because we had yummy food and wine and each other to discuss it with haha.
We did a bit more wandering, taking an evening stroll through one of the big parks in the city. We did get yelled at by some drunk lady and then some creepy guy seemed like he was following us, but together we got out of those situations, laughed it off, and went back to our hotel to enjoy our beds!
Sunday
We took our bags downstairs and stored them in the lobby closet again and checked out of the hotel. Then we caught a train to St. Fagan's to take a tour of the National History Museum of Wales. We wandered this amazing collection of buildings for a couple hours and I know we didn't see everything there. The whole thing with the Museum is that they relocated historic buildings from all over the country and rebuilt them there to preserve them. So you've got Celtic villages next to 1950s PreFab units. Great way to spend an afternoon.
Then it was back on the train to London. Perri had used her mad searching skills and found us a hotel in London that wasn't too expensive but wasn't a hostel. The room might have been small, but at least it was just Perri & I. And the bathroom, though in the hallway, was private. And while the shower was in the room, at least it was just the two of us in the room. The location was perfect too - right near Paddington Station, which was the station that had the Heathrow Direct. We checked in, relaxed for a bit, then went to find food.
It was a rainy night and we weren't quite sure what was hitting at us. We walked down to Queensway, which had quite a collection of international eateries. Nothing was hitting at us. We walked into the mall to get out of the wet and to see if anything was open. (my mom had given me a mission to find her an Alfie Boe CD from HMV). We found the HMV but it was closed. What WAS open was a YO!SUSHI. MORE SUSHI - YES PLEASE! Perri and I made ourselves comfortable, got the all-you-can-eat plan and just grabbed everything off the belt. Oh I could have lived there. why are there no Yo!Sushi places in the US?????
Monday
Our hotel had a free breakfast and we managed to wake up for it this time! Had hardboiled eggs, toast, and cereal. Hit the spot.
I had to hit up Forbidden Planet after![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ragdoll told me of it's awesomeness. That store as HUGE. I bought many things. Perri can tell you I spent a lot of time doing my *thinking face* as I tried to pick which items I realy wanted and needed to get NOW. After I got the shopping out of my system, we wandered to Trafalgar Square. The big ugly Olympic Countdown clock was there. We decide we are not fans of the logo for 2012. We had some delicious Indian food for dinner, Perri helped me pick out some dishes I would like since I had never really eaten real Indian food before. I liked it and want to try it again, for sure!
We went to the tkts booth and got half-priced tickets to see BILLY ELLIOT that night. It was a really fun show! The songs weren't that memorable, but the dancing, OH THE DANCING!!!!!!!! My favorite was when young Billy imagines what adult Billy would be like and they do a bit of Swan Lake...which made me want to see Swan Lake also. Anyway, the little kid was a dancing FOOL. Amazing. Loved it.
We went back to the hotel but we were both hungry. It was too late though, most of the restaurants were closing up. But the nice man at the Italian restaurant took pity on us and let us order a pizza to go. We went to try to find beer but they didn't sell it after 11pm...but intsead I found KINDER EGGS! I always get Kinder Eggs anytime I'm overseas because they make me feel like a kid. (I lived in Italy when I was little and my parents bought them all the time, it's so sad we can't get them in the US). The pizza was delicous.
Tuesday
Last day in London - AND THE NIGHT OF THE PLAY!!!!!!
We tried to get tickets in the play lottery, but no dice. Perri said that was fine, she would amuse herself while I was at the show. Still *this close* darn!
Perri told me she had not been to Harrods. I was like "WHA??" because it's such a landmark to me. So we had to go there and wander. I know it's about the same as people coming to Maryland and visiting Arundel Mills...only Harrods is famous and has a CHOCOLATE BAR! Yeah, we had a giant ice cream sundae for lunch. We were on vacation. We did a bit of shopping, then headed back to the hotel. We managed to check into our flights using the WiFi. Then, for some reason, I had a craving for Greek food. There was a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant around the corner from the hotel. We went that way and I had a really delicious lamb kabob. *drools* Then I headed to the Wyndham Theatre to see MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!!!!!!!
