Jackie and Anson: London Calling

Samuel Johnson once said "You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." London has been calling my name since the day i left heathrow airport on December 14, 2006...

so, as you all probably know, i did a study abroad in London (by far one of the best things i've done in life). i LOVE London.

- the smell (mostly cigarettes)

- the historic buildings

- the excuse to use the word love in about every sentence - 'ello love, goodbye love, etc.

- the massive parks

- Testco markets on every corner

- Pret a Manger

- amazing food markets

- british accents - duh.

- art galleries. let's be honest - mostly the national gallery

- the tube - public transportation is my fave

- the chocolate

- fashion - LOVE new look and top hat. of course zara and h&m are great as well

- trafalgar square

- covent garden is a must

- hob nobs

- pubs

- AMAZING cathedrals - st pauls hands down

- cadburry mcflurries from mcdonalds

- the huffy guards at westminster abbey

- westminster tube stop that lets you out right in front of parliament

- hilarious sessions of parliament where they literally attack each other

- trips out to the greenest countryside with millions of sheep and old rock walls

- city of Bath - unbelieveably quaint and picturesque

- fish and chips in the appropriate setting (surrounded by brits along some water)

- the italian fountains at kensington gardens

- seeing les mis for the millionth time (it never gets old)

- window shopping on oxford st

i really could go on and on...and on...there is not a thing i don't like about London really. And if I could - i would live there in HEARTBEAT. no joke. much much MUCH to my mother's dismay. so it's a good thing it's twice the cost of living and rarely sunny...not to mention very far away and most likely not a great location for Anson to sell insurance. ANYWAYS.

because i was the planner of the trip, i chose 8 full days to spend in London. i was jumping with anticipation. BEYOND excited. we left on monday night at 7:30 supposedly sleeping the hours away. i think the only person who did that was Anson. 1) i can't sleep on planes and 2) i was TOO excited. which is a big deal because i LOVE sleep. also it was slightly surreal getting served dinner right after take-off and then about 3-4 hours later at what was 1am for us, getting served breakfast. very strange. and nauseating since i don't really like breakfast anyways. we landed in London at 10:45 am or roughly 3:45 for us. international travel is always kind of a drag. the REAL drag though was that even though we had landed in London, we had to continue on to Brussels, Belgium where our flight ended. So we took a train BACK to London (also long story - we'd booked tickets for the wrong day - FEBRUARY 11 instead of JANUARY and almost didn't get to go back to London). but back to the nitty gritty. just like i thought, London was AMAZING. i was surprised at how quickly everything came back to me. i navigated that tube like nobody's business. i even got asked 4 times where things were - they thought i was a local! Anson still didn't get why i was SO EXCITED about this. but i was pumped. the best part - i actually DID know where things were. so i wasn't just making stuff up when i talked to them :) that was fun. while we were there, i drug Anson to about every museum possible - including National Gallery (my fave - i could have gone there everyday), Tate Modern (that one was a little much for Anson - see my sunflower seed picture later), British Museum, Imperial War Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A, and National Portrait Gallery to name a few. also, we cleverly went to evensong at cathedrals to avoid paying the 16 pound fee to go inside (i know - crazy right? that's like $25 each!). st pauls is the most beautiful cathedral - hands down. westminster was fine - kind of overrated if you ask me, but still a must see. we also took a day tour out to stonehenge, bath (cutest city ever) where we saw the Roman Baths and Salisbury cathedral. it was awesome! we shopped, but not too much since our suitcases were being weighed at every airport, and saw Les Mis, and ate all my favorite old restaurants - Khan's , Wagamama's, etc... we also hit up 2 open markets - borough market (awesome food!) and portobello road (sadly got rained out). walked across the tower bridge, missed seeing tower of london (it closed early!), saw covent garden, trafalgar, went to a few thrift stores, (thank you Anson), just enjoyed EVERYTHING. the only disappointments were no peanut butter kit kats (MAJOR disappointment - i probably ate one everyday i lived there) and staying in a completely ghetto 4-star hotel. picture to follow. thanks to kimber and julian for letting us stay a few days in their amazing flat in Canary Wharf! here are some pics: