A Week and a Half Left? What?

The Harry Potter experience

Okay, so clearly my posts have been majorly slacking, which means that this post is going to be a killer. I will try to catch you up on everything that  has been going on as clearly as I can, and hopefully will include some pictures to keep you interested.

Sunday - Post-Harry Potter Experience
Obviously our little trip to Brighton never happened, so instead, Mimosa, Kathryn and I decided we would set off on an adventure around London. The only problem was that we had no destination in mind. We simply decided we would get on the tube, and choose somewhere once we were on it. We hopped on the Northern Line to London Bridge and set off in search of Borough Market, but once we were off the tube, we realized that Borough Market was closed on Sundays. With our stomachs grumbling, our only true priority was to find food -- and anywhere. Maybe it was the scent of the Thames or the uncanny ability to always manage to stumble upon something great when in London, but we found a restaurant right on the river and ordered some traditional English fare for lunch. We sat underneath an awning so when it started raining (as it always does in London), we could still enjoy our food and actually even enjoy the rain (it's easier to enjoy it when you're eating yummy food and not getting wet).

Kathryn and I in front of St. Paul's

Desserts at Haagen Daz

One of the tourist-y things I did... Running through Platform 9 3/4.
I didn't make it to Hogwarts though. They found out that I was a muggle...

Where we had lunch!

After a very long lunch involving some much needed girl talk and gossip, we decided to be a little touristy and explore. We took pictures in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, went into a souvineir shop, hung out in Leicester Square and went to Haagen Daz for a mid-day dessert fix.

Wednesday, July 20th
Okay, so I am skipping some days, but that's because nothing really happened that is particularly worth mentioning and adding to the length of this post. I went to work, did my usual thing, then came home. But on Wednesday, the group and I headed to Ice Bar London as a pre-birthday celebration for Mimosa. Essentially, Ice Bar is exactly what its name suggests -- a bar made entirely out of ice. We had to wear these sort of thermal ponchos and gloves and our drinks came in ice glasses. You're only allowed to be in the room for 45 minutes, but honestly, that was plenty. I was seriously chilly. It is definitely a novelty thing that you should go to just to experience, because I mean, how many times do you get to go to a bar that is basically an igloo? You don't. So why not? You might as well experience as many new things as you can when in a new city and this was definitely new.

A group of the interns and I at Ice Bar

Thursday, July 21st

My boyfriend, as most of you reading this might now, Joe, came to visit on Thursday so I got him all signed into the Nido and then had to part ways for the day while I was at work. Later that night, we walked through Covent Garden and had dinner at an English pub in Leicester Square. He had his first taste of fish and chips and actually enjoyed the mushy peas.

Friday, July 22nd

Tower of London

I got to take the day off thanks to my very generous and understanding boss and spend it with Joe. We went to the Tower of London and we got to see the Crown Jewels, which we both agreed were seriously awesome in every sense of the word. It's hard to imagine that people actually used a giant golden punch bowl, but they did. It's their family's cutlery and dinnerware. Half of the time, my family uses paper plates and these people (albeit, royalty) have golden spoons and crowns encrusted with jewels and diamonds. Later that day, we managed (somehow) to find a Harley Davidson store tucked away in some random area of London. I was trying to be a good daughter and get my dad a nice gift from London. After purchasing the gift, we went back towards Kings Cross to do a little outfit change and to make our reservation at the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern is a modern art museum in London and they have a restaurant on the 7th floor with an amazing view of the London skyline. It was a really neat experience and had a cool ambience.

Tower of London

At the Tower of London with Tower Bridge behind us

Saturday, July 23rd
Joe and I headed out to Portobello Market in the morning, located in Notting Hill (you're probably familiar with the movie, while I actually have not even seen it...). Portobello Market is supposed to be one of the really great markets in London because of its sheer size (it stretches for at least the entire length of the very long street) and the antiques and other sorts of items it has. I was excited to see what I could find there, but the massive amounts of tourists and bitter British people selling the goods sort of put a damper on my spirits, so after being pushed and shoved around amidst the crowd, we finally decided to leave and get food.

