Adventures with Becky & Sydney

Hmm, that looks like a train. Are we taking a trip?
Where are we going?

Pretty sure that one didn't need translation.
But... is that an airport?

On a plane? It's been two months since I've
been on a plane, but before that,
the last month I didn't fly anywhere was January.
Strange... Where could we be going?

Another train? Seriously, where are we going?

Oh, gotcha.

Weekend in London!!

With Becky studying in London, and it being my favourite city (rivaled only by my love of home) I figured what better way to spend a weekend than flying over to see her. And it was actually much cheaper than trying to visit her when we're in the States.

Where can you find anything and everything
a chap can unload... by the barrel?

First up was Portobello Road! We got there just before closing and wandered up and down the street. There was definitely lots of variety, but I'm not sure I would have gone with "anything and everything." We also watched "Guardians of the Galaxy" which was much funnier than I was expecting. Movie tickets were more expensive than I was expecting, especially after spending 3 months in an Estonia that is cheaper than home, especially in food.

The next morning, I was up a bit early and headed just down the street from my hostel to the London house used in "The Parent Trap!" Oreos and peanut butter and my day would have been perfect (though the day was pretty incredible)! From there I met up with Becky and Sydney and we headed to Camden. I've never been to any market like the Camden market. We were there for 3 hours, I think, and didn't even cover half of it. It's just so massive!!

With unpredictable whether, we headed next to the Tower of London to see the poppies. There had been lots of warnings on the Tube that the station nearest the Tower was packed, but we took a chance. Seeing the massive line outside, we opted against going into the Tower and to just look at the poppies outside. However, that seemed to have been everyone's plan. It was absolutely packed. We stood in a mob, tip-toeing forward inch by inch until we could get a decent view of the poppies. This would be the picture I got with the least number of people in it. :) When we left, we headed up the street to find a different Tube station. Not going through Tower Hill again!

I'm not sure what I expected from the Sherlock Holmes museum, but I don't think its reality was it. It definitely had that Victorian feel, creaky floors and all. The third floor had waxworks from various adventures, even one of the giant Hound of Baskerville. Certainly a lot of people in a small space takes away from the effect of the building, but it was still interesting to see, especially the recreations of bits of evidence from the stories. 

Chinese food (Hiina köök) is my favourite, and I haven't been to a Chinese restaurant since before I left (and I don't remember if I even went to Canton House as part of my "I'm leaving, eat all the things" menu). So for dinner we went to a little, completely legit Chinese restaurant and I filled myself with wanton and sweet and sour pork. So happy. 

It just so happens that I returned to London for the Doctor Who season finale, balancing out my being in town for the premiere, though Doctor Who didn't appear on all the Tube screens like last time. So we had a night in, complete with chocolate oranges, and had a Doctor Who marathon before watching the finale. I can only imagine what we sounded like to Sydney in our reactions to that last episode. I can't wait for Christmas!!

The next morning started with a walk through Hyde Park to visit Kensington Palace. We saw swans in the pond, archery on the green, and kids playing all sorts of games. Clearly it's the place to be on a Sunday morning. We went into the gift shop and looked around for a bit, they had the most gorgeous tea sets. Becky and I talked about the gifts we had gotten and were planning to get for family back home. How time flies; it's closing in on Christmas! Especially in Europe where there's nothing standing between Halloween and the winter holidays. 

 The most exciting part of our English walk was this squirrel. We'd watched it cozy up to a small child, but was chased away by another. It headed straight for us and sat up on it's hind legs to beg, evidently well-fed by Londoners. Leaning down to take a picture, it must have thought I had food and crawled right up on my boot. It headed for Becky next, and I caught this picture, otherwise nobody would believe how close the little guy got.
    Afterward we headed to brunch at a little tea shop Becky had been to. We had to wait for a few minutes as the place was packed (Sunday brunch crowd, completely non-existent in Estonia). BLT Panini, Devon cream and jam on tea cakes, and a pot of Earl Grey. I knew I'd been missing having tea all the time, but I hadn't realized how much. That probably added to the taste, since those were the best cups of tea I've ever had. Might have to go out more frequently here and test the tea water.
  We picked up Sydney and headed to Platform 9 3/4. It was not at all where I expected it to be. You'd think that it would be somewhere near any kind of platform, if not actually between Platforms 9 & 10. But no, it's in a place easily accessible to the public, in the general open space of Kings Cross. Just around the corner is a Harry Potter spot, so of course we went in, but managed to not spend all the money.

The Natural History Museum was right across the street from my hostel, and somewhere Becky and Sydney had been wanting to visit. We'd been hoping to go skating out front, but didn't get around to it. We did go through the dinosaur exhibit, and I saw a few more while Becky was working on schoolwork. Here's us an a T-Rex head!

 I spent some time wandering, moving from Tube to Tube, and came out at Westminster, looking for a good shot of the Houses of Parliament. I came out at the base of Westminster Tower. Completely unexpected, I literally stepped out of the station and looked directly up the side of Westminster Tower, which had falling poppies projected on the side.

The last thing we did was head to dinner. We went to an American diner, where I piled up on American food, of which Estonia has only one known location... in Tallinn. Coconut milkshake, pile of cajun fries, and mac & cheese. Mac and cheese isn't even a thing here. :( Once again, so happy.


All in all, a fabulous weekend in London. I love the city, and I loved getting to see Becky before she heads back home. It was nice to hear English (not that there isn't English here, it's just much more stunted), and not have to worry that I'll be addressed in a language I don't understand. I did have to overcome the urge to start and end every interaction in Estonian like I've become accustomed to doing here. I certainly did more cross-European comparing that I did against America this time. Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of European life. Thanks for showing me around, Becky!