This weekend, we went to London... I hadn't been back to London since I lived there for a few months for work back in late 2005/early 2006. The city is so much fun and has so many awesome things to see and do. I do not love the exchange rate for the pound (it's like $2 for every 1 pound... ridiculous!).
A coworker of ours recently transferred from the Chicago office to the London office and has an apartment in London near the Arsenal stadium and let us crash at her place for the weekend. We thought we'd be sleeping on the floor, but she had three AeroBed air mattresses... those things are pretty cool.
It was just Meg, Dan and I going to London because Bryan was heading back to Chicago on Saturday. Our flight Friday night was delayed due to the strong winds and we got into London late. By the time we took the Tube from Heathrow to Orla's place (which took about an hour), it was almost midnight, so we just hung out at her place for the night.
Saturday morning, we got up early to do some sightseeing. I've seen a lot of the major touristy sights already, but I still wanted to walk around and see the city again. While Meg and Dan were in Westminster Abbey, I walked around that area and took some pictures.
Big Ben and the London Eye
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
The traditional red phone booth
Big Ben at noon
(I also got a video of Big Ben striking noon if you want to check it out)
After they finished in Westminster Abbey, we went to check out the lines for the London Eye ferris wheel... long lines and really expensive... almost $30USD. We decided to pass on that.
The London Eye ferris wheel
We headed towards Trafalgar Square instead. On the way, we stopped off for lunch in a pub called Princess of Wales. Meg had the fish-n-chips.
Off to Trafalgar Sqaure... we went through the National Gallery (which is free!) and saw a few of the highlights. The place is huge, but the brochure map was really good and we were able to navigate through to the rooms we wanted to see and skip the other stuff.
The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square
Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square
After that, we went to the Tower of London... but it was closing in an hour and the cost was over $30USD, so Meg and Dan decided to skip that. We just walked around the Tower and saw the Tower Bridge.
Meg, Dan and I in front of the Tower Bridge
The London Underground subway system is also called the "Tube", which we took quite often. At some stops the gap between the train and the platform is pretty significant, so they have signs saying "Mind the gap" and recordings say it at most stops... which is why it's such a popular phrase and is on lots of t-shirts and souvenirs in London.
We hopped on the tube and went to Buckingham Palace. Then, it was back to Orla's to rest and get ready for dinner. We went to the Angel/Islington area of London and ate at an Indian restaurant called Masala Zone. Indian food is really big in London and this place was delicious! I had the chicken thali, with butter chicken.
After dinner, we went to this bar called The View Lounge in Leicester Square. It was on the 6th floor in a building and had a nice view of the square and you could also see Big Ben, Parliament and the London Eye from the window. Very cool place. I had emailed Neil and Ritesh & Catherine earlier in the week (some people I had worked with in London) to see if they wanted to meet up for drinks while I was in town. Ritesh was sick and Catherine was out of town, but Neil was free and he's the one that suggested the View Lounge... he was able to get us all on the guest list (which is important in London to get into some of the clubs... you can skip the queue).
Anyway, we met up with Neil and his friends and went into the bar. 10 pounds for the cover charge and 2 pounds for the coat check... this was already starting off expensive and we even got a "deal" on the cover charge! We dropped our coats off and took the elevator up to the bar. The place was already really crowded and the DJ was playing some cool music, people were dancing, good times. We got a round of drinks for the 5 of us = 30 pounds! This city is crazy expensive!
The bar was a ton of fun, though... mainly for the people-watching. The fashion in London amazed us... girls were showing a lot of skin for it being freezing cold and February! Short skirts/shorts, tank tops, stilettos... and some guys were dressed like Justin Timberlake wanna-be's. We laughed because one of the songs the DJ played was "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston and the crowd went nuts. Meg thought it was funny because some of the kids at the bar would've been barely born when that song came out, but they knew every word... pretty random song to play at a London club. But, then again, he mixed in "Whoomp, There It Is" at one point, too.
Me, Meg and Orla at the View Lounge
The next morning, we went to Camden, an area in London with a market where you can find practically everything. It was full of people... tourists, locals, freaks... you name it, they were there!
There were rows and rows like this of clothes, jewelry, etc. for sale.
Whatever you wanted... they had it. Leather studded belts along side belly dancer skirts...
Some really strange purses...
We finished off the walk through the area with lunch at the Buck's Head Pub.
After that, we got back on the tube to the airport to catch our flight to Amsterdam. It was a really quick weekend and we packed in a lot of fun stuff in a short amount of time. We were so tired! I'm looking forward to next weekend and staying home for a change!
For more pics from the London trip, CLICK HERE.
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