#euroricks, part three

today i will share the second half of our london experience with you. part of it is pretty dorky, so if you're going to judge me on that a) quit reading and b) quit judging people that's a bad habit.

i left off just before telling you about my favorite day of our trip. this is the day we took a train from euston to watford junction, hopped on the tackiest double decker of all time, and arrived at the warner bros. studio tour of the harry potter dynasty. can i just? if you don't know this already (and you do, i know you do), jett and i are potterheads. jett read them as they came out because he's a cool kid, and i read them during a dark season of my life and they ripped me out of the depths and into a whole new world. we have taken a couple of trips to the wizarding world of harry potter - and most certainly are ready to go back since diagon alley is about to open woop woop - but this was the real deal. warner bros. has seized the money-making opportunity to turn the studios where the majority of the harry potter films were created. that was absolutely the first part of our trip that we planned, so the excitement was strong, man.

excited enough to precariously balance my camera on a rounded pole

out of respect for you and your loved ones, i will limit myself here. but i am still going to show off a few pictures and relive it while i document. the tour began in the great hall. THE GREAT HALL. the actual great hall. i was totally composed. did not tear up like at all. they had all sorts of props set up around the room and the costumes worn by the hogwarts professors were lined up at the top of the room. i took 27,000 photos and pushed one or twelve children. like physically pushed them. after we nerded out in there for a bit, they pried our fingers off the door jambs and moved us into the next area. from here, the rest of the tour was self-guided so we got to take our time checking everything out. there were almost thirty different "stations" set up that you could wander to. some were the actually sets and some were highlighting things like costume design and special effects. i could go on for days about this so i will show you pictures of my top three things i was most excited to see. okay top five.

so there was dumbledore's office including the pensieve (which is my favorite literary creation of all time) and the sorting hat and the sword of gryffindor.

dumbledore's office

then all of the character's wands were in one shiny display case. i decided that i would be super pissed if i were harry potter and then they took my wand from me for a studio tour. i digress.

all of the wands in one place

next was the gryffindor common room. this is a picture of the fireplace that sirius used to talk to harry in the goblet of fire. alas, no face in the coals.

GRRRRRRYFFINDOR!

they had a few of the walls from the ministry of magic's lobby. this was probably my favorite set in the films and it was cool to see how huge the walls were! they also had the spooky "magic is might" statue that stood in the middle of the fountain in the seventh film. i would like to add that jett is standing over my shoulder drinking from a ministry of magic mug right now. carry on.

ministry of magic

last and probably the coolest was seeing the potions classroom. it was changed a lot throughout the series based on how much action was going down in there, but this was the final set that they created for the half-blood prince. it was eerie!

potions classroom, photobomb by severus snape

the tour took us outside to see the knight bus, #4 privet drive, james and lily's house in godric's hollow, and a part of the bridge to hogwarts that we got to walk through. then we went back inside to see all kinds of props and drawings and finally to see the giant hogwarts model that was used to film all of the aerial shots. all in all, i think the nerd factor was off the charts, but we are equally ridiculous about this particular thing so it was amazing. we also picked up a copy of harry potter and the philosopher's stone from the gift shop and it might be my favorite souvenir. and now i want to re-read all the books.

THIS IS THE PLACE TO START READING AGAIN IF YOU ARE SCROLLING THROUGH THE THICKNESS OF THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM.

fast forwarding back to london, we took the tube to mansion house and crossed the very cool millennium bridge with a great view of st. paul's cathedral behind us and the majesty of the tate modern before us. this was the museum i was most looking forward to for some reason (gasp, not the louvre?!) so this was shaping up to be the best day of my life so far. we headed straight to the top floor's restaurant that boasts some beautiful views of the thames. they were offering an afternoon tea service so we decided to have a seat and partake. this was something that i was really wanting to do while in london and i was happy to check it from my bucket list. we each had our own pot of tea along with a three-tiered tea stand full of sweet and savory treats including macarons, tiny cakes, scones, and inexplicably delightful finger sandwiches.

why are these little sandwiches so appealing?

