My parents told me last year that they'd like to give me "an adventure" for graduation, but being that I peaced out pretty much immediately for an internship in Boston, there was no time for planning a roadtrip or cruise with my friends. So I finally decided to cash it in. With the generous purchase of the plane ticket by Mum & Dad, I spent a blissful week of museums, parks and gourmet cupcakes in London with Beth & Marie.
The week was dedicated entirely to fun, as the girls were taking a break from all their hard work on dissertations. It was a mix of revisiting my favorite places from when I lived there a few years ago, being introduced to Beth & Marie's favorite places from their year at LSE, and discovering new adventures all together. A big thanks to these ladies for putting me up and putting up with me for a week! Highlights included:
- Strolling through the gardens at St James', Regents and Holland Parks.
- Picnicking on the Thames bank by Tower Bridge
- Spitalfields, Camden and Portabello Road Markets
- Meeting many of Beth & Marie's charming new friends over coffee and dinner at Addis
- Catching up with Sam, our lovely friend and recent Oxford graduate, and her mother over lunch
- Meeting up for drinks with Nigel, the MP I worked for a few years ago (now very important Deputy Speaker), and some of his esteemed colleagues
- The musical Fela! at the Sadler's Wells theatre in Angel
- Watching the sketchy but comical clientele of The Black Horse out Beth's window
- A day trip to Dover to see the white cliffs, the charming seaside, the Dover Castle and the Wartime Tunnels. There's also an underground hospital and a 1st c AD Roman lighthouse at the castle, and I learned all about the Dunkirk Evacuation. You can even see France across the Channel!
- Shopping on Oxford Street, although I could've done without the crowds. Not as crowded as Christmas time, though.
- A proper afternoon tea at Bea's
- Trying Pimm's for the very first time. Lovely summer drink, I do admit.
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| Regents Park strolling to the rose gardens |
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| Afternoon tea |
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| Pimm's, in all its splendour at Borough Market |
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| Out to the Natural History Museum and Harrods Food Hall for lunch |
The riots did cause a bit of excitement, but also a bit of concern and certainly affected the plans we were able to make. We regrettably cancelled some plans to catch up with an old friend over drinks, and mostly stayed in at night. We also carefully chose our day trip destination to avoid the angered, car-burning mobs (I was so pulling for Bristol before this... next time.). We saw a few smashed in storefronts on our way out of town and lots of newscasts about the events, but the most evident sign of the unrest was the massive police presence during the week. To be honest, central London was probably safer then than at any point. With all of the unrest in the outer zones, we had little to worry about anyway.
Finally, after arriving home following a somewhat harrowing transatlantic flight, I was given one whole day to recuperate from the jetlag before the dear Miss Caitlin Brown came into town and it's been a whirlwind of beach and culinary delights ever since. And last night we finally checked off one of our mutual bucket list items: devouring a boat a sushi. This semester is starting out quite nicely, I must say.
