London (Part 1)

I pledge to do my best to keep this entry to a reasonable length, though it merits a novel.  Anna and I ventured to the Big Smoke this weekend via Ryan Air - ding ding ding TWO on-time landings! - but really, who could have problems with punctuality when the only times offered are the absolute earliest and latest?  Hence, we touched down in the United Kingdom circa 1130 Thursday night (got to the hotel at 130 am...) and left at 730 Sunday morning.

(Fellow Valencians headed to London.)

One of the first differences Anna and I noted between Spain and England is the "horario" - schedule.  London runs on a timetable similar to that of the United States, while Spain is literally on its own clock with the 10 am wake up, 3 pm lunch, 10 pm dinner, and 1am-8am nightlife.  Therefore, had we got into a Spanish destination with this flight time, we would have been just in line with the beginning of the pregame.  However, in England, our hotel check-in coincided with every pub's last call - not that we wanted to hit the town anyway after the long trip - and a solid night of rest is always a bonus on vacation.  "Solid night of rest" ..... this brings me to the quality of the hostel.  As we booked it at pretty late date (a week early...), the choices were limited, and we opted for location over good online ratings.  So when our "roommate" (we stayed in one of those 6 person (all-female) rooms - luckily only 4/6 beds were occupied - told us that she saw a mouse in the room the day before, our reaction was a 15% shocked/85% disgusted mix.  But for a place that we only required for sleep, 25 Euro/night got the job done.

 (Our hostel.  Pretty building, but don't judge this book by its cover.)

Thursday morning we awoke to the most beautiful and un-England-like blue sky.  We quickly got dressed and were out of the hotel by 10 am (a record for us on our weekend trips).  Since Alex Hendricks (studying abroad there) had class from 9-12 (on Friday, you ask?  It was a makeup for the national holiday that will be the Monday after the Royal Wedding at the end of April.  Not fair, I know), Anna and I casually strolled in random directions from the hostel in an attempt to find a cafe for some much needed caffeine.  We landed at the coolest French cafe, where we elected a pot of coffee (per person) and the Baker's Basket (toast for 2 - could've served 6 and you know I'm not just saying that - we can tear through some bread).  After enjoying the awesome selection with the accompanying and equally delicious spreads (raspberry, dark chocolate, white chocolate - when on vacation, right? eh...), we did a little more moseying before heading back to the hostel to meet Alex.

("I hate it when there's too many cosas, not enough hoessssss."  Shout out to Luda and Blair.)

First stop with the city's best foreign tour guide (no joke):   Portobello Street Market - an awesome area in Notting Hill which draws the crowds from its array of shops, bakeries, pubs, gorgeousness, outdoor vendors, and street food.  We settled down for lunch on the outdoor second-story terrace of a (what turned out to be our first of many) Asian restaurants.  Good food, and the waitress's bitchiness was compensated by her forgetting to put one of the meals on the check - woo!  Afterwards, Alex scooted out to meet Steven (visiting from Barcelona) at her apartment, so Anna and I hung around to do some more exploring (and consequently, shopping).  I found a cute dress at a little store with a homemade label.  STRONGLY resisted a pair of earrings, which I'm now regretting.  Anna turned down a dress that she's now regretting.  Life lesson:  just go for it.

 (Notting Hill)

 (Alex and Anna at lunch.)

(Russell Square, pretty park.)

Are you getting bored?  I hope not.  After the market, we got an email from Alex telling us to meet her and Steven in Trafalgar Square (in which the National Gallery sits) in thirty minutes.  YIKES!  We are not the best with navigating the Tube (metro), and walked past the entrance about four times before finally asking someone (third person...) who literally had to put us in front of it.  Inside, the helper guy gave us detailed directions for what stops/transfers to take, ending with "are you gonna get lost?" (read with a British accent), to which we replied "of course."  Arriving approximately 55 minutes after Alex's email was sent, we feared that we had been long since ditched, but after a few minutes searching (it's a HUGE square), the four of us were united.

 (The National Gallery)

(Trafalgar Square)

We headed away from the square towards Buckingham Palace, which, despite my initial reaction (for some reason I had the idea in my head that it was much wider/longer than it actually is), is absolutely beautiful.  I was blown away.  Convincing enough, Steven?

 (No queen sightings.)

Following the palace, we experienced the awesome abundance of nature that London has to offer.  First, the flowers by the palace deserve a shout out (how many tax pounds are spent on their upkeep??), and then St. James Park on a much larger scale.  Beautiful views of the city's architecture through the greenest of green trees and a post-card like, duck-filled pond.  We snapped the required pics and headed to see Big Ben and the London Eye before strolling down the Thames River on our way back home to get ready for dinner and the night ahead.

 (Anna, Alex, and me with the prettay flores.)

(Anna and me in St. James Park)

....Didn't think I would have to stop but the recall has taken all the energy out of me and I still need to memorize 150 "business" words for my quiz tomorrow.  London Part 2 to follow soon.....