sogno: Londonizing, November 2013

This comes sort of late, once again, but I nevertheless would like to share a tiny bit of my super-short London trip last November, after I stumbled across the pictures when cleaning up my hard drive. If all goes well I’m off to Prague tomorrow morning, but I’m still not feeling that great…

I took a plane to Gatwick, Saturday morning, and was going to meet up with a friend for lunch, but unfortunately she was ill. So I decided to visit the Portobello Road Market instead, took the Tube from Victoria, but since it was insanely crowded, the weather really nice (I remember that Munich had been dark grey, slightly raining that morning, London was sunny, as most of the times when I was there) and I had nothing to do, I got off at South Kensington and took a long walk via the Natural History Museum, Kensington Gardens, the Palace (didn’t see Baby George, though), finally to Notting Hill, Portobello Road and Portobello Road Market. I had wanted to visit the market for a loooong time, but somehow it had never worked out, until finally last November. The market is really nice and full of cool people, but on the other hand it is also generally full of people, in the afternoon, so keep this in mind, if you’re aiming for a quiet Saturday afternoon. I was not, so I quite enjoyed walking down the market, and just looking at the different stalls, different people, all the lovely, colourful houses, and the whole neighbourhood. And had a waffle. Then walked back to Victoria station through Notting Hill, Hyde Park, Knightsbridge to Victoria Station, which took longer than planned, but I just love walking so much, when I’m abroad, visiting a city. Moreover sunset at Kensington Palace was just amazing. I picked up my luggage and went to my hotel, Travelodge Liverpool Street, which is very close to Liverpool Street Station, and a great basis to explore East London, and to get to Stansted. The hotel is the usual travelodge, all you need, nothing more, and it seems to be newly refurbished.

The evening I spent with another friend, who took me to the Seven Stars Pub, where I met Tom Paine, the Pub Cat. Absolutely recommend this place if you’re looking for a true pub experience. It’s in Holborn, right in the heart of the legal district of London, decorated with “lawyerish” stuff (but in a cool way, trust me!), and Tom is wearing a traditional judge’s collar (google for Tom Paine, pub cat, unfortunately he had gone to bed by the time I decided to take a picture). The food is very traditional English pub food, not the burger stuff, so maybe not the best place for vegetarians, but I’m not a meat enthusiast myself, and still had a great time there. Afterwards we walked around the Inns of Court, which felt a little enchanted at night, and along the Thames to the parliament.

The next day I met up with two other friends (basically 50% of my friends from the first year abroad live in/around London….) and we had breakfast at l’Eto Caffe in Soho. There are apparently more of it in London, and it seems to be quite popular, was packed with people, luckily my friends had made a reservation. They offer tons of lovely tarts, and I had the most delicious apple pancakes, ever. Afterwards we looked around some stores (my first other stories in store visit!) and then I already had to head off to Heathrow to get my plane to Edinburgh. Looking back I must say that (apart from generelly spending time in that amazing city which is so close to my heart) I feel mostly blessed by the fact that there were still people there for me, even after all those years. That we still have so much to talk about, I really miss them…