Lo and I spent 9 beautiful days in London (which was HUGE and which I hope to circle back to at some point this year)! Here are a few of the highlights...
The British Museum
Firstly, this museum was free, which I still can’t get over.
I may have mentioned that Lo and I are really into ancient Egypt, and this was by far the most extensive collection of artifacts and actual MUMMIES we had ever seen.
Also, lots of ancient carvings that were SO PRECISE there’s no way they were done by primitive humans (obviously ancient aliens).
There was some weird shit in here, including the “bog man,” which is an actual human who was trapped and preserved in a bog – which basically breaks down your bones and innards but preserves and tans your skin like leather.
Dinner at Coal Office (Kings Cross)
Remember our friend Stef from the boat? Well, we are forever friends now, so we met up with her and her boyfriend Gavin at this really cool restaurant called Coal Office – which Stef actually DESIGNED, and told us all about the process.
We ordered the ‘chef’s selection’ so we got to try a ton of different dishes (all of which were amazing).
This was the only time we really hung out in the Kings Cross area, but it seemed really cool and interesting.
Dinner @ Sheba and Drinks @ the 10 Bells (Spitalfields)
Sheba is a lively curry house with out of this world food (at very affordable prices, especially by London standards). I really loved how different this neighborhood was from where we were staying.
The highlight of dinner, was of course that we got to meet up with my old pal Champ Superstar!
I know Champ from an old tech meetup group in New Orleans called Net2, where I met most of my favorite people, come to think of it. Years ago, Champ fell in love with an English man and has been living in London ever since (though she has not appropriated an English accent and still sounds charmingly Southern as fuck).
And in true New Orleanian spirit, once dinner was over Champ asked if we wanted to go somewhere cool for drinks.
(Of course we did.)
So she took us to the 10 Bells, rumored to be a favorite hangout spot of Jack the Ripper (and the site of his final kill). Vibes did not disappoint.
There were 3 bars that were major standouts for us:
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Mr. Fogg’s House of Botanicals – the interior transforms you into a magical, nighttime, victorian, botanical garden – and the cocktails are really interesting. (Reservation recommended)
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The Lucky Pig – Lo discovered this semi-hidden basement bar after several hours of research and reviews (after I had chosen several very disappointing spots). The interior is almost like a cave, and there’s a live DJ weekend nights. Cocktails were top notch.
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Simmons – this one isn’t particularly fancy but it has a KILLER happy hour AND you can order cocktails in teapots and I can’t think of anything cuter than that.
Buckingham Palace, The Clocktower, Westminster Abbey (Westminster)
On our last Friday in London, we wandered around the Westminster neighborhood to check out all the “must see” spots. After all, you can’t go to London for the first time and NOT get a glimpse of Buckingham Palace…
There was something going on as we walked up – the little soldier men with the fuzzy hats were marching about and some of them were playing instruments. I’m not sure if there was something special going on this day or if that’s just a regular thing they do for tourists, but we had other things to see so we kept moving.
We decided not to go inside of Westminster Abbey since it was really expensive to get in and the line was really long and we had just gotten spoiled to free museums, so we just did an outside walkabout there, the clock tower, and some other old buildings we didn’t catch the names of.
London is HUGE, and we barely scratched the surface…
Considering we were still working a lot that week, I think we did A LOT, but I can’t wait to go back!
*This concludes the English-speaking country leg of our tour. Shit’s about to get VERY interesting.
Next stop: Paris
