Perhaps a little late to be reminiscing about our life in London - now sitting at 1 year and 10 months since departing; but better now than never! London - one last tribute, here it is.Also hoping that this post sparks off a better run of consistent blogging, as we have dropped off a bit. Distracted about plans to revamp this site to be more responsive and search engine friendly; unfortunately the core element - the writing content then dwindled away. Stay tuned for the revamp - it will happen. It was a new year's resolution after-all and those are never made to be broken!
Returning to London
In our last post, we had returned to Paris for one final trip. However in chronological order that trip happened before our 5 month journey kicked off. So where does this one fit in? Go one post back and we were saying goodbye to the Balkans in Montenegro, did a short stopover in Belgrade and flew back to London during the last week of August 2015.
The brief for this three day stop-over was quite simple:
1. Re-pack our bags - and dump (via a shipping box) about 10kg of clothes that we had over-packed and trucked around Southern Europe in Summer. Goodbye heavy raincoat!
2. Check that we got our rental bond back.
3. Go and see some sites in London that we have loved over the years.
Staying at our Uncle Collin's place near Clapham, we met up for a pint, then dinner in the Junction. The nearby post-office provided the stationary for our packing activities and soon we had a box to ship back. But not all the items were Australian Customs friendly - so the bottle of Tia Maria and can of foie gras had to stay put.
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| Dinner with fellow expat friends - one of those happy memories of London |
Walking around London
With so little time in the Capital - it was a sense of too little too late. Mei had realised that one of the historic sites that she had always wanted to see - inside of Westminster's Abbey, would not be logistically possible this trip. Despite passing this building often, it is only when there is a sense of 'deadline' that priorities come into play. Oh well, a future trip to London is on the list.
Four sites that we did manage to revisit were:
1. Leadenhall Market: A place where Mei spent many hours with a pint with colleagues
2. Borough Market: The roast pork rolls, paella with chorizo, hot cider and the never 'did' but always wanted to - queue for raclette.
3. The Rose Window near London Bridge: Part of the 12th Century Winchester Palace, this was one of the first historic sites we saw after we arrived in 2011. Passing the Bankside cobblestone area, the replica Golden Hind, and Southwark Cathedral; all became part of our regular London routine.
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| Rose Window, Winchester Palace |
4. The last site was The George Inn on Borough High Street. Visiting this place was more about redeeming its reputation to us, than great cuisine. Sure it had history - Charles Dicken's had visited it and made a reference in the book: Little Dorrit - but back in 2011 we had eaten our worst meal in London there. To make things worse, we had newly arrived (even used one of our 50 GBP notes from Australia). The food was so horrible - a pie of indistinguishable ingredients, soggy cold chips and warm bland beer; it had a bad impression. Thankfully, the visit in 2015 left us with better memories of London pubs.
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| Pints of Ale |
Memorable Meals
A few more meals in London wrap up this post because eating around town was one of our favourite activities.
Searcys at The Gherkin
Looking at London's skyline - Mei received a crystal version from a work colleague; the football shaped Gherkin building is a memorable architectural structure. Finding out that the top level was actually a restaurant, Mei was keen to dine there.
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| Roof of the Gherkin |
Celebrating Olie's 35th birthday with an long lunch and champagne to enjoy the views; London turned on its trademark gloominess. The food brought the colour and so did a nice touch of Happy Birthday in chocolate writing on a plate delivered by the staff.
Il Bordello
Our go-to Italian restaurant in the nearby suburb of Wapping, we visited with our German friend Basti for pasta, prosciutto and pizza. Never disappointed us - we recommend booking on the weekends as this place is a firm favourite across town.
Brick Lane and the area around Old Spitalfields Market was another favourite place to visit after the work week. The most famous salt beef bagels that are pumped out to queuing customers at all hours is a City institution. We finally visited it and definitely lived up to the hype.
On a Friday night, street food markets with trucks and pop-ups start appearing to service the after-work crowd. We loved the Urban Food Fest for the choices on offer and also the big jugs of Sangria.
The best way to end our last blog post on London is with something truly British - a Sunday Roast of thick slices of beef, yorkshire pudding and potatoes.
Next blog post:
South America
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