Monday

Last day in London. Didn’t do much of anything but wash some clothes, pack our suitcases (trying to get them under 40lbs a piece), train to the airport, and fly to Croatia. A taxi was supposed to be waiting for us at the airport, but we never saw anybody holding a sign with our names or our villa’s name, so we just got our own taxi and gave him the address.

We soon found ourselves zooming along the curvy roads at about 100km an hour, in a Mercedes. Our villa is nice, the room is very basic and bare, but suits our needs. We had dinner at the villa as well, since we were told it had a very good restaurant. Christine got to try her squid ink sauce that she was looking forward to (it was yummy), Kristi ordered some grilled fish, and I had picked a mussels dish, but they were out, and I really couldn’t think of what else I wanted so I just got a pasta with chicken and mushrooms. We also had two bottles of the house white (other members for the wedding party had already drank all the house red the night before). Our waiter, Maladen, brought us some beers as well. We’re not sure why, but we graciously accepted them because we are nice Americans. The meal was 346 kuna (or how they like to write it, 346,00). That’s not even $60 for three entrees and two liters of wine. Croatia for the win.

Airport nachos


Airport ciders


View flying into Dubrovnik







squid ink pasta


free beer


More pictures can be found in my Europe Flickr set, here
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Indian in London

For dinner we treated our hosts, Yann and Jeff, to an Indian dinner at Bangalore, for being so gracious as to allow three American girls to crash in their guest room and sprawl our luggage out over their living room.

chutneys


vegetarian appetizer assortment



Vegetarian thali: chickpea dumpling curry, Bombay potatoes, aubergine salad, black lentils, rice, cucumber raita & roomali bread


my lamb roganjosh

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Touristas

Sunday morning started with croissants, as most mornings normally do. I had an almond one, as well as one plain. Both were divine. We then took a spin on the London Eye.




Then a walk back to the Camel + Artichoke pub from the night before, to partake in a traditional Sunday Roast. We picked meals of roast chicken or roast beef with traditional trimmings (roasted potatoes, roasted vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding).


Then Yann left us to do the British Museum on our own (I’m sure he was tired of three girls). We spent several hours walking through that monstrosity.


Christine and I thought we’d done quite well, but then saw something saying we should see the Elgin Marbles. We didn’t remember seeing any marbles, so we headed to that gallery to check them out. Halfway there, when I could see the gallery up ahead, we realized that the Elgin “Marbles” were simply a bunch of things MADE of marble, not actually anyone’s marbles. The British Museum overall was quite impressive, the architecture of the building itself, as well as the array of really, really old items it contained. We’ve seen the Rosetta Stone, and are no doubt better for it.











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More London

On Saturday we headed out to Camden and Soho to just walk around. And then went to a pub called the Camel + Artichoke, to watch the England vs. USA match. Then we ate fish & chips and mushy peas. The end.














Airshow for the Queen's birthday


Indian for Lunch






Myself, Yann, and Christine, looking as vaguely patriotic as we could.


Extreme fandom


England vs. USA


Master's special, at Master's Super Fish

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Brighton

We didn’t wake until about 10am, probably a combination of our bodies being used to U.S. schedules, but also that we hadn’t exactly had the normal amount of sleep in the previous 24 hours. Yann (the kind gentleman we are staying with) had suggested we see Brighton this day, since the weather was supposed to be crappy (normal?) in London. So he went and purchased our train tickets, we got dressed, and then headed out to find croissants. We found them at the place we’d eaten the night before. Delicious.


The train to Brighton was about 40 minutes, so we were there around noon. We stayed til almost 10pm. We walked EVERYWHERE. We started out with a little shopping, since we wanted to pick up scarves (for warmth) and Kristi needed shoes (her flip flops had broken). We got a few items at H&M, and then found super cheap linen pants at a store called Primark. I supposed linen pants weren’t a necessity, but they are super comfortable and, like I said, were cheap ($9-$12).

We then headed for the “beach”. It’s a rocky pebble beach, not a sand beach, but quite nice. We stuck our toes in the English Channel, which we learned from Yann is not called the English Channel by everybody, it’s mostly called the Channel, I guess since it doesn’t really belong to England.


For lunch we had our pick of a number of places of course, but one of these places was called Gourmet Burger Kitchen. We’d seen one the day before, and it of course piqued my interest. The menu looked pretty good, so we got a table, and a bucket of ciders, and each picked something from their “world cup” menu (the burgers were all assigned countries, and they came with flags stuck in them...albeit, not the same flags as the countries they were supposedly from). I was actually quite boring and picked a bacon and cheddar burger, but I added garlic mayo because I’d seen it mentioned for other burgers. Great idea if I do say so myself. But everyone enjoyed what they ordered, even the vegetarian Yann. And we of course got some fries, along with blue cheese dipping sauce.


Quite a nice lunch, which we then walked off. We saw probably everything Brighton had to offer, the buildings, the beach, etc.










The Royal Pavilion used to be a royal residence, but Queen Victoria didn’t like it and it was sold to Brighton (minus a bunch of expensive stuff inside).


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London, Day 1

I apologize for being so slow to post. I have a lot of pictures to go through. Christine is doing a much better job keeping up with things.

So the traveling is obviously over. We started in New Orleans, flew to New York, to a shuttle to New Jersey, flew to Iceland, then arrived in London (after some delays) on June 10th, around 1pm London time. We took a train to the Waterloo station, where Kristi’s friend Yann met us and walked us to his place here (just a few minutes from the station). We freshened up a bit, and headed out for a late lunch at Leon. Got us some malay red curry, cauliflower and sweet potato gobi, and hummus. Then we walked a bit more, and decided to go into the Tate Modern because there are some free exhibits.

Dinner was at The Daily Bread (le pain quotidian). We are sharers, so we ordered an array of items and stuck our hands in all of it. Ham and cheese with three different mustards, crab & leek gratinee with Brioche, and the Italian plate (a large antipasto tray). We also tried their honey beer and cider. For dessert we ordered a treacle tart, and two other items, but apparently their desserts are delicious because they kept being out of the other ones we ordered. We finally got a Normandy apple tart and a Chocolate ‘bombe’ (sponge cake topped with like 2 inches of ganache).

We then walked around and got some amazing night pictures of the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, and just various London sites in general. I only had my wide-angle lens with me, but I think it made for some interesting shots.




Red Malay curry from Leon




le pain quotidien


crab & leek gratinee with Brioche


treacle tart


chocolate 'bombe'








these different painted elephants were everywhere


More pictures can be found in my Europe Flickr set, here Read more!