London, Day Six

Has it really been six days already? It's going too fast! I forgot to take a picture of my outfit today, but I looked fabulous! You'll just have to take my word for it, won't you?

Afternoon tea in England! Oh, and a mimosa, because it's still my birthday week. No judgey!

I found a wonderful little restaurant which I have sadly forgotten the name of, but here I had my first afternoon tea! Which, was basically brunch, but on fancy plates, stacked up in tiers. I didn't love everything, but I tried it all. The roast beef with horseradish and pickle was my fave! I tried the scones with clotted cream. I had to add jam to the clotted cream, it was kind of bland, not sweet, like I expected. The desserts were interesting. The strawberry tart was so good! The chocolate tart was good too, though. There was some sort of berry macaroon, which I tried first because I thought I wouldn't like it. It was tart, but tasty as all get out. The green macaroon was as awful as the berry one was good. I couldn't even tell what it was supposed to taste like, green tea, maybe? It was gross.

After that, I went to see Parliament and Westminster Abbey. They're impressive! We don't have anything even remotely comparable in the U.S. so, if you ever find yourself in the U.K., definitely check them out! Sadly, the photos I took of the exterior are on my camera, which I left in the room. (I'm in the lobby.) So, you don't get to see those.

I walked around, and found myself looking up at the London Eye. It's nearly five hundred feet tall, and it was so windy today, I thought I might end up in Oz! So, I couldn't muster up the lady-balls to get on it. So, sorry, but if you want to know what that's like, you'll just have to fly to London yourself. I'm already afraid of heights, and the wind was shoving me down the street. If it was that strong at ground level, I can't even imagine what it would be like up there. So, I kept it moving ...

I, legit, could have spent an entire day at the Tower of London! It was fascinating! I got there an hour and a half before they closed and didn't even get half of it in. This is a place you have to show up early and expect to spend the whole day. The original tower was built in the 1100's! It was crazy standing in a building that old! I couldn't help but think of the people of that time, and how they probably never imagined that, hundreds of years into the future, we would be walking down those same lanes, tripping on the same cobblestones they tripped over, standing in the same rooms, ogling what remains of their personal belongings and listening to their stories on audio devices. That tour alone was worth the trip across the pond.

After I left the Tower, I stumbled upon St. Katherine's Dock. Do you see these yachts?!?! The one on the bottom is huge! I couldn't even get all of it in one picture! Some of these people around here are balling, for real!

I crossed the Tower Bridge, which is not the London Bridge. I didn't know that until I came here. We crossed London Bridge yesterday. London Bridge is rather plain and boring. This bridge is decked out! You can even go to the top, where they have glass floors to look down through! So, obviously, I'm not planning to go up there. It's perfectly lovely from the base, thank you very much.

For dinner, I headed back to The Green Dragon. I mustered up the courage to try a meat pie. I chose venison. I didn't care for it. It actually tasted decent, but it had a dog food texture I couldn't get past, and I kept envisioning Bambi's mom standing in a field, looking at me, all judgmental-like. The gravy, though! I don't know what they put in it. Honestly, I don't want to know, but they don't make gravy like that in the States!

Well, I had my first afternoon tea, visited the opulent splendor of Britain and her Church, passed up a spinning death wheel, traveled into the past, traveled across a bridge, and took a bite out of Bambi's mom. That's one heck of a day, if I do say so my self!

London, Day Five

It's my birthday!

I slept horribly, my fibromyalgia was bothering me, and I spent a good deal more money than I meant to, but I still managed to have a great day.

It was a beautiful day, but it was cold, and there were people actually playing in the water. Nope!

There wasn't any sand! It was all rocks! I've never seen a rocky beach before.

It was a crappy morning, obviously, so there's no fashion selfie for today. I did talk to the Littles again, though-- bonus! After grabbing lunch, because that's how late I slept in, we caught the train to Brighton. Apparently, the travel cards we bought only work in London. So, we had to pay extra to get out of the train station. Rather than try to figure out local transportation, I elected to walk to the Brighton Pier. It wasn't that far, I could see the ocean from the station. So, we set out on foot. Google maps showed the ocean on the wrong side of us and it looked like I was walking backward on my phone. I have no idea why, but it was all twisted around. I could see the pier, but we couldn't access it directly, we had to go around, but my phone was being bi-polar, so I was getting irritated. I did find my way around the stupid traffic circle that was blocking the way, though.

This place is called White Stuff ... Hmm...

I spent the afternoon walking on the pier, eating greasy donuts out of a paper bag, and watching the waves. The walk through Brighton was interesting too! Lots of shops and fascinating architecture. When I boarded the train to head back toward London, I sat next to a guy who looked like the dude from Transporter Reloaded! My ovaries are recovering, but it will take time.

I got back to Croydon, we're not actually staying in London, and walked around a bit. There's a pub on the way between the train station and the hotel called The Green Dragon. I decided to pop in there for dinner. My first pub meal! I had Bangers and Mash, sausages and mashed potatoes, essentially. It was really good! I didn't have high hopes, believe me, but it well exceeded them. Of course, I washed it down with a pint of ale. Because it's my birthday, I got a slice of chocolate cake and ice cream. It looked delicious, but tasted awful! I didn't need the calories, anyway.

I took Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with me since it was a long train ride. I got so hooked into it that, even after I got back to the hotel, I stayed down in the lobby reading and drinking tea. I finished the book, which made me sad because, like an idiot, I only brought the one book. I guess I have to by more while I'm here. Aw, shucks!

So, my birthday started out rocky, then got beachy, then got meaty, but had a happy, if somewhat gory, ending.

London, Day Four

I'm feeling good about my outfit!

We braved the touristy area again today! This time on foot. It wasn't as bad as the day before, but it was still busy. Our first stop was the Borough Market, which my cousin, Brittany, recommended. We found a place called Le Pain Quotidien. The ordered something with a little bit of a lot of things, and she brought it out. She told me the name of it, but it was French, so ...

This breakfast was the business!

Next stop, Shakespeare's Globe Theater. The guided tour was fascinating! The guides are the actors. Our dude was really animated! He was a cross between Archie Bunker and the Skipper from Gilligan's Island. I wish I'd taken a picture of him, but the description is freakishly apt.

We crossed the Millennium Bridge to buy tickets for Wicked. We found the theater, but it was not the one showing Wicked. Oops! My bad! So, we bought the tickets online and headed back to the hotel to change. We got lost on the way there -also my bad-, but made it just in time to find our seats and grab some concessions. We had fabulous seats; ten rows back, dead center!

Not fifteen minutes into the show, my eyelids got really heavy. I fought it off, but about ten minutes before the intermission, I lost the good fight and I dozed off. It was absolutely no reflection of the performance! The show was phenomenal! The acting, the singing, the dancing-- all of it was brilliant. I don't know what came over me. It really was a fantastic show and I highly recommend it to everyone.

So, today-- I looked fabulous, had a slammin' breakfast, visited Shakespeare's old stomping grounds, got lost a lot, and saw a Wicked performance! Oh, and I talked to the Littles which, let's face it, was the highlight of my day.

London, Day Three

Once again, I slept in too late.

We went to a place called Wafflemeister for breakfast. It was good! Too sweet, though, for breakfast. It had banana, nuts, whipped cream, and chocolate on it. Then we took a tour of the Thames River. It was awesome! The time flew by! We went to Hard Rock for dinner. It was pretty much like every other Hard Rock I've ever been to before. There were a few differences, but nothing worth pointing out.

This was our first day doing the typically tourist stuff. Until today, we hadn't made it anywhere near that part of town. There were so many tourists, it was hard to get through the crowd! We didn't find out until later but, apparently, this is Spring break for this part of the word. That explains all the teenagers running around speaking French.

Tower Bridge

The Shard.

The HMS Belfast.

A better picture of the Tower Bridge.

We'd planned to catch a movie before heading back to the hotel, but the theater near us was only playing one movie I hadn't already seen and I wasn't about to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 without the Littles. I thought it would be nice, instead, to stop at one of the local pubs near our hotel, but a thunder storm was rolling in and I didn't want to get stuck in it. So, my first pint in the U.K. was in the hotel lobby. It didn't smell like beer in the U.S., it didn't smell like anything at all. It was strong, though! I was done after one pint!

I know that seems like a pretty uneventful day, but it was nice. My feet have been killing me, so I wanted to do stuff sitting down today. Besides, with all the people watching to do, there is never a dull moment.

Speaking of people, the ones I've seen here so far have been ridiculously attractive! A guy walked past me today at Hard Rock and, I swear, he looked just like Jamie Dornan! There are so many hot guys running around this place, it's hard to focus! Who knew London was harboring all the beautiful people? Now, they're not all Idris Elba-esque, but they're well-groomed, healthy-looking people.

