Friday/Saturday & Stayin' Awake

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

I had waited forever for the plane to take off. Take off it did...and early! The flight was smooth and long (and non-stop! Go American Airlines!) I woke up around 2 AM my time to discover that I had two hours yet to go.

I landed in London. While we were landing, my fellow seatmate revealed that he lived about an hours train ride outside of London, but recommended the London Eye as a starting point for sightseeing. He was afraid of heights so he wouldn't ride it again, but said that it was a decent ride as far as sightseeing went. He also warned me about pickpockets.

**I've never heard so many warnings about pickpockets. I had flown over 11 hours at once, without being able to carry on certain refreshing items due to flight restrictions, and I'm sure that alone repelled the pickpockets quite thoroughly, so I had no problems there, even though I did take extra precaution. (wink)**

I went through Customs fairly easily and found the Heathrow Express.

While on the Heathrow Express, (£14 + some odd) one way from London to Paddington Station, I looked at the country-side, which reminded me a great deal of Massachusetts, the New England states, and New York in winter. No wonder the American colonists settled into America so readily. I think it's only just a tiny bit colder on the American side.

I ended up at Paddington Station. Had a momentary flashback of the book, "Paddington Bear", where there was a tiny bear found lost and wandering about Paddington Station. He was adopted by a nice human family, enjoyed marmalade on toast, but always wondered where he came from. (As a young American girl, I had no idea, really, WHAT marmalade was, tried it, found it bitter because it contains the peel of an orange, but always recognized it as being essentially British because of this.) I could understand getting lost at Paddington Station. It was quite the large station. I kept my belongings close, as there were even announcements about pickpockets over the PA system!

My instructions from my host, pal Michelle from college, was to go find the taxi rank and take a taxi to her home, which was not too far. However, as tired as I was, and as turned about as I was, I couldn't seem to find the way out. So I managed to find a nice Italian, non-English speaking couple to ask where the taxis were, to which they replied, "Erm, sorry..." while shrugging. I had to laugh. Trust me to find the nearest non-English speakers on my trip to an English-speaking foreign country. Oh well, karmically, this means I will be asked a question in French (when I go to Paris)...and it will be a question I will not be able to answer. (I do not know much French, aside from Hello, Goodbye, etc.)

Having arrived at my friend's home, I was greeted most happily by Michelle and Paul and their yellow lab, named Yellow. Ta-DA! :D I settled in a bit, freshened up and then was whisked away by my hosts so that I would stay awake so that I wouldn't eye the bed, fall into it, fall into a jet-lag coma that would have me wanting breakfast in the PM.

With the promise of seeing reindeer, we trotted on down to Oxford Street, a large busy shopping area that was temporarily turned into a pedestrian zone. I was so busy looking around, I told Michelle that I didn't mean to be rude and not look at her while she was talking, but that I WAS listening and to please continue, I just couldn't stop looking about! This she quite understood. I'd like to think she probably thought it was funny to see me be so touristy! :D

What did I see? Masses and masses of people. I saw a woman dressed in full burqua, I saw a Hare Krishna "band", no reindeer at all, and some very chi-chi shops.

I was amazed by the plethora of the Irish faces that I saw. (They may not be Irish, but rather, English, considering where I was, but it was a certain look that I have come to recognize as being from the Isles). **On a side note, as a single gal, many of the guys I had seen were very cute!** There were many families at this occasion, though. Artistically, I had an inspiration to draw portraits of this Irish/English look. (Yes, I know...they are NOT the same.)

We stopped into the H&M shop as Michelle wished to exchange an incorrectly sized top that she had purchased, but it was Christmas shopping time and she chose, rather correctly, I thought, to continue that thought on a different day. Paul wished to stop by the rather gigantic Apple store to look at the latest gagets and gizmos...for the celebration, they had hired a DJ-drummer! He had some music going and set up some gigantic hand-drums. It was a nice set! (For those who know me, I had started up with drumming classes and was able to thoroughly appreciate the hand-drumming of this DJ.)

The sun set around 4pm, so our day was limited. I did find it extremely cold, but expected that. It was apparently rather mild, by London standards, but my East-Coast US blood has thinned by living in the sunny Los Angeles area. I am always cold. In addition to a hat, I wore two layers underneath my snowsport jacket. I wore my arm-warmers, knitted expertly by another college friend of mine, Amanda. I also wore fleece gloves. I was doing okay, warmth-wise. My friend Michelle was able to wear a rather warm blazer and a woolen wrap. She wasn't even wearing an actual coat.

It was dark at this point and we were feeling rather hungry at that time, so wended our way to a Mexican restaurant called "La Perla". As I say, in my review, this is not to be confused with the ladies underwear merchant. :D I had to laugh...I did not expect to have Mexican food in London at all, however, it was a fantabulous place! We had lovely margaritas (very strong). I chose Mushroom Fajitas (which were very full of flavor, rare in cooked mushroom dishes, I find), and my friends chose Enchiladas and Shrimp Appetizers (spicier than normal). I highly recommend it!

After a lovely dinner, we toddled off to Covent Garden. I actually was the only one toddling. Those were stronger margaritas than I was used to! Covent Garden is...I am very sad that the picture of it that I took was too dark to show properly...where they filmed the flower-girl section of "My Fair Lady", at the base of a large church and the square. Michelle pointed this out, and as soon as she had, I recognized it immediately.

Stood about and sipped mulled wine (thanks Paul!) and listened to a street performer who was performing James Brown songs on his guitar. It was a lovely, very Christmasy moment...there were Christmas lights and decorations on the local trees. There was an open-air market in the back, but it was over...just the crates remained for the next day. I made a mental note to come back.

We saw Cornish Pasties advertised and chuckled over the pronounciation of the word "pasties". The food is "pah-sties"...the sticky alternate bra garments are "pay-sties". Those meat & gravy-filled pies would be too hot for the flesh if used as the garment... OW.

We saw another street performer, who was a juggler and juggled knives while balancing on a rope from a high-up height. Discovered that friend Michelle has a really loud and piercing wolf whistle, which is, incidentally, the only kind to have. But I had had no idea! What a skill!

After that, we found ourselves at Coccinos (I'm butchering the name here because I can't remember it). It's an Italian restaurant that has connections in many fine European cities...no, it's not a chain. The owner has many connections and owns many different, highly regarded restaurants. We had some tiramasu, some coffee, aaaand the Italian version of champagne, a bubble wine that actually tasted quite lighter than champagne. I quite liked it. (I have to write to Michelle and ask them the name again.) The customers were very well-to-do and were having very nice dinners. Even the gentleman with a blue and red mohawk hairstyle had toned it down and was wearing a very chic suit and tie.

Coccino's was lovely, but Paul was enthusiastic about showing me Claridges, which is a hotel bar, owned by an Irishman. He likes the people there very much. And, as a matter of fact, this is where he and Michelle had met.

We sat down there and talked about all sorts of things, schools, childhood neighborhoods, vacations, unique and exciting countries, future plans. They were refilling the champagne and I was offered a Bronk's coffee (which had Bailey's in it). I initially thought it was a "Bronx" coffee, but apparently, the gentleman who makes it was named Bronk. So there ya go. It was rather tasty! Oh and yes...Rob Lowe walked into the bar. It looked like he was with his producers or whatever. I caught his eye and grinned.

Later, Paul told us that while Michelle and I were visiting the Art Nouveau/Art Deco rest-room (one of my favorite art styles!!!!), that Rob had come up to ask him for a paper. We saw no more of Rob Lowe that evening or any other evening for that matter, but it was kind of neat to have a star-sighting all the way out here.

I was noting, in my sleepy delirious-ness, how comfortable my shoes were. I had purposely purchased walking shoes by Ariat, in a black-leather clog style. It had decorations that resembled little shamrocks (I'm Irish-American...I like that.) My feet were comfortable and warm the entire day.

Getting home at 2am, we hung out some of my nicer clothes. I've set my little travel alarm so that I can get up and get on with the Sunday.

I did a lot my first day. I took the time to write all of this out. I'm afraid that after this, my blogging may not be quite so intricately detailed, as I was so enjoying my time, I spent my time enjoying myself rather than writing things down. But we'll see.