The play was great. I didn't realize it, but they had set it in the 1980s so there were all these great bonus jokes because of that. David Tennant was fantastic! He spoke with his normal Scottish accent which I had not heard before - BUT I APPROVE! Catherine Tate seemed to have a cold or something because she has this cough that I could tell was driving her crazy. But she did a great job and they were an awesome Benedict and Beatrice. But moreover, the entire cast was wonderful! And there was another crazy American sitting in front of me in the theater haha. She was a Who fan, had also taken a quick trip to Cardiff. That just cracked me up.
It all ended perfectly.
Wednesday
Perri's flight was much earlier than mine but I was so tired and ready to go home, I just went with her to the airport and settled in until I could check-in for my flight. Managed to read most of 'Beauty Queens" while waiting around. Did a bit more people watching, had a hot dog for lunch then went to my flight, which left a bit late. But once we were up in the air, it all went well.lostacanthus had told me to watch Happy Endings so I put on my headset and marathoned a few episodes and loved it. Tried to sleep but could just not get comfortable enough. Landed back home and was greeted by Perri and simontrueheart at the airport. :)
Wonderful trip all around. I am so happy that Perri was crazy enough to hop on that plane and join me because a week alone in London would have been a LONG time. I don't know if I would have been brave enough to go to Cardiff by myself too. Definitely going to remember this one for a long time!
If you'd like to see all of my pictures from the trip - the set is on FLICKR here
Tuesday/Wednesday:
Got to the airport nice and early, went through security with no problems. My friend had warned me that the UK was using Chip & Pin credit cards so in a moment of panic, I went to the currency place and not only got sound pounds but also one of the cards. (In the end, I shouldn't have bothered - London is too much of a tourist town to not take our old magnetic cards...plus I could never remember the damn PIN!) My flight left with no problems at all. Had a yummy chicken curry dinner on the plane and watched episodes 6 & 7 of 'Game of Thrones' on my iPhone, then passed out for a little while.
At the last minute, I managed to convince Perri, one of my bestest buds, to travel with me. She flew Virgin Atlantic and made it to Heathrow BEFORE me LOL! So she was waiting at the gate when I landed. We headed over to the hostel, Palmer's Lodge. This was my first hostel experience and, let me say, I do not think I'm cut out for hostel vacationing. I like my own space, even if it is just to sleep in. Had a little bit of a shock when we went into the room and found that it was twin-sized bunkbeds. And Perri & I had gotten a TOP bed. You can see how thrilled I am about this in the photo Perri took of me "settling in".
Even though we were running on fumes at this point, we decided we better keep moving so we didn't fall asleep! We wandered back out in to the city and ended up at St. Pancras station. Perri drooled over the Eurostar train for awhile, then we went outside and found an Irish pub for lunch. The food was okay, but the highlight of the meal was the little ol' Irishman sitting next to us. You could tell he was a regular by the amount of *eyeroll* he got from the young waitresses every time he ordered another Guiness. Perri got a Guiness with her meal and he took this as an opportunity to chat with us and tell us about all the great vitamins contained in Guiness beer and how pregnant women should be encouraged to drink it!
We ate our food (Perri got a Shepard's Pie, I went with an Irish burger) and then we realized we were right next to the British Library! We went inside and wandered around. It was being heavily used, lots of floors, though many of them were for special collections and studying so you couldn't just go walking. The "King's Collection" was in the middle of the building. We did manage to wander into the Science Fiction exhibit they had going on, though at this point, we were SO tired, we just sort of walked through and glanced at everything. It was pretty cool though. You forget that mankind has been fantasizing about going to space since before there were even rockets or cars or any technology that could make it seem possible.
At this point, we stumbled back to Palmer's Lodge (after getting ourselfs a week-long Oyster card for the Tube -- which means we bought a subway pass that would last us all week). I think it was only 6 or 7...but we were so tired. Perri was smart and brought along earplugs so we took quick shower (oh god, hostel showers, never again!) and passed OUT! We both woke up around 11pm because people were shuffling in and the bass beat from the bar below was thumping loud enough to penetrate our earplugs. Plus we were REALLY HUNGRY! Unfortunately, there were no places to eat at the lodge, but a little Deli was open down the street, so we walked down and got a yummy sub and a water and I picked up a Cadbury chocolate bar, which hit the spot. So then we passed back out again.
Thursday:
Our first mission of Day 2 was to find Jamie Oliver's FIFTEEN restaurant. Since we slept through our "continental breakfast", we decided to just start heading that way and enjoy a big lunch. We got there before the restaurant proper opened so the waitress sat us at the bar to wait. I got a delicious strawberry-lemonade (fresh squeezed on both accounts, I could see the strawberry seeds floating in my glass) which hit the spot on that warm day (I think it was in the low 80s?) Perri got a really yummy margarita which came with a sliver of chile pepper floating in it, giving it this great hint of spice.
We took advantage of the nice weather and our location and walked to the British Museum. Perri had her AAA guide which gave us a nice, quick tour route, hitting all the major ancient civilizations. Saw the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon etc.. Blew my mind that they now think that most of the Greek/Roman sculptures were painted back in the day! Trying to envision the Parthenon brightly colored is hard to wrap my brain around. But it makes sense!
Perri had told me we had to check out The London Eye. Last time I was in London, it was right after it had been built and the wind was giving it issues so we didn't get to go inside. We managed to navigate all the tube stations and find our way to the South London area. There was some kind of festival going on so there were lots of people around. We got tickets for the Eye (and discounted tickets to Madame Tussauds!) but decided we wanted to wait until the sun went down a bit before we got in line (not realizing that the sun doesn't set in England until 9:30pm in the summer!). We did a bit of people watching while I tried to make a headache go away. Eventually, we got up into the Eye, which was really cool. It was a sunny, clear day so the view was stunning. I had to LOL as we came back down and I saw this ad for the London Film Museum. EXTERMINATE! :)
Next up we did a bit of wandering. Perri thought it would be cool to see Picadilly Circus at night. I was totally up for it, getting a second wind. We started walking and talking and just enjoying the night...and then we realized that we had forgotten to actually TURN on the street we meant to turn on (this was the theme of the trip - TURN AROUND!). But it was such a lovely night that we didn't care so we turned around and began to meander back. Actually turned out well because we got to see this lovely view of Big Ben all lit up
We managed to walk all the way to Picadilly, spying lots of restaurants we wanted to check out later. We didn't realize it but we also ended up wandering through some of SOHO and the Theater district. Everything was bright and shiny. We realized how hungry we were and started to search for food. For some reason I can't remember where we stopped that night...I remember looking at a lot of windows, trying to find someplace we could pop in and get some food...but I'm blanking on what we finally went with haha. It was pretty late!
Friday:
After another night in the hostel, we decided we didn't want to stay there anymore, it wasn't our style. We began to ponder ideas for other adventures. BUT FIRST - THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!
I had bought tickets for this before I left because it was the one other thing I really really wanted to do while in London. Our tickets were for 12:30, so we woke up early and headed out towards the Olympia location, which was sort of on the outskirts of the city. We found a lovely little diner and grabbed some breakfast. I got a classic English breakfast because I LOVE THEM! If I could have them every day, I would because they are SO delicious!!!!! Except, because I'm an American, I got coffee instead of tea. But otherwise - classic.
We found the location of the DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE and I immediately started fangirling. I really did not know what to expect. The first 20 minutes is an interactive thing, where you walk into a room that is the Starship UK from The Beast Below episode, except one of the librarians from Silence in the Library is there and begins to talk to you about the Starship UK - but she is interruped by The Doctor on the big screen! He's managed to get himself locked in the Pandorica AGAIN (he's very upset about it, I <3 Matt). Anyway, he asks us to look for a blue box and THERE IS THE TARDIS IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM!!!!! The doors swing open and The Doctor tells us to GO INSIDE!! My little fangirl heart was like OMG!!! I think the only people more excited than me were the 3 9-year old boys who were dressed in their Doctor Who costumes. Maybe.
YES, I GOT TO FLY THE TARDIS! The Doctor led us through how to steer and the floor buckled and rocked and we watched the control panel glow. So cool. Then we evacuated the TARDIS and ran into the DALEKS! They tried to take us prisoner, but the old Daleks showed up and tried to destroy the NEW Daleks and while they were all "EXTERMINATE WE ARE THE MASTER RACE" we snuck out the other door. WHICH LED US INTO A REALLY DARK FOREST!!! I could see the shadows of Weeping Angels on the wall!!! AIEE!!