From market to market...We went to Borough Market after Portobello -- the one that me, Kathryn and Mimosa had tried to go to the previous week -- and it was a much better place, mainly because there was so much food and GOOD food at that. Joe and I met up with some of the other interns and before splitting up again, this time with Jessie and Kathryn in tow. We decided to go to Harrod's. It was my first Harrod's experience and I felt like I was home. The place epitomizes extravagance and luxury. I made sure to check out the designer shoe section and unfortunately was unable to purchase the dozens of pairs of shoes I spotted that would definitely make a great addition to my closet. Instead, I did get a teddy bear, and while he is no pair of Christian Louboutins, he is extra cute and cuddly. And I suppose I could name him after a famous shoe designer...

After taking in Harrod's and its magnificence, Kathryn, Joe and I went to meet up with the interns we had previously ditched at Hyde Park. Jessie had other plans so we bid her adieu and headed to the park. When we got there, we grabbed some ice cream and did some quality people watching which included a tourist attempting to rollerblade and some scary teenagers who looked as though they had been smoking illegal substances. Once we found the other interns, we actually decided that we would have dinner in. One of the interns, Parker, has an uncle who lives in London and was house-sitting for his family for the week because they were on vacation (or should I say, holiday?). We went to Marks & Spencers, got some food, wine and dessert, then went back to the house to cook up what ended up being a very delicious meal. I, obviously, did not do any cooking (that is for people who are not domestically impaired and actually know how to work a stove) but I did get to utilise the grand piano that was in the living room. Our dinner was really fun. We had good food, good wine and good conversation, which is all you really need to have a good night. We ended up being too tired to hit a bar afterwards, but the dinner was definitely the highlight of the night.

Sunday, July 24th
One of the interns, Will, told me a very funny quote: I love summertime in London -- it's my favorite day of the year... And that definitely rang true that Sunday. It was so sunny and warm outside, and when that happens, you need to capitalize on it because it can truly be an anomaly here in the city. Joe and I grabbed some reading material and went to Regents Park to spend the day soaking in the sun. It was relaxing and really fun, especially with an ice cream cone in hand.

Pictures of Regents Park

Monday, July 25th
After work, Joe and I went to dinner on the Thames. Literally, on the Thames because we were on a docked boat. I managed to not get sea-sick and enjoyed some quality bangers and mash, and then we walked across the bridge to the other side of the river where we went on the London Eye!

For those of you who are unaware of what the London Eye is (although, I do have a picture of it in a previous post), it is a giant ferris wheel -- one of the biggest in the world. Joe's afraid of heights, but I insisted he go and he ended up being glad he did. It gives you great views of London and even Big Ben doesn't look so big anymore from atop the London Eye.

Looking up at the London Eye

Joe and the London Eye

On the London Eye

View of London from the London Eye

Tuesday, July 26th
Joe and I roamed around Covent Garden, near where I work and had dinner and then had ice cream at this place called the Ice Creamists. It's supposed to be a sort of rock-n-roll ice cream shop and got into a bit of controversy when it served up some breast milk ice cream called "Baby GaGa." If you Google it, you'll probably find a whole bunch of news articles about it. And don't worry, they aren't serving up that flavor anymore. Besides, why even bother spending the time debating over flavors when the obvious choice is always chocolate?

It is now Thursday. Wednesday was mostly uneventful except for the tasty burrito I had for lunch and the mid-day game of ping pong I played at work with my coworkers. Today was similar, minus both the burrito and ping pong game. Tomorrow, I'll be heading over to Heathrow for some more interviews with people in Terminal 5, which is always both awkward and amusing. With less than a week and a half left, I will try my best to post prior to leaving, because I know that I will be trying to do as much as possible with what little time I have left. It hasn't hit me that I'm leaving yet though...It's actually kind of funny how it never really hit me that I was coming here, and now that I'm approaching my departure date, I can't believe I have to leave.