And everyone is so skinny! Well, not skinny, but normal sized. The food here is equally processed and fatty. That leaves me to conclude it's the exercise they get from taking public transportation. The people here are constantly running after the bus, or the tram, or the tube, or the train. It's a complicated system, for sure! Once you figure it out, though, you can get everywhere! Even with Google maps, we've gotten turned around a dozen times or more! I don't know what we would have done without it!

Anyway ... day three I wore my stunting shades, had dessert for breakfast, sailed on the Thames, took a hard blow to my self-esteem, and drank my first pint. Those last two may, or may not, be related.

London, Day Two

Looking fabulous!

One of the most beautiful things about being on vacation, is not having to set the alarm to wake up in the morning. After I climbed into bed last night, I realized my alarms were still set. Not wanting to be disturbed in the morning, I got up, padded over to where my phone is plugged in, and turned off all the alarms. So, imagine my surprise when the phone rang at 9:00 am with a wake-up call I did not request. I'd slept longer than intended, but isn't that what vacation is all about? 

Our view from the second story of the double-decker bus.

There was no going back to sleep after that, so I got up and got dressed. I'd found an award winning patisserie online and wanted to check it out. We took a bus, the train, and the subway, then walked a few blocks to get to this place and it was the most rinky-dink hole-in-the-wall place I'd ever seen. They did have good food, though. 

A grilled cheese sandwich, with tomato, on sourdough bread and tomato soup.

Next door, we found a quaint little book shop. I had to stop there, of course! I found a great gift for a good friend and, even though I had to lug it around with me the rest of the day, it was too perfect to pass up.

We walked through Regent's Park. It was packed! The weather was perfect for a day at the park and everyone was out to enjoy it. There were biker's, joggers, dog walkers, skateboarders, soccer players, and families; including a little boy flying a kite! There was a hill covered in people just sitting there, enjoying the sun.

We passed through to the London Zoo. It's a small zoo, but you get very close to many of the animals. We saw an amazing Deadly Birds show there. Some of the birds flew close enough that I could have reached out my hand to touch them. Of course, that would probably have cost me some fingers, but it was thrilling being that close to them. I was impressed with how intelligent the birds are. I didn't know they could be trained to do tricks! Some birds were better trained than others, but the naughty birds made the show even better. It was hilarious watching the handlers try to make get them to follow their cues and prompts when the birds clearly had no intention of doing as they were being told.

We had a late lunch at a place called Pizza Express. My pizza was decent, but I think the dairy here is giving me acid reflux. The pizza was huge! I could only eat two slices. My biggest pet peeve about this place is that the service at restaurants is ridiculously slow! We sat there for 30 minutes, just waiting for someone to bring the check! It's been that way at every restaurant. People here spend hours at a meal! I just want to eat and go ... 

We hurried off from there to try and catch a canal boat tour. Unfortunately, I misread the guidebook and the last tour was long gone by the time we got there. My mom had a headache and my whole body ached from the rigors of all that walking, so we set out to make the hour long journey back to the hotel. To get back to Croydon, we had to travel through Victoria Station. It's massive! I've never seen anything like it! I'm excited to see Grand Central Station when I go to New York in August, so I can compare them.

We made it back to the hotel without getting lost. I hope that's a sign we're getting the hang of the public transportation system here. It's complicated, but you can get everywhere if you can figure it out. I have the feeling I'll figure it out just in time to get to the airport for our flight home.

I was hungry again by the time we got back to the hotel. It started raining and the temperature dropped several degrees, so we decided to get tea and some food from the hotel restaurant. My mom just got dessert, but I ordered the ribeye steak. It was good! Better, I think, the the beef at home. The meat was incredibly flavorful. It's a fatty cut of steak, but it never felt greasy. It had a clean taste.

A few years after becoming vegetarian, I worried that if I ever ate meat again I wouldn't be able to stop. Now that I've eaten meat two days in a row, I feel more committed to not eating meat than ever before. I know that doesn't make sense, but that's the way I feel. It's exciting to try new things, and I don't want to miss a single experience, but I don't miss eating meat; not even a little bit. I'm glad I did it. It reaffirmed my choice not to eat meat as a part of my everyday diet. I'm just not a meat-eater anymore. 

Just to recap, I had a rude awakening, got some great tomato soup, visited some books, took a stroll through the park, saw a deerbra at the zoo, got more bad service, rushed through the streets of London to catch a boat that had already sailed, got from one side of London to the other without getting lost, ate some dead cow, and realized I'm going to be a vegetarian forever. 

Not bad. Not bad at all.