They gave us some 3D glasses and we went into another room and watch the Pandorica fly through space and all the monsters tried to "attack" us from the screen, but then the Doctor managed to fix it all and reclaim the TARDIS and we were let out into the more museum portion of the Experience. Still, it was awesome.
This is me right after - I'm GLOWING! I really liked the exhibit half of the Experience, which is sorta what I expected it to be the whole time so the interactive bit with Matt was just icing on an already delicious and moist cake. They had some props from the show, Tenant's TARDIS control room, K-9...
Then I started to get goofy because you can only have so many pictures of you posing next to an inanimate object:
Cybermen
Daleks
After that, it's all sort of a blur...
And since I was already having so much fun posing next to statues and replicas, we decided to head towards Madame Tussaud's and use our tickets we had purchased the day before. I swear, it was totally different than the last time I was there. I feel like they had tried to make it more interactive and themed. It was so much fun, even if it was really crowded.
After that, we walked back to Picadilly to find those yummy sushi restaraunts we had passed the night before. We went to TOKU, which was really nice.
About this time, we had the brilliant idea to run away to Cardiff. I mean, why not??? So we went back to the hostel, hopped on the computers, and booked a hotel and prepared our bags so we could head out in the morning.
Saturday
We checked out of Palmer's Lodge and headed to the train station. OH HOW I LOVE BRITISH RAIL! So easy to get around, even when you don't have a car. Love love love it. We were both pretty tired and we fell asleep on the train ride there. It was a bit delayed due to some vandalization the night before. But we arrived in Cardiff and found our hotel. YES HOTEL! WITH OUR OWN FULL SIZE BATH AND A TV AND OUR OWN BEDS!!!!!!! We dropped our stuff in the lobby because we couldn't check in yet, and went in search of lunch. We had some food at a little Welsh pub and slowly began to realize that there was a Rugby game that night (not that hard to figure out with all the guys in rugby shirts walking around...).
Let me just say that Cardiff is gorgeous. It started to rain a bit so we grabbed one of the hop-on-hop-off bus tours and got a nice quick history of the city. After that, we headed back to the hotel to officially check-in and then we each took turns enjoying a shower without paranoia. SO CLEAN! SO FRESH! Now these ladies can hit the town!
Because we are librarians, we had to visit the beautiful Cardiff library. The building is just 2 years old and it was so cool! I would love to work in a library like this. 5 floors of awesome. They have a GRAND PIANO!!!! Just...so cool.
And, I swear I did not plan this, but Jamie Oliver has a restaurant in Cardiff! How could we NOT eat there?? Jamie's Italian. Perri & I had some cosmos while we waited for a table to open up. The weather had cleared up so we managed to snag a table outside. Our super-nice hostess and waitress chatted with us. This was probably my favorite place that we ate. The service was great, the food was superb, and the people watching was great. There were several bacherlorette/pub crawl things going on, which I had never seen before so it took us awhile to figure out what was going on. But it was fine because we had yummy food and wine and each other to discuss it with haha.
We did a bit more wandering, taking an evening stroll through one of the big parks in the city. We did get yelled at by some drunk lady and then some creepy guy seemed like he was following us, but together we got out of those situations, laughed it off, and went back to our hotel to enjoy our beds!
Sunday
We took our bags downstairs and stored them in the lobby closet again and checked out of the hotel. Then we caught a train to St. Fagan's to take a tour of the National History Museum of Wales. We wandered this amazing collection of buildings for a couple hours and I know we didn't see everything there. The whole thing with the Museum is that they relocated historic buildings from all over the country and rebuilt them there to preserve them. So you've got Celtic villages next to 1950s PreFab units. Great way to spend an afternoon.
Then it was back on the train to London. Perri had used her mad searching skills and found us a hotel in London that wasn't too expensive but wasn't a hostel. The room might have been small, but at least it was just Perri & I. And the bathroom, though in the hallway, was private. And while the shower was in the room, at least it was just the two of us in the room. The location was perfect too - right near Paddington Station, which was the station that had the Heathrow Direct. We checked in, relaxed for a bit, then went to find food.
