Wednesday, February 29, 2012

6 days in London town...

If I was asked to describe London in one word it would have to be (as uncreative as this is) : Beautiful...perhaps it is because we are currently living extremely central with the London Eye and Big Ben just around the corner, Covent Garden a 5 min walk and Trafalgar Square right outside our window...that could be it...tip: in order to live in such amazing surroundings you either have to be a banker, be with a banker or just have a banker as a family member and you are golden!

Since I am sitting in bed right now waiting on some working news and T is out being super productive and finding us a flat (yes I will now call all apartments flats)...Let me share a little play by play of how our first few days were...
So we arrived Friday morning, 8:30ish...Gatwick airport. T and I were sitting right beside the exit door on the plane which at first was slightly terrifying but did provide us with TONS of leg room...So its 8:30am London time...so 3:30 am T-dot time, at this point I have probably slept for an hour and a half and poor T has absolutely no sleep under his belt...(there was quite a bit of turbulence...Apparently I can sleep through anything).
8:30- we run out of the plane, the first to get out...feeling a little bit like we are on the amazing race. We meet a friendly airport worker who takes us on a short cut to passport control. We are pretty much the first ones there. T with his EU passport walks through like he owns the place, they didn't ask him a single question! I probably took a few extra minutes but by 8:45 we were waiting for our bags...

***side note: complaining that 23kilos is NOT enough when moving across the ocean is fine...realizing how heavy and uncomfortable carrying that much weight is totally sucks...

-our bags take a little while, but all pop out of the bag hole in one piece and we are soon on our way to buy train tickets. By around 9:15 tickets are purchased and we lug our elevendy billion pounds of bags out towards the platform. I really should not be complaining as T was carrying most of the bags...champ.
Right away we meet a super friendly couple who ask us a million questions about Canada, the weather and that kind of thing. They give us tips on what our first purchases should be and where to stand with our bags to insure that we get on the train. The train ride takes about a half hour. The taxi takes another 10 and now we are standing outside our destination...Cousin greets us with hugs and kisses, shows us his flat (super nice) and then we start running around the city like crazy people.

-First we go to the bank to see if my card still works...it does! We schedule T an appointment and with persistence make it for the same day instead of Monday. At the bank our adviser suggests cell phone providers so we run off to get that done before the bank meeting. By 2pm I have our cell phones and T is at the bank. We schedule a few flat viewings for the next day...By 4 we take an hour nap because at this point we can not see straight...
-8pm uncle comes storming in our room calling us lazy Canadians and rushing us out for dins. I guess we did not hear the alarm clock...semi rested we are taken to an AMAZING outdoor market with the best chorizo sandwiches, hot cider and fresh olives.
Overall our first day/night is perfect.
-Day 2:
-Have super delish coffee...
-Walk uncle to the train station
side note: The weather here is absolutely perfect! Warm and sunny. Flowers are blooming in parks and girls are wearing open toed heels...
-Spend the day traveling to what seems like WAAYY outside the city to look at places that are not even close to what we were expecting...
-Accidentally come across borough market I was impressed with myself for remembering where it was...no big deal.
-Came home pooped after taking overground trains, underground tubes, buses, walking and getting lost...
-Took a nap and by 9 pm were out and going to a house party. It is nice to know people in the city.
-House party was great, we met a bunch of really cool people, actually a lot of them seemed to be in the same boat as us which was pretty cool.
-Had to leave early because of the train schedules, but once back in central London we got some food and sat by the art gallery at Trafalgar Square and ate dinner on the steps. :)
....

perhaps this is enough for now...I will write more later. Stay tuned for day 3-6 perhaps later tonight. 


V.

3 comments:

  1. i could see it all when reading ! I can only imagine how beautiful it is. Europe is just alive. I'm so happy for you and cannot cannot cannot come visit.

    <3 also msg me your phone number !!

    milles bisous

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  2. Loves, this makes me soooo happy!
    Congratulations on surviving your first couple of days!

    How are tulips popping outta the ground while we here in Montreal are still enduring -10 temperatures. Lame!

    Keep writing, this blog is now in my favourites tabs :)
    Missing you sweetheart,

    -Moni

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds incredible and like you guys will have no problem settling right in :) love you and miss you lots!! Xox

    ReplyDelete