So I decided to go to London earlier this month. And by “decided” I mean “tagged along with my friend Yiannis.” This was the third time I’ve been there. The first was for a two-week course for library school, and the second was also with Yiannis during our first Paris trip. I love London so I was pretty psyched.
Just two problems: 1) I had to work the night before until 10, then get up for an eight A.M. flight, and 2) I was coming down with a cold. Needless to say I felt like shit waking up. I crawled out of bed at four, and moments later got a text from Yiannis saying he was already on the subway platform. I had a moment of panic before reminding myself I was splurging on a Lyft.
We got through security around the same time and got breakfast at Shake Shack. I had their sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. SO GOOD. The wait to get on the flight didn’t feel too long, nor did the flight itself (it was just six hours). I watched Tag, during which I fell asleep, and Life of the Party, which was unexpectedly good. I think I watched something else but I can’t remember.
Lunch was also surprisingly yummy. I got the chicken meatballs with pasta. Plus! Free wine! Yiannis turned his down after which I mentally kicked him. I totally would have taken it and saved it for later.
Getting through customs took FOREVER. They had very few people working until we got near the front of the line, and finally all these workers showed up. Afterward we just splurged on a cab. We asked a couple of people about Uber, but it seemed like a lot of trouble.
The AirBnB was pretty nice albeit spare. At least it seemed clean and new. After we dropped off our stuff, we hit the grocery store, where I immediately had an unpleasant experience with one of the cashiers. She was Indian with a heavy accent yet she kept talking to me like I didn’t know English. What the fuck
Except for that, I enjoyed the area. We were in Notting Hill and walking distance to a couple of subway stations, a street with lots of stores, restaurants, and markets (even an Asian one, we’d find out later), and Hyde Park. But the area right around our apartment was quiet (except for one night that someone had a party into the wee hours).
As I mentioned, the place was nice but not exactly cozy. However, it was a better deal than a hotel since we each had our own room, there was a washing machine, and the kitchen allowed us to cook at home if we wanted rather than spending money on restaurants every day. Plus our host left us some food, including oatmeal, tea, bread, milk, coffee, and eggs.
But that didn’t stop us from eating out quite a bit. Next up: eats and drinks!