It was a rainy night and we weren't quite sure what was hitting at us. We walked down to Queensway, which had quite a collection of international eateries. Nothing was hitting at us. We walked into the mall to get out of the wet and to see if anything was open. (my mom had given me a mission to find her an Alfie Boe CD from HMV). We found the HMV but it was closed. What WAS open was a YO!SUSHI. MORE SUSHI - YES PLEASE! Perri and I made ourselves comfortable, got the all-you-can-eat plan and just grabbed everything off the belt. Oh I could have lived there. why are there no Yo!Sushi places in the US?????
Monday
Our hotel had a free breakfast and we managed to wake up for it this time! Had hardboiled eggs, toast, and cereal. Hit the spot.
I had to hit up Forbidden Planet after
ragdoll told me of it's awesomeness. That store as HUGE. I bought many things. Perri can tell you I spent a lot of time doing my *thinking face* as I tried to pick which items I realy wanted and needed to get NOW. After I got the shopping out of my system, we wandered to Trafalgar Square. The big ugly Olympic Countdown clock was there. We decide we are not fans of the logo for 2012. We had some delicious Indian food for dinner, Perri helped me pick out some dishes I would like since I had never really eaten real Indian food before. I liked it and want to try it again, for sure! We went to the tkts booth and got half-priced tickets to see BILLY ELLIOT that night. It was a really fun show! The songs weren't that memorable, but the dancing, OH THE DANCING!!!!!!!! My favorite was when young Billy imagines what adult Billy would be like and they do a bit of Swan Lake...which made me want to see Swan Lake also. Anyway, the little kid was a dancing FOOL. Amazing. Loved it.
We went back to the hotel but we were both hungry. It was too late though, most of the restaurants were closing up. But the nice man at the Italian restaurant took pity on us and let us order a pizza to go. We went to try to find beer but they didn't sell it after 11pm...but intsead I found KINDER EGGS! I always get Kinder Eggs anytime I'm overseas because they make me feel like a kid. (I lived in Italy when I was little and my parents bought them all the time, it's so sad we can't get them in the US). The pizza was delicous.
Tuesday
Last day in London - AND THE NIGHT OF THE PLAY!!!!!!
We tried to get tickets in the play lottery, but no dice. Perri said that was fine, she would amuse herself while I was at the show. Still *this close* darn!
Perri told me she had not been to Harrods. I was like "WHA??" because it's such a landmark to me. So we had to go there and wander. I know it's about the same as people coming to Maryland and visiting Arundel Mills...only Harrods is famous and has a CHOCOLATE BAR! Yeah, we had a giant ice cream sundae for lunch. We were on vacation. We did a bit of shopping, then headed back to the hotel. We managed to check into our flights using the WiFi. Then, for some reason, I had a craving for Greek food. There was a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant around the corner from the hotel. We went that way and I had a really delicious lamb kabob. *drools* Then I headed to the Wyndham Theatre to see MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!!!!!!!
The play was great. I didn't realize it, but they had set it in the 1980s so there were all these great bonus jokes because of that. David Tennant was fantastic! He spoke with his normal Scottish accent which I had not heard before - BUT I APPROVE! Catherine Tate seemed to have a cold or something because she has this cough that I could tell was driving her crazy. But she did a great job and they were an awesome Benedict and Beatrice. But moreover, the entire cast was wonderful! And there was another crazy American sitting in front of me in the theater haha. She was a Who fan, had also taken a quick trip to Cardiff. That just cracked me up.
It all ended perfectly.
Wednesday
Perri's flight was much earlier than mine but I was so tired and ready to go home, I just went with her to the airport and settled in until I could check-in for my flight. Managed to read most of 'Beauty Queens" while waiting around. Did a bit more people watching, had a hot dog for lunch then went to my flight, which left a bit late. But once we were up in the air, it all went well.
lostacanthus had told me to watch Happy Endings so I put on my headset and marathoned a few episodes and loved it. Tried to sleep but could just not get comfortable enough. Landed back home and was greeted by Perri and simontrueheart at the airport. :) Wonderful trip all around. I am so happy that Perri was crazy enough to hop on that plane and join me because a week alone in London would have been a LONG time. I don't know if I would have been brave enough to go to Cardiff by myself too. Definitely going to remember this one for a long time!
If you'd like to see all of my pictures from the trip - the set is on FLICKR here
