… Oops

Lesson learned: I’m not cut out to be a blogger. I tried, really. And there are stories I want to share and photos I want to show… I just have a tendency to get super caught up in what I’m doing (my parents can attest to that, judging from the lack of phone calls they received freshman year) and forget about things like, well, updating a blog. Unfortunate, because this would have been a great way to track everything.

Ah, well. Can’t change the past. And there’s really not much of a future left in London (I leave here a week from Saturday, crazy!), but it’s a start.

I haven’t written since before Spain… that was over 2 months ago. Since then I’ve started (and almost finished, now!) working at Premier PR, traveled, had loads of visitors, attended a film premier and fallen in love with London.

So, here’s a snippet of photos from the past two months – the highlights, with my apologies to the people who actually do check the blog (like Riki!)… maybe one day the backlog of entries will come in full (back-dated, which I know is cheating, but it would bother me otherwise!), we’ll see.

All of the girls in a boat the we found on the beach in Marbella.

The best lunch we had in Spain – paella and sangria on a mountaintop overlooking the hills and the ocean.

Izzy and I were 80′s workout girls for Purim.

Borlack came to visit!

As did ABear and Geoffers (now engaged!!)

We took a trip to the Ice Bar (everything inside is made of ice… you’re in for 45 minutes, and they give you those snazzy coats, too! Try the Sea Cow, tasted a bit like Fun Dip / childhood, haha.)

Visited Bath and Avebury (Bath was adorable, Avebury – where El and I are above – was a whole lot of rocks. And mud. Not exactly thrilled to be there).

Took a trip to Greenwich and crossed the GMT line… twice (this one, when it wasn’t raining, and another, less attractive, picture when it was wet) and explored the town and market.

Hosted our own 12-person, 11-bottle seder (with major thanks to Iz and Ellie, and Alana for leading!)… such a fun night and a great way to get together and celebrate the holiday away from home!

Spent a weekend in Amsterdam – saw the sights, met some people, took a nap, got rained on, and ate… a lot.

Which actually brings us almost to now. Shira visited last weekend, some pictures to come from that. It’s my second to last day of work, this is my last weekend in London, and a week from Saturday I embark on a 2+ week odyssey to Italy, Spain and Portugal. Eek!

Finally booked: Malaga!

After spending way too much time deliberating, we finally booked our spring (errr… February) break trip to Malaga! We were originally going to Barcelona, but it was way too expensive… but Malaga looks gorgeous.

It’s in Andalusia on the Costa del Sol (sunshine? perfect!) and looks to have tons of cute, winding streets to explore with lots of places for us to sit out and eat Spanish food and drink sangria. Plus, it’s the birthplace of Pablo Picasso and Antonio Banderas.

We’ll be (according to the hostel website) 20 meters from the beach and walking distance from the center of the city… temperatures in the 60s, fun Spanish people…. sounds. perfect.

Sunshine and palm trees and happiness. Via.

Adorable streets via. So pleased.

New theatre love: Billy Elliot

The BU programme has tons of discounted tickets to different theatre and activities around London, so tonight Allison and I saw Billy Elliot in 60 pound seats for… 16 pounds. Not too shabby.

The show was great! Lots of fun music, impressive dancing, and a good storyline. Sad thing, though: they don’t give out Playbills at shows like they do in the States… there was no way for me to pick my future husband in the cast or to figure out which actor had been in the most Law and Orders. I still enjoyed myself, though!

Here’s a clip of one of my favorite/most fun scenes from the show (not the best quality, but oh well!):

I was also a big fan of this one:

… And afterwards we headed into Tesco for some snacks. In our theatre garb. Allison in a full-on mink coat. It’ll suffice to say we got a few interesting looks.

Magical mystery tour

We ventured out in the cold yesterday to go on the Magical Mystery Tour – Beatles walking tour of London… which would have been significantly more awesome had it not been freezing!

It was still pretty cool, though. We saw MPL (Paul McCartney’s London offices), the studio they recorded “Hey Jude” in, where John met Yoko, the site of their last live show, the Palladium where Beatlemania “officially” began, and ended at Abbey Road… which is a surprisingly busy area! It’s kind of like a fun game of chicken between cars trying to go on their normal routes and tourists (ourselves included) trying to take the classic Abbey Road picture. Pretty entertaining, for sure.

Graffiti on the wall of Abbey Road.

Crossing Abbey Road.

Also, though, we saw the most ridiculous thing on Savile Row – an around the block line for the opening of Abercrombie and Fitch. As in the store I haven’t been to since… the 7th grade. But apparently it’s still really popular here, very strange!

“Can I just get some pubfare, please?”

Eleanor and I had a magical day of wandering London! We made our way to Borough Market this afternoon and spent a couple of hours perusing all of the different foods – delicious (and cheap!) plums, different jams and oils, lots of fish and tons of people. We sampled lots of cheeses and olive oils, ate pot de creme and bought fruit. It all just looked so good.

Sweets!

We wandered up to the London Bridge (not falling down, looks pretty solidly built!) and walked across it when the sun was starting to set – and had the prettiest view of the Thames and the Tower bridge!

El and I on the London Bridge… thanks to the tripod man without gloves!

We explored the area for quite awhile, part to learn about it (we saw the oldest church in London, the Tower of London, and some pretty entertaining pubs – like The Hung, Drawn and Quartered. Really) but mostly looking for “pubfare” to eat. We found a little pub near the Tower of London that had fish and chips for less than 6 pounds and settled in there.

