10 Things I learned in London - Sivan
01.13.14

10 Things I learned in London

 

Oh, London. I already miss you. Originally Paul and I had planned to stop through London on our way home for a few days but kind of knew that it wasn’t the main attraction of our trip. Surprisingly, the 5 days we spent in London weren’t quite enough. While we were ready to come home after 13 days of trekking, fighting the cold, and spending tons of money, we really really really loved London and almost wished we had spent more time there. Paul had been to London once before and made it clear he did not like it. “The food sucks, the weather sucks, and it’s way too expensive” was his take on the city. Upon leaving, however, it went something more like, “The food was better here than Paris, the weather is the same as Paris so it doesn’t count, and yes, it’s still expensive but at least I feel like I’m getting value out of my money.” Here is what we learned:

10 Things I learned in London:

1. British food is not my thing. I don’t really do fried or mushy anything, but they have a seriously good variety of other cuisine, which was all very noteworthy and good.

2. The St. James’s Hotel + Club has a mixologist named Judy who makes the best anything! We gave her free reign and she got us happy, drunk, and very satisfied.

3. The Egerton House Hotel has a famous dirty martini maker named Antonio who is a legend. We were lucky enough to have him all to ourselves for a night and again, we were very happy, drunk, satisfied, and entertained by his stories of debauchery with celebs.

4. The Metro is much more difficult in London. We wasted more than a handful of rides on the Metro getting on the wrong train…including on the last day on the way to the airport.

5. Harrods is out. of. control.

6. The newspaper is not dead in London. Everyone reads it and shares pages on the Metro. It’s rather nice and refreshing to see such a communal act of kindness towards utter strangers.

7. The people in London are so damn attractive! I didn’t get too up close and personal to check out those infamous bad teeth, but everything else was on point!

8. The Shard has a restaurant on the 32nd floor that has a 360 degree view of London. While the meal is on the pricier side, it’s probably less expensive than paying to go up to the very top and not getting anything to eat or drink.

9. Big Ben is smaller than he seems in the movies.

10. Buckingham Palace is less grand than I imagined. Will and Kate do not live there, the Queen does. She’s only there Monday-Friday. On the weekends she goes to her country home. I did get some insider info on my favorite of the group, Pippa, but will keep that to myself 🙂