Day 50: Last Day in Europe!!

This morning/early afternoon was rainy. So sad. What a horrible way to start off our last day in Europe... But overall, it was a good day! Left the apartment around noon to go to Borough Market first (Stephanie was a slowpoke so I decided to just capitalize on my time here and meet up with her later haha. Also, I was hungry).  Unfortunately, the full Borough Market isn't open on Mon-Wed, so a lot of the stalls were actually closed... >.< But there were still plenty of food options! For "breakfast", I ordered a plate of Thai coconut pancakes, which looked super cute, and had little things like corn or sesame in the middle. Afterwards, I decided to walk towards Tower Bridge (the famous one). But since it was rainy, it wasn't that much fun, and my lower body got wet.... Luckily it was only a light rain and not a downpour!

Tiny coconut pancakes!

View of Tower Bridge!

At 1:30pm, Stephanie and I met up again, at the entrance to Borough Market (whoo, no mishaps this time!). We then walked around and looked for lunch. I ended up buying a grilled prawn wrap from Applebees (not the same as the American chain!) and Steph bought a Burger-rito at a different place. Dessert was a nectarine from a fruit merchant for me, and gelato for Stephanie! Then we took the tube back to South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum.

Making my grilled prawn wrap!

The Natural History Museum was actually super crowded today! (Stephanie had gone a few days ago with her family and it wasn't as bad) So crowded that we didn't even feel like going to see the regular exhibits after finishing with the special exhibit we came to see. The special exhibit was a photography exhibit by Sebastião Salgado, called Genesis, which captured images from 5 different isolated areas of the world to emphasize the importance of nature and pristine wilderness. It was really awesome, and I totally bought postcard prints of my favorite pieces!

Cover photo for the special exhibit!

After the museum, we walked around for a bit to explore more of the area, and then took the tube back home in time to go out to dinner with Steph's aunt's family. We went to this really nice Japanese restaurant called Dinings. (Only took photos on my camera though...) We got a mix of sushi and other appetizers, and a few main courses. All the dishes were very inventive, and sooo delicious! Especially impressive was the miso glazed cod! The cook on the fish was amazing! Super grateful Steph's aunt was able to take us there!

Sorry for today's somewhat haphazard blogpost: BUT I'M HEADING HOME TOMORROWWWW! ^___^ See you all back in the States!

Day 49: Afternoon Tea

Today was another very chill day. (See a pattern yet?) Didn't really leave the house til 2pm, (I think that's a record for us) and I think literally all I did while out today was eat haha. Also, the rain is crazy here! This morning I went down to the kitchen and it was POURING! But then 5 minutes later, it had all stopped and the sun had come out! And luckily, it didn't rain for the rest of the day! (Aside from some sprinkling in the evening)

We left around 2pm, and took the tube to Piccadilly Circus for afternoon tea. As we got there before our reservation, we decided to go to Gelupo, a popular gelato place nearby. (It's actually made by the same people as the restaurant from yesterday, Bocca di Lupo) It's pretty pricy, but they have a lot of unique flavors and ingredients! I opted for a double scoop with Salted Caramel and Pecan, and Coriander Stracciatella! I was actually disappointed in the salted caramel, because I didn't feel like the flavor was strong enough, but the coriander stracciatella was super tasty! Not only is it such a unique flavor, but it just tasted super fresh! (And the texture was great. If you haven't noticed, I'm really big on textures in gelato)

Salted Caramel and Pecan & Coriander Stracciatella!

*Sidenote: If you didn't know already, UK English has a lot of different names for vegetables (the reason for which I have no idea). For example: Eggplant - Aubergine; Zucchini - Courgette; Cilantro - Coriander! Totally forgot about the Cilantro - Coriander part initially when I was ordering (I was thinking Coriander was Clove...), and was expecting Clove-flavored ice cream instead of Cilantro! But good thing I like cilantro, so it was a neat surprise!

Next we went for Afternoon Tea at a cute little place called Soho's Secret Tea Room. Why secret? Because it's actually situated above a bar, and you have to go in and ask the bartender for afternoon tea before he'll buzz you up to the 2nd floor. The room was pretty small, and filled with little tables with cute, vintage plates and cups. The whole feel was very vintage, especially with their record player going!

We opted to go for the full afternoon tea, although it was pretty pricy at £17.50... It came with tea, sandwiches, scones, jam/clotted cream, and cakes! Stephanie ordered the standard English Breakfast tea, but I decided to try the Gen Mai Cha, which is actually a Chinese green tea with rice! Had a very nutty flavor, which was neat, but it also didn't seem like a typical tea you'd drink in London haha. When the cakes/sandwiches came out, it all looked SO cute on the cake stand! We shamelessly took our photos, and got to work eating! The one thing we didn't anticipate: Not having enough stomach space for so many sweets! We literally hit a wall after eating all the sandwiches and scones. Managed to finish most of the cupcake and berry tart, but then were way to full to finish the rest... What a waste! It really would have been more practical (and cheaper!) to order just tea, sandwiches and scones, a la carte.

Afterwards, we walked over to Covent Garden for shopping, but it wasn't as exciting as we expected... The Apple Market, which had actual stands selling wares wasn't that interesting, and the actual stores were pretty much all chains... They also have a Shake Shack there! (Which Steph was tempted to try for dinner, but then the line was super long) We also passed a Five Guys on the way! Apparently it just opened, and on July 4th too haha.

Covent Garden

Goofing off...

PANDA SUIT ONESIE!!! I totally would have bought it if it weren't £35... T_T

For dinner, I actually met up with Annie Pan! (friend from high school) She's currently finishing up law school, and I literally haven't seen/talked to her in ages (since like freshman winter break when I was back in Phoenix), but it was awesome catching up! And it's so crazy, she has a British accent now! (Guess living/studying in London for 5 years will do that to you... haha) We got drinks at a bar beforehand, and then went for Indian food at Dishoom. And I got to meet her roommate as well!

Day 48: Tate Number Two

Today I went to another Tate museum! This time the Tate Modern. And I went on my own, since Stephanie didn't like the Tate Modern that much, and wanted to spend more time at home with her cousin. Before going to the museum, I actually stopped by the Borough Market, since it was right next to the subway stop. Unfortunately it's closed on Sundays, but I still walked through the empty market hall, and got gelato at a nearby gelateria. It was pretty pricy, but they gave you a large amount! Still wasn't as good as the best gelatos I had in Italy though...

Amarena cherry and stracciatella!

Next I walked along the river to the Tate Modern, and went in to see the free permanent exhibitions. I love the layout of the Tate Modern, and the first exhibit on Surrealism was neat. But once it got into later stages of modern art, I just started glazing over the exhibition rooms... In the end, I'm still not a huge fan of modern art. It's fun to look at, but I don't see the point of trying to read into the meaning behind it. So definitely spent under 2 hours at the Tate Modern, but still had a lot of time to kill before dinner plans at 8pm. So I headed across the Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's, then hopped on a bus to Oxford Circus to do some shopping! (Got my mommy a gift ^___^)

They also had a Monet! And it's clearly his later work.

View from the balcony at the Tate Modern!

Walking across Millennium Bridge!

But since it was a Sunday, all the shops closed at 6pm! T__T (My original plan would have been to chill in a bookstore for a few hours) And I still had 2 hours to kill before dinner. So I walked around Soho, (and into some of the sketchier parts too >.<) then found a Starbucks and plopped myself down with some free wifi for an hour. Then as my phone's battery started to die, I walked around some more, this time in Chinatown, and bought a pastry for breakfast tomorrow. (They're pretty expensive here...) Finally spent the last 15 min in a cheesy souvenir shop before heading to dinner at Bocca di Lupo, a small Italian restaurant that's supposed to be really good!

We shared family style, and got to sample a bunch of different Italian dishes. My favorite was the langoustine risotto! Another favorite was the roast suckling pig - though it was really just the ribs and shoulder, not the whole thing, thankfully haha. And for dessert, they had frozen fruit stuffed with sorbet! Which I think is more impressive in theory than in actuality. I ordered a kiwi, and it was kind of hard to get the sorbet out of it... Overall though, the restaurant was great and dinner was a fun experience!

Day 47: Museuming

Today we left around noon and took the subway to Embankment, and walked across the bridge to South Bank. On weekends, the Southbank Centre has a Real Food Festival, which is pretty much just different vendors (of organic and sustainable produce/meat) setting up stands and selling food. It was pretty neat seeing all the different cuisines represented, but we also thought it would be bigger than it actually was... (Although there were still 20+ vendors!) Of course, being us, we stopped at the gelato cart first, for a scoop of yummy homemade gelato! I chose the flavour of the day, which was coconut with chocolate flakes! I'm a huge fan of coconut, so I loved it!

My coconut-chocolate gelato! 

We walked around a couple times before deciding on organic burgers for lunch. The sesame bun was yummy, and I love that they added arugula, but the patty itself was so-so... There just wasn't any seasoning on it, and since it was a pretty thick patty, it just tasted bland. T__T For dessert, we opted for these polish empanada-like desserts called pierogi! They had an apple and cinnamon filling, but also were disappointing because the filling wasn't that sweet and the dough was kind of thick... >.< Overall I thought the market was a great idea, I just think our choice of food was too unadventurous...

Looked better than it tasted... :(

Afterwards, we walked a little bit along South Bank, then crossed to the other side to see Big Ben and Parliament. (The bridge was SO crowded! And bad lighting for photos of Big Ben... T__T) We gradually made our way South along the river until we got to the Tate Britain, the lesser visited brother of the Tate Modern. The permanent exhibitions are actually free! (as with Tate Modern as well) But the current special exhibit, Lowry, was pretty pricy at 13.10 pounds for a student ticket. >.< Nevertheless, Steph and I sucked it up and paid for a ticket to Lowry. However, since they limit the amount of entries at any given time, we had an extra hour and a half before our timed entry to visit the permanent exhibitions.

Walking by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben!

The Tate Britain houses a chronological collection of British art, from the 1500s to present day. Personally they weren't super interesting to me, but I really enjoyed the Turner Collection! Dedicated to the works of British painter JMW Turner, they have a bunch of amazing works! I've always loved his style, especially his emotional, frenetic ocean scenes, and his hazy, light-infused architectural scenes. Overall, he just has a really unique portrayal of light and color in his works.

Turner Collection at the Tate Britain!

At 4:30, we made our way over to the special exhibition on LS Lowry. Although it was pretty crowded, I thought it was really neat! And worth the price we paid, in my opinion. What's special is that because most of his artwork is scattered across museums and private collections, this is the first time his major work has come together in one place for public exhibition! And if you haven't heard of him before (tbh I hadn't before today haha) look up his work! He has a very unique style, and I just thought the way he portrays people figures is so funny! (Although his works have a very serious tone and backdrop) Totally reminds me of screen beans!

Cover image for the Lowry exhibit!

We were on our own for dinner, and wanted to try this bibimbap place in Soho. So we caught a bus that took us to Picadilly Circus, then walked the rest of the way. The restaurant was super cute (had cute polaroids on the wall of customers and everything) but the food was just ok. Not bad, but nothing compared to Korean food in the bay area haha. Afterwards, we also got boba! (Since Chinatown's right next to Soho) It's a super cute place called Cuppacha, and we both tried the Roast Oolong Milk Tea. Mmmmm. (I love roasted teas) However, it started to rain while we were getting boba, so we quickly ran to the nearest subway station, and took the tube back home!

Boba place in Chinatown!

Day 46: (Legit) Lazy Day!

We had a pretty lazy day in Santorini, but this was our first legit lazy day. Why? We literally did nothing all day but sleep, watch TV, shop, and eat. (Well, I got a load of laundry done too...)

We were finally able to catch up on sleep today, and didn't wake up until 11:30am! (It was probably noon by the time we got out of bed). Then I put my laundry in the washer (whoo, clean clothes again!), and Steph and I proceeded to watch TV for a while. It wasn't until my laundry was done and it was around 3:30pm that we actually left the apartment.

We then rode the bus to Oxford Street to do some shopping. We stopped into Debenhams to look around, as well as some other British brands, and finally went to Primark. We had no idea going in what it would be like, as we just decided to go because we saw all these people carrying around Primark shopping bags. Turns out it's actually a huge budget retailer somewhere between a Forever21 and Walmart! (for clothes) The inside was huge, and SUPER crowded! But the clothes were super affordable compared to everything else we had looked at so far! But literally had to queue for the fitting rooms, and then again for checkout. >.< (Bought a cute dress though! And Steph another maxi skirt haha)

After shopping, we met up with Stephanie's aunt's family for dinner, at a Lebanese restaurant called Noura. They were dining with another family who was in town, so it was a pretty big group of us. It was my first time trying Lebanese food, and it was quite good! Started off with little flatbread rounds and lots of different dips and chutneys. Then the main course was a bunch of different types of meat from skewers. And dessert was baklava and ice cream! Mmmm.

Woops, literally took no cell phone pics today! This is probably a really boring post haha... Sorry! >.<

Day 45: Gordon Ramsay

This post is pretty much going to be dedicated to documenting my lunch at Gordon Ramsay. (It's the first restaurant the chef opened, and also has 3 Michelin stars!!) Also burned a hole in my wallet... T___T (The set lunch was 55 pounds, plus service) But it was worth it!

Had a reservation at noon (did you know they take down your cc info and then charge you 100 pounds if you cancel within 2 days of your reservation?!) and were one of the first tables there. It's a cozy little dining room, and the restaurant itself is located on a pretty quiet street.

First off, there are SO many wait staff! They literally have someone topping off your glasses with water whenever you drink some. And when you get up to use the bathroom, someone comes to fold your napkin for you! We opted for the cheapest option, which was the set Lunch Menu. (And our meal still cost $90+ including service) Although it was only 3 courses on paper, they also brought out a small surprise before the first course, and an extra dessert at the end! So it was like having a 5-course meal! And all of it was SO beautiful and SO good! Still gushing about it. (Also, excuse the poor quality photos. Was trying to be discrete about it haha)

First page of the menu!

Cute table settings!

First off, before any food was served, we got to pick 2 pieces of bread from a bread basket. We both tried the pretzel knot and onion/bacon brioche. And omg it was the best tasting bread I've ever had at a restaurant! Even better than Red Lobster's cheddar bay biscuits! And the waiter noticed I finished my bread, and asked me if I wanted more haha. And I shamelessly chose another pretzel knot!

AMAZING pre-meal bread!

Next, they surprised us with a small dish of baby vegetables in a tangy sauce/broth. It was so vibrant and fresh! For the first course, I got lobster tortellini and Steph got a confit salmon tartlet. Once again, poured a yummy broth over the tortellini (that seems to be a theme here). Main course was a miso glazed cod for me, and a rabbit loin wrapped in ham for Steph. This time the broth was made with a Chinese tea! (Forget the name...) For dessert, I chose roasted pineapple with coconut sorbet, and Stephanie a banana dessert of some sort with peanut butter mousse. And after they cleared our dishes we thought we were done, but lo and behold, they bring out a small tray of bite-sized desserts, along with a smoking pot! The pot actually contained dry ice (thus the "smoke"), which was refrigerating white chocolate covered strawberry bon bons! All the amazing photos are below! (Snuck photos with my cell phone, but too embarrassed to pull out my dslr....)

Fresh baby vegetable medley

Lobster&Asparagus tortellini

Miso glazed cod

Stephanie's rabbit loin with ham

Roasted pineapple, coconut sorbet, and coriander financiers

Stephanie's banana parfait with pb mousse

An after meal surprise: strawberry bonbons, and a platter of fudge and turkish delights (or so Steph thought they said)

And as we were leaving to go, surprise! The maître d' asks us if we want to see the kitchen! (He was SO nice and attentive throughout the whole lunch service!) Um, YES! He leads us in, and we see all these young chefs (it's surprising how young they all are!) busy at their designated stations, preparing food for the dining room. Just like Hell's Kitchen, but with more staff and a much cleaner kitchen! haha

After lunch, we slowly walked to Buckingham Palace, and snapped a couple of pictures there. (Lighting wasn't in our favor though) And then walked to Hyde Park Corner and took the subway back to Stephanie's aunt's house because we had dinner plans already. Together, we rode the bus to Somerset House, where they had an exhibition and talk about ElBulli and Food Design! The exhibit was really neat, and talked about molecular gastronomy and all sorts of innovative things they were creating at El Bulli. The talk was less impressive, but still interesting! Overall it was a really neat experience, and Somerset House is just an awesome exhibition hall. And for dinner, we ate at Tom's Kitchen on the premises, and I got to eat some traditional British food: Fish Pie! (A healthier take on Shepard's Pie)

Pamphlet from the event!

Overall a relaxing and very indulgent first day in London! ^__^

Day 44: Last Day in Continental Europe!

Today we're leaving Berlin for London, the last leg of our journey! A little sad, but mostly excited haha. I'm all travelled out... We checked out of our hostel in the morning, and then went to a cafe for breakfast. (Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and cheese) Afterwards, we headed to the Pergamon Museum, also located on Museum Island. It was initially built to house the excavated Pergamon Altar, but now also has an extensive Egyptian and Islamic exhibit. And we got free audioguides! Which is always fun. We spent a lot of time looking at the Pergamon Altar, Ishtar Gate, and other big excavations/reconstructions, but then kind of breezed through the rest of the museum, since we were kind of on a time constraint.

Pergamon Altar

Ishtar Gate

After we finished with the museum, we took a subway over to the East side of the city, and visited the East Side Gallery, which is a segment of the Berlin Wall that has been painted with murals from international artists. It was actually a lot longer than I thought! And with so much varied art! It was kind of sad though, there was also a lot of graffiti and stuff covering some of the artwork... >.<

Snapshots of the East Side Gallery!

Then we took the subway back to Alexanderplatz, got some yummy gelato from El Teatro in the subway station, and walked back to our hostel. Feeling pretty tired, we decided to just chill at the hostel til we had to catch our flight. We ended up just getting Durum Doners again for dinner, from another fast food shop (this one wasn't as good as the first one we had though). To get to Tegel airport, we actually had to take a bus from Brandenburg Gate. The bus was SUPER crowded, and SUPER hot, since there was no a/c and none of the windows seemed to be open. SO miserable! >.< Probably one of the worst bus rides I've had in Europe... So much so that once we got to the airport, all we wanted to do was chill on the couch at a coffeeshop (Coffee Fellows, which is a German coffee chain akin to Starbucks) for a bit before we checked in.

Interesting street art we saw on our way back to the hostel!

Mezzo Mix: A mix of coke and orange soda!

Emptiest flight I've ever been on! It was awesome!

Our flight was pretty nice, (it was SO empty!) and we arrived in London at 9:30pm! And Stephanie was SO excited to get to her aunt's apartment (that's where we're staying in London) and see her little cousin. I think it's the fastest I've ever seen her try and get out of an airport haha. It was then a long subway ride to Stephanie's aunt's house, and we arrived around 11pm! Yay, finished our last travel day before we go back to the US!