The past two days of my trip have been the most fun yet! I was so thrilled to leave my hostel and meet up with my cousin Liz and her boyfriend Ste - two of the sweetest, most warm and friendly people I have ever met. I felt instantly at home in their company, and after a week of traveling solo, it was so nice to see familiar (and english speaking) faces.
After sliding home in the slippery ice, Ste made me my first proper British tea, with PG tips and milk and sugar - very tasty! (although I still yearn for a giant mug o' drip coffee every now and then)
After getting oriented, we headed out for a delicious night of food and drink, starting with tasty curry at Wagamama, a popular british chain. Quite good! I got a very tasty curry with squash and peppers...yum.
We then went to a really awesome bar, Cafe 1001, which was full of interesting people. It was also situated in a really interesting neighborhood, full of vintage and craft shops. Around the corner was Brick Lane, which is lined with Indian curry houses and sweet shops, and smelled AMAZING as you walked by. Also, across the street from the cafe is a record store, Rough Trade, they label who at one point represented the Smiths etc.
After my first British hard cider (quite good) we headed to Passing Clouds, an awesome hole in the wall type club near Islington. The vibe hear was really cool, very funky and laid back. There was a great reggae band playing, and everyone was dancing and smiling. They also had a delicious homemade ginger beer, which was the BEST ginger beer I have ever had - it had just the right amount of ginger in it - not too strong, but not too sweet either. It was good enough to put even the grouciest person in a good mood! I tried to take a whole bunch of pictures here, but because it was so dark none of them really came out :(
The next day we headed out of an even more exciting series of adventures - I am just going to do a brief recap of the following...
1) started out walking to Camden Passage, where there is a cozy little market and some really lovely vintage stores, selling wonderful pices of lace and millinery trim, as well as really well preserved blouses dating as far back as 1880. We wandered through this neighborhood for a while and also passed my new favorite british clothing store, All Saints, which sells old bags that can be worn as clothes. (Just kidding - they are designed that way - I really like their baggy drapey tunic style tops) But what I love more than the clothes is the design of their larger store on Portobello road, where all of the walls are lined with black and gold sewing machines
I wonder where they get them all?
Then it got quite cold and started to snow, so we stopped into a pub called the green man to catch the second half of a football (soccer) game between Ste's favorite team, Everton, and the popular London team, Arsenal. It was quite an intense game, and here I also learned that a pint of beer in London is a bit larger than a pint of beer in Austin.
After the snow died down, we headed into central London to the Neal's Yard area, where we stopped into several really awesome shops and poked around. My favorite was Tabio, an excellent sock and tight store that had tights in every color and denier imagineable! Leave it to me to find the 50 pound legwarmers made out of magic angola or whatnot...I settled for a pair of really cool dusty pink fishnets - they look cooler than they sound, trust me.
The real highlight of the eating was the food that came next - first we stopped at Neals Yard to sample all of their tasty cheeses - this is a really exceptional shop! It smells delicious (if you like the smell of cheese) and all of the cheese is presented in huge slabs or wheels. All you have to do is ask for a taste of any cheese and the really informed servers will cut you a slice, and tell you what type of cheese it is, where it comes from, and who made it.
After cheese Liz recommended we try Rock and Sole Plaice for some traditional fish and chips - here you can pick the type of fish you want, and they will serve you a huge platter of fish and chips with all the tasty condiments! An interesting fact about this restaurant is that during world war II all of the fish suppliers would meet here in the morning to figure out which neighborhoods had been bombed or hit hardest in the night, and then they would distribute the fish, giving a larger share to those who needed the food.
For dessert we went to Scoop, which serves amazing gelato place - I tried the recommended extra dark chocolate, mixed with some lovely berry gelato on top - delicious!
Full of deliciousness, we then explored Foyles, London's largest bookshop. It had a really impressive selection of design books, including really nice books about typography, costumes, fashion, product design, architecture...you name it, and they had it. They also have a tank of pirahnas which you can watch in the children's section.
Final stop of the night - Freud's (spelled FREVD) a super packed, super hip cocktail bar that is home to Liz's favorite London Bloody Mary. Their recipe is very unique - it doesn't include olives, but instead adds sherry and red wine - I have never tried a Bloody Mary like this, and was really surprised by how tasty and flavorful it was. I am going to have to try this recipe out when I get back home.
After a long day of walking and exploring, we headed back home to play a game of scrabble and eat our delicious cheese on tasty oat crackers (I forgot already what they were called). It was so nice to get to spend more time with my cousin, who I havn't seen in ten years, even though we are only born two days apart!
(Liz + Ste, cheese + scrabble)
I have had such a lovely time the past few days...so i have decided never to leave London. Sorry suckers - enjoy the Texas humidity, and I will send you a postcard.
Where's my post card!!??
Posted by: Emma | 01/11/2010 at 01:41 PM