Very British. Very greasy. Very good.

We walked over Tower Bridge and then headed on our merry way home (after a stressful experience with the Tube – they randomly close stations and lines without warning! Not helpful.)… but check out the pretty bridge!

My favorite cafe

I’ve always wanted to be a regular at some cute little cafe – and I think I’ve finally found it! It’s called Caffe Forum and it’s right by the Gloucester Road Tube stop… also conveniently on my way to class in the morning!

The coffee’s good, hot, and – if you go before 11 am – comes with a free croissant! Perfect for break during my 4 hour long classes. Although there are definitely some differences between coffee in the States and in London – like the fact that they look at you funny if you order just black coffee (as opposed to white coffee – with milk) and ordering “iced coffee” apparently means some sort of coffee milkshake.

But the atmosphere’s good and the food’s great, too – like this delicious panini… tomato, mozzarella and basil, yum!

48 hours in Paris

My entire body hurts, I’ve slept 8 hours in the past 3 days, I won’t be able to eat cheese for at least a week… and I am so pleased. Paris was wonderful! We saw so much in such a little time – we ate, we explored, we made friends, mastered the Metro and walked up so many stairs. Amazing city.

Instead of recapping the entire weekend (which would actually take ages because we did SO much), here’s a little list of things I discovered in Paris:

1. The little, winding side streets are where you should spend a lot of time. You’ll find Beauty and the Beast-style bookshops (like La Libraire Canadienne – with a nice Canadian owner who chatted with us and gave us coffee!), little art shops and the best food.

2. There’s a free walking tour of Paris, done by Sandemans, that gives you a great overview of the city! We spent 4.5 hours walking all around Paris, hitting up the most important sites – Place St Michel, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Tuileries, Pont Neuf, some scattered statues, the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees. Plus loads of fun facts!

Inside of Notre Dame

3. All of the restaurants/sit-down cafes have outdoor seating under overhangs with heat lamps during the winter so you can eat outside! We had a 3-hour Parisian-style lunch with good food and wine at a restaurant in Montmarte, so great!

4. On Fridays after 6 you can get into the Louvre for free if you’re 19-26 and an EU resident/visa holder! We saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, moat, crown jewels… but beware: it’s very hard to find your way out! We got super lost trying to leave. (With your visa you can also get up into the towers of Notre Dame for free).

5. The best food you’ll eat will likely come from a street vendor… like the amazing crepe (banana and Nutella) I had on Friday.

6. Couples will come to Paris, put their initials on a lock, chain it to a bridge and throw the key into the Seine. Adorable, right? Except that the French government clears them all out every 3-4 months.

7. Finding the right hostel does make a difference. We stayed at St. Christopher’s and it was great – free breakfast, safe storage, clean rooms – and a bar that was perfect for meeting fellow travelers.

8. Montmarte is exactly what I pictured as classic Paris. Winding, hilly streets, tons of cute little shops, food markets, side streets… definitely a place to check out!

9. The Metro is actually very user-friendly… except for the fact that the doors don’t open automatically. You have to flip something up to make it open (surprising!)… and the French will start to open the doors before the train has stopped.

1o. Watch the sun rise from Sacre Coeur. We did it on a whim (something having to do with staying out all night and wanting to see something pretty before we left!) and it was beautiful… we didn’t quite get the whole sunrise in (had to leave to make our train), but it was worth it.

Sunshine!

Today was the second day I’ve seen the sun since getting to London. And while I love the city, it does look particularly drab in gray (although that’s not surprising), so it was super exciting to get out of class today and see the sun! A group of us ventured out to the Westminster area to see some of the classic London sights in the sun! We hit up Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye… and then made our way back to Harrods. Wonderful way to spend the afternoon and to kick off the weekend.

Birthday dinner for Alana tonight and then off to Paris tomorrow, can’t wait!

Cupcakes and art

Because my PR class was canceled today (in order to give us class time on the contingency day for our trip to CADBURY WORLD!), we got a little taste of the weekend in the middle of the week. After a relaxing morning, Eleanor, Allison and I headed over to the Hummingbird Bakery near the South Kensington tube stop (also conveniently located so close to another Ben’s Cookies!) for cupcakes. Literally the best red velvet cupcake I’ve ever had, yum!

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Victoria & Albert Museum, which was wonderful. I love that nearly all the museums in London are free… perfect for a college student like me! There was a great fashion exhibit and some amazing photographs, plus loads of cool statues and paintings… and some huge artifacts that looked incredibly impressive, until we realized they were plaster casts! Disappointing, even though I’m sure the real ones are amazing. There was a beautiful courtyard with lots of lit-up water spouts, very pretty… but also very cold!

I’m getting the feeling I’ll be spending quite a lot of time at museums this semester… my grandmother will be proud!

Morning at the museum

Having class in the afternoon is making me super productive! Before class today, Eleanor and I hit up the Natural History Museum (conveniently located 3 blocks away from our flat). Giving ourselves about 2 hours of exploring time before class, we went into the Red Zone – where all the Earth stuff is. We learned about natural disasters, energy consumption, the Solar System and… jewels! So many pretty things!

Escalator into the center of the Earth!

Something pretty, yellow and natural. Wooh!