London Town

When asked to meet cousin Lauren in London for the beginning of her International trip, I couldn’t say no. To have the opportunity to be able to show Lauren around this city she had herd so much about from the years I lived there excited me, and especially for a first timer! We left sunny Berlin to arrive to the England with the true English weather in tow. Forecast grey skies and rain!

We met Lauren at our hostel, the clink hostel a former magistrates courthouse now restored into a hip hostel. With not much time on our hands we set of on our city exploration, first stop, Mother Mash, you couldn’t get more English. In this restaurant you choose your style of mash, than if you would like a pie or sausages and the flavour, and than to finalise the dish with your choice of gravy, washed down with a bulmers cider this was a dream. Welcome back to the UK! We spent most of the afternoon shopping on Oxford and Carnaby streets when we got stuck in a terential downpour, which led us into one of my favourite local pubs for a few hours. The Spanish bar of Oxford Street reminds me of a mini cherry bar back home. The jukebox is full of golden oldies and we drank the afternoon away chatting to some characters! As soon as the rain cleared up we were off to Camden to meet some of my friends from the old times and have some reunion drinks.

Day two we all chose something we wanted to see and do. Lauren chose to visit the Queen and that we did. We started the morning directly to Buckingham palace with the whords of tourists in the distance we set of on our own walking tour of London. Next stop was 10 Downing Street to see the prime minister. Hunger set in and we decided we needed a Full English Breakfast, thinking a pub across the road from Downing Street this would be good right. The plate may as well as been deep-fried, enough said!

Kayla’s choice fit right into our walk along the Thames for a visit to the Tate Modern. This was a first for me so I was intrigued to see, Lauren was more excited she could get free wifi inside! The galleries are set inside a former power station and houses the works of international modern and contempory art dating back to the 1900 until today. I thought I wouldn’t be so interested in this gallery but it was actually quite amazing.

After a long afternoon of walking and sightseeing we went to East London for a last chance to shop in the vintage shops and record stores before meeting some more friends for some fish and chips and some last drinks calling it a semi early night as our flight was at stupid O’clock which meant we were up at 4am to get to the budget airport for our flight to Malta.