London – Day 2

for all my foodie friends, today was a great eating day.  Mmm, here we go:

Slept in a bit because I was up late the night before responding to emails – I knew I shouldn’t have checked, but it was the end of the Seattle work day when I got back from the theater so I wanted to have a quick glance and handle anything urgent before Monday.  I managed to get my inbox back under 250 before going to bed, so I felt better about that.  Once I was ready to go, I caught the tube over to Notting Hill to check out the infamous Portabello Road Market.  A block away from the tube station I saw a woman eating a great looking crepe and made that my first mission of the day – luckily the stand was easy to spot, just after the first block of the market.  I got Nutella and it was a yummy breakfast.

 The market spans several blocks and was PACKED.  I would not want to live in this part of town – it is an absolute invasion every Saturday.  The first big chunk is all antiques and such, the middle section food, and the the last part clothes and newer items, Plus the street is lined with lots of cute permanent stores.  Just after finishing my crepe I spotted one such store – the Hummingbird Bakery, full of cupcakes.  I would wait to hit that up until I was on my way back. 

Ironically the first market food stand that caught my turned out to Ghanaian food.  They had such a nice set-up I had to go look, and then I spotted the sign – foods of Ghana.  I kept walking at which point I stumbled upon Popina, serving food with soul (aka lots of yummy baked goods).  But I was still full from my crepe, so I wandered more hoping my belly would be empty on my way home.  There was also a paella stand with amazingly large paella pots and a really nice cheese and olive bar (not that I like olives.  It was the big bowl of feta that drew me in.) 

Over in the fashion area of the market I bought a crazy bag made of zippers – wait ’til you see it.  It’s pretty cool.  Other than that there were the usual funky fashions, lots of other bags, screen-printed T’s, jewelry, etc.  Heading back to the train station I was still full, but I bought a quiche from Popina and two cupcakes from Hummingbird to eat later in the day.

Since this was my shopping day, I caught the train over to Knightsbridge, home of Harrods with a Zara, Monsoon and H&M nearby.  Harrods was packed as usual.  I was on a mission for Heidi, looking for these little mints she likes but unfortunately I failed and couldn’t find them anywhere.  Zara was filled with lots of pale colored clothes so nothing there for me.  There was one sundress at Monsoon I liked, but given the exchange rate it was more than I was willing to part with.  H&M though, came through as always, though I only bought two things – a sweater and a T.  The exchange rate really makes you think.  Goods haven’t been too hard to justify, but food has been brutal.  To think my lunch at Wagamama cost $20 and my crepe this morning was $7 is a little nuts, so I’ve just had to ignore it and eat what I want no matter the cost.  I figure it balances out with the two weeks of free food in Ghana.

The weather was starting to get a bit cool and rainy in the afternoon, so I headed home for a couple hours to eat my quiche and escape the rainy for a bit.  While at the hotel I caught up on my blog and and researched my dinner destinantion.  Yesterday while walking around, I had spotted a possible joint over by Covent Garden called Wahaca (yes, using the less common phonetic spelling of Oaxaca).  Those close to me know this is one of my favorite words so I of course was intrigued, plus it looked cool and touted “Market Fresh cooking.”  Looking online it turned out to be one of the newer more popular spots in London, so I was sold. 

Though close to me also know I have a keen sense of direction, but sometimes I even astound myself.  Eleni had loaned me her London A to Z map book which was quite helpful, but I also just enjoy wandering around cities to see what you stumble upon.  As I headed to dinner, I had a pretty good idea of where to go and my map book in hand so I wasn’t too worried.  I caught the bus in front of my hotel over to Piccadilly Circus and then walked over towards Covent Garden.  Thinking through my routes from the previous day when I found Wahaca, I walked almost directly too it without ever checking the map.  Nice.