we quickly demolished (i wish i could use daintier verbiage here. alas.) everything on our table, teacups and all, and then headed down to the lower levels to check out some artwork. there is only so much one can say about a visit to an art museum, but it was my first time seeing a picasso in real life (that i remember at least) and i cried a little bit. there was also quite a bit of salvador dali's work that was so intriguing. jett was eating it up.

after a couple of hours of "mm yes" and "how interesting" and "this one makes me feel like springtime on the inside" and other things that curators mutter, we bowed out of the tate and headed toward our dinner reservation at the electric diner. we were a bit late for our reservation, so they seated us at a bar overlooking the grill so we could watch the cooks sneeze into our food while we were waiting on it. just kidding. they sneezed in the back. we ordered some delightfully delicious food - a roast beef sandwich with a horseradish sauce that was everything i want in life ever for me and a larger than life double cheeseburger for jett - and tried a few local beers and ciders in the mean time. i got to try a beer that was brewed a block or two away from the house we stayed in! we had a blast talking to the cooks and our waitress and just enjoyed the humming sound of drunk brits yelling over fellow drunk brits. brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

behold: brilliance on a plate

after dinner, we walked all of eight feet to our next destination: the electric cinema. you guys. this is what heaven is like. i promise you that. we walked into a vintage-esque cinema complete with fresh cakes and adult beverages served from a bar at the back of the room and a charmingly lamplit seating area filled with high quality leather armchairs for each guest. there were tables in between each chair and a personal ottoman for you to rest your stinky feet on. a cashmere blanket was provided for each guest. i have no idea why i am not still there right now. we bought our tickets to see godzilla several months in advance and what a good idea it turned out to be! you know it's a good sign when the locals are asking you how you heard about this place.

absolutely living the life

for those wondering, seeing godzilla in 3D was shockingly good. we ended that night with a much recommended ride home with one of london's famous cabbies. these guys know their stuff! we were about a thirty minute drive away from our flat, so we were pretty grateful to not be on a night bus. our cabbie gave us history on everything we drove past and told us some fun stories about other people he had hauled around. after that exhaustingly satisfying day, we crashed hard once we got back home.

our final day in london found us exploring the portobello road market on a saturday morning. there were blocks and blocks of street vendors selling everything from antiques to leather purses to tacky tourist uniforms to falafel. we slowly wandered along the street, weaving in and out of shops and thumbing through racks of crap hoping to find some treasures. once we got tired/ran out of money, we stopped for some tapas at la bodega right on portobello.  we snacked on calamari rings and prawn croquettes and chorizo and meatballs and all kinds of things until we became too full to keep our eyes open.

fruit stand at portobello market

after a long morning of shopping on portobello, the natural choice was to move to oxford street and do some more shopping. we stopped at selfridge's, an enormous department store, and checked out five levels of electronics, make up, clothes, home goods, and everything in between. i found a cath kitson booth out of which jett had to physically remove my body. but not before i snagged a really cute blanket (that will later make an appearance at the eiffel tower). nailed it. we went up to the top floor and geeked out over all the cool food stuffs they had to offer then got a little sad when we saw the "american" aisle full of teddy grahams and boxed mac and cheese. pity.

we headed back to the flat to freshen up aka nap before heading out for dinner. we decided to spend our final evening exploring bermondsey. per our host's recommendation, we walked a short ten minutes to a neat little pub called the woolpack that was full of twenty somethings watching rugby. we headed up a tight spiral staircase to an empty-ish room and cozied up in the corner with a couple of pints and some fish and chips to end the trip correctly.

look! locals! watching rugby! drinking pints!

after dinner we took the long way home and came across a block party/neighborhood market that was happening. there were several rows of booths filled with freshly cooked food, tempting sweets, and homemade crafts. of course i was starting to feel nostalgic so i snagged a few postcards and trinkets while jett drooled over all the food offerings. we were drawn like moths to a flame to a liquid nitrogen ice cream bar. you could pick your flavors in liquid form, then they would use liquid nitrogen to turn it into ice cream. IT WAS SO COOL. probably not great for me but whatev. i got a peanut butter popcorn nutella concoction that was just as good as it sounds.

notice the "please do not remove from pub" shirt

after the scientifically advanced frozen treat, we decided london could offer us nothing more. after one more night in our blissful little flat, we headed back to st. pancras international, taking a brief detour to king's cross for a few platform 9 and 3/4 pictures, and waited for the eurostar that would take us to our final destination: paris.

that leaves us at our stopping point. stay tuned if you want to hear about how much wine we drank with cooper in paris!