The restaurant is downstairs from street level and the stairs were lined with other folks waiting for a table.  Since I had no schedule I didn’t mind waiting though I had hoped they would have a bar area I could just jump into.  Once I made it to the front of the line I and inquired as such, the host gave me a makeshift spot at their bar where they don’t usually serve people, but since it was just me, it was perfect.  I started with chips and fresh guac, as well as something called Esquites – corn cooked with onions in a broth.  Both yummy and so good after two weeks of not very good eating.  I also had a tamarind margarita and some chicken tacos.  Having sufficiently entertained the bar staff by sneaking my way into their domain for dinner, I also got a second hibiscus maragarita courtesy of the bartender.  I was tempted by the churros for dessert, but I passed knowing I had a cupcake waiting for me at the hotel.  If anyone goes to london soon, I recommend it:  http://www.wahaca.co.uk/

After dinner I just headed home to pack up and organize – and eat my red velvet cupcake

London – Day 1

 We had an overnight flight from Accra to London, thankfully in business class on BA.  Leaving at 11:30pm there wasn’t much time to enjoy the entertainment system before promptly laying my chair out flat and trying to catch some sleep.  It’s amazing what a difference stretching out can make on a long flight – I think I might need to upgrade my Peru flights now that I’ve had a taste of the good life.  I slept more than I usually do on a plane and was ready to land in London for a couple days of fun. 

Getting through immigration wasn’t too bad, but they clearly have still not fixed all the luggage problems going on at Terminal 4.  It took forever for the bags to come out.  Once they did though, mine was like #3 so I was then off to the tube and into town.  I’m staying at a Hilton in Kensigton that Shelby got an awesome priceline deal on.  It’s out of the center of the city, but still close by, and clean and safe. 

Those of you that have traveled with me know I love the music TV channels, especially in the UK territories.  I hit the jackpot yesterday while getting ready to head out and wander London – check out this Wham! video of a song I’ve never heard of and give thanks to YouTube while you’re at.  This is awesome:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIzVoNq9f9s .  To my road trip posse, this was preceded by BSB “I want it that way” and and followed by S Club 7.  No joke!  How amazing of a triple play is that!?!

Speaking of music, my Brit Pop new music find of the trip is Duffy:  http://www.iamduffy.com She is a welsh singer whose album will not be released in the States until May, but if you’re nice to me I may let you borrow my UK copy.  And, you can thank me later for keeping you informed and on the cutting edge

Anyway, back to London.  It was raining when our plane landed in the morning, but by the time I was ready to set out, the sun had broken out and turned into a good afternoon.  There was a nip in the air, but after two weeks of super muggy heat the chill felt good.  I had no real agenda for this trip except to visit the Tate Modern, the Portabello Market and maybe see a show.  Like New York, London has a half-price ticket booth you can visit day-off and see what shows are trying to fill their houses.  Since I hadn’t seen Spamalot yet, this Monty Python spoof seemed the logical choice for a night out in London.  With ticket in hand, my next stop was lunch at Wagamama, convenently located down teh block from the ticket booth.  Wagamama is a UK chain of Japanese noodle houses beloved by Eleni and they’ve just opened thier first US shop in Boston.

Re-nourished, I walked around the neighbourhood and over to Covent Garden before catching teh tube down to the Tate.  The Tate Modern was still being built the last time I was in London, opening just two months after we left.  It was the talk of the town at the time because it was moving into a huge building on the Thames that formerly housed the electric company, in area that was previously not very developed.  But times have changed – Every little spot along teh water is now being refurbished into mixed-use buildings, with nice walking paths lining the river, winding their way past the ground level bars and restaurants.

The Tate was good.  As with most modern art museums, I left pondering many pieces.  I love the “older” modern art like Miro & Picasso, but then “newer” stuff sometimes leaves me stumped.  (as in “really?  that’s art?  That was hard to create?”)  I was also surprised at how busy it was.

From the museum, I just wandered for awhile along the river, down to the Tower bridge, and walked across. Then I caught the train back towards the West End to find a dinner spot before the show.  I settled on a bar called Suzie Wong which was pretty good and just a couple blocks from my theater. 

 

Spamalot was funny, though sleepy time was definitely starting to catch up with after only having a couple good hours of sleep on the plane.  It was fun to see in London where many of the other audience members were clearly Monty Python fans and had the “in” on some of the jokes and antics.