#euroricks, part two

wotcha! i decided it was time to sit down and give the people what they want: part two of our trip. it should also be noted that no one has asked for this blog post. it should also also be noted that because this post is unnecessarily long and detailed, i had to break it in half.

we spent four beautiful days in london and let me just tell you that i could spend four years in london before i got my fill. this was my favorite city on the trip for so many reasons. from the moment we stepped off our eurostar train onto the platform in st. pancras international station, i was impressed by the cleanliness and efficiency of the city. the station itself was a beautiful sight, and we seamlessly bought our oyster cards and hopped on the tube to begin our journey to our apartment on the other end of town. this was literally the only easy travel experience we had up to that point, so i have a soft spot in my heart for that swampy, sweaty picadilly line. two stops later and we were above ground and hopping onto the iconic red double-decker bus that you see in the movies (which movies? that one with the olsen twins in london for sure. oh, and that friends episode. i need culture.) it went straight through the city and stopped steps away from our front porch on grange street and would be our number one transport mode for the next few days. we hiked our suitcases up to the top deck (another i-am-so-grateful-for-my-carry-on-only-right-now moment) and parked ourselves in the front row. if you have ever been on a london bus, you know that the front row seat on the top deck is THE BEST SEAT because you get a close-up view of the city and you're just right in the thick of it. it was really neat to travel through the streets and pick out landmarks and get our bearings.

i want to painstakingly describe our place in london because i think that it might possibly be the best flat in all of creation. we stayed in a studio that was in our host sarah's home in bermondsey, an up and coming neighborhood near the tower bridge. it was a large, white, three-story home on the corner with a beautiful front yard and a perfectly pruned garden in the backyard. our place was on the second floor and when sarah opened our door to welcome us, i think a single tear rolled down my cheek.

the definition of hospitality

it was so beautiful and bright and cheery and you could almost taste the hospitality. or wait, maybe it was the local farmer's market strawberries and pears i was tasting. i get confused. the king-sized bed was comfortable and enormous, the antique table under the bay window flanked by beautiful floor-to-ceiling burlap drapes with two green velvet medallion chairs tucked underneath was the perfect place for writing (i journaled over 100 pages on our trip... so that was essential). there was a little kitchen tucked in the back right corner equipped with all the essentials - micro fridge, toaster, electric kettle for tea and porridge-making - and a small kitchen sink surrounded by a stainless steel drainboard. she even stocked it with her favorite apricot and black currant jams, some yoghurt (YAHG-urt), porridge, and a variety of teas as well as a freshly ground bag of coffee. what hospitality skills you have, sarah.

her majesty, the clawfoot tub

i haven't even told you about the best part: our adjacent, private bathroom was equipped with a room standing glass shower and the most magnificent stand alone clawfoot tub in the middle of the room. AND A TOWEL WARMER. have i mentioned that i asked her how much she would charge for me to live there for forever and ever? (spoiler alert: it was just over my budget) pictures can't capture the charm of this place. they just can't. you'll just have to go and stay there yourselves.

on westminster bridge

okay, enough about the flat. we grabbed our rick steves bible and headed off to westminster. we started halfway across the westminster bridge (where i have never seen more asians in my entire life and i have been to japan) for stunning views of big ben and the houses of parliament. turning around gave you a panoramic view of the london eye, the city, and the thames. i snapped several billion photos as we made our way past westminster abbey (we did not go inside because it is expensive and we are but a dental hygienist and a pharmacy student, for the love) and several other monumental happenings that i knew very little about as we strolled along parliament square and whitehall. we passed the prime minister's digs at #10 downing street (where the true hp fans know that rufus scrimgeuor gave the pm the low-down on wizarding drama). we got to see the horse guards that protect one of the entrances of kensington palace and caught them changing guard. jett got to take a picture next to one of them and i got to apologize profusely for the very nature of his being. just your typical tourist-y day.

just trying to blend in with the locals

we ended our walk at trafalgar square, just sitting on the steps of the national gallery and watching the cabbies and bus drivers fight for their place in traffic while trying not to kill the bikers in the enormous roundabout that encircles the lion statue-guarded nelson's column. once we got hungry enough to make a move, we walked a few yards over to have some draught cider in the stuffy opera room at the chando's pub situated next to st. martin's. we snagged a bench seat under a tiny window overlooking the street below and ordered some typical pub grub - fish and chips for me and a steak and ale pie for the mister - and shoveled it down among the buzz of londoners catching up over some pints after a long day at work.

because you can't not have fish and chips

we still had one more task to complete before we could call it a day: the london eye. we strolled along waterloo and crossed the bridge and made it to the eye just in time to buy some over-priced tickets and hop into a glass-walled capsule filled with thirty of the most intrusive human beings that have ever existed in the history of space and time. i fully expect a hand-written letter from the president of italy apologizing for the people he cranked out. we managed to take some great pictures of dusk approaching the cityscape in the thirty minutes it took to go around before we headed back to our nest for the night.

the most expensive view in london

our next day found us exploring in the british museum, poring over ancient artifacts such as the rosetta stone that i didn't feel privileged enough to see. after three hours of relic-viewery (that's a thing), hanger gripped us in her strong, unrelenting hands. we stumbled out of the dark museum and into the bright and busy streets of london, desperately searching for sustenance. what were once streets lined with restaurants of every nature were now desolate alleyways, containing useless shops with nothing edible. we wandered for forty days and forty nights until we came upon a chain restaurant called wasabi that featured grab-and-go plates of sushi and other japanese manna. we settled on a sushi-variety platter and some wonton soup and perched on a couple of stools at the bar facing the street and multi-tasked powering up and people watching - two of our favorite activities.

hot hub chillin' with the rosetta stone

with a renewed will to live, we set off to explore the west end. starting in leicester square, we took in the shakespeare statue and the onslaught of theaters and tried for a cheap day-of-show ticket to see a show. having no luck, we decided to press on to covent garden, which was heavy-laden with street performers and throngs of easily persuaded folks (moooooo). we took some time window-shopping and doing some ever-popular putzing. i all but passed out when saw a laduree on the corner and promptly marched inside and ordered a sampling of a few flavors to get my fix before landing in the mothership in paris. we swooped upstairs to a popular pub called punch and judy's to rest our feet and have a pint. then, just buzzed enough to be sleepy and sugar-drunk, we made our way toward the seven dials at cambridge circus, passing through the hippieville known as neal's yard. we visited the flagship neal's yard dairy to sample some stinky cheeses and picked up a wedge of a delicious goat cheese. we headed to soho and decided to make it our final destination. we plopped onto the grass in the square and tried to pretend like we belonged. 'twas lovely.

there is no happier mallory than the one armed with treats

i will take a moment to pause and comment on the food in london. whoever says that the food in london is dreadful is looking in all the wrong places. the entire city is equipped with healthy grab-and-go places (like the sushi place that healed us) and the variety of sit-down restaurants was astounding. so many different cultures and cuisines! after soho square, we walked through the streets of soho and stumbled upon a pungent thai restaurant called @siam and decided to give it a whirl to let jett satisfy his spicy tooth (oh, it's a thing). while the waitstaff was less than impressed with our constant need for refills of free tap water (EUROPEANS ARE A DEHYDRATED PEOPLE), the food was spot on.

tom kha gai with coconut rice

our next two days were equally as eventful as the first two, so it's in everybody's best interest that i continue this in another post. there's some super exciting and nerdy harry potter stuff coming up, guys. please use the next few days to adequately prepare yourselves.