A Love Letter to London

London is a hard city. By that, I don't mean it's difficult. It's...gritty. A little rough around the edges.

When you think of Paris, you think smoke and cafes. Proposals. Patisseries. Washington, DC has a much higher crime rate, but the impression it typically leaves is a bit impersonal, politicians with their heads in their Blackberrys. Cold marble buildings. Wide streets with plenty of room to avoid your neighbor.

London is a huge city, but in a way it's also quite small. The streets are narrow, the buildings are small. It's crowded. It's easy to get overwhelmed here. It's also, however, quite easy to love once you settle in. Everyone can be a Londoner. There are probably more nationalities here than anywhere in the world.

The parks are lovely, the bridges imposing, the buildings charming. There's never a lack of things to do or see. Samuel Johnson said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." I'm definitely ready to go home, but part of me will always miss this city: wandering down streets with three names, popping around a corner and seeing another famous facade, catching a ride home in a famed double-decker bus. It's easy to get used to, but leaving a place always makes you realize the things you'll miss.

So, on that vaguely annoyingly sentimental note, here are a few photos from my last tromps around London. See you all across the pond!

"You have Van Gogh's ear for music. "

The music in the UK and Europe is quite funny. Either you constantly hear the cheesiest earworms from the states or you get inundated with bad Euro-Pop. In any case, here are a couple of the songs that I cannot get out of my head, due to the fact that every store or restaurant I've entered in the past two weeks has been playing them. I've sort of grown fond of these tunes, probably by the sheer amount of listens they've gotten. For your pleasure:

Bleeding Love, Leona Lewis



Apologize, One Republic



By the way, if you ever find yourself missing dance songs from the early 2000s, just go to a club in London. You'll quickly get your fix of Let's Get It Started.

National "Celebrate A Random Holiday" Day

Hey, it's National Penguin Awareness Day! I believe I will mark the occasion by wearing my penguin pjs. I haven't seen March of the Penguins or Happy Feet yet, but have heard they're both quite good, so if you (unlike me) have access to Netflix or Amazon UnBox, waddle over, grab a seat, and bask in the cuteness.

Don't forget National Observe the Weather Day, coming up on the 25th. Wouldn't want be wandering down the street and become confused at why you're getting all wet. Observe! It's raining. (I forecast rain simply because it seems to rain everyday in London in January. Bah. Good thing I have my GustBuster umbrella. Seriously, this thing is amazing.)

Incidentally, it's also National Soup Month and National Oatmeal Month, both of which I partake of often. Look at me being all festive! By the way, Quaker has a ton of yummy looking oatmeal recipes here if you too want to endorse the "holiday for everything" trend!

"A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don't think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time."- Mariah Carey

In case you're tired of all the press about elections, murders, and death, here's a sweet story about "snow-rain" in Baghdad.

In other awww news, there was a little boy on the tube doing magic tricks for his dad. You could clearly see his hand fisted as he hid the coin he'd later conjure up from behind his ear, but he was so happy to be pulling off the trick. It was clear his dad was eating it up. So cute. I found myself smiling involuntarily.

"Not all who wander are lost"...but I usually am.

I've got the worst sense of direction of anyone I've ever met. I could get lost walking somewhere 2 blocks away. In fact, come to think of it, I have. It took me at least 3 tries to figure out how to drive to my high school from my house. Did I mention that the school was maybe 10 minutes from said house, factoring in traffic?

But I've actually done surprisingly well getting around London. Part of that is because I'm walking not driving. My lack of hand-eye coordination isn't quite as much of a hindrance when all I'm doing is juggling books and my purse. In fact, trying to avoid getting hit by London cabbies and those terryfying motorcyclists has been the extent of my problems. I even found a shortcut to school.

So why is that? Why am I suddenly able to cross a street without getting turned around? It's because of this wonderful little gem that my Mom got me before I left.

I hate maps. They don't make sense to me. This one miraculously does. It has little visual representations of tourist attractions that I can use to orient myself. It has a tube map. It even has descriptions of some of the famous sites. And all in a package small enough to fit in the outside pocket of my tote. Genius.

If you're even half as bad at directions as I am and you're traveling to an unfamiliar city, this will be the best $6 you've ever spent.

There's a flavor of candy the U.S. doesn't have?

You know how in school when you study the Greek gods, the teacher always makes you define nectar and ambrosia? What they consumed on Mt. Olympus? I always wondered what that tasted like.

Well. I have found it. It's the KitKat bar in dark chocolate. I'm fairly certain you can't get them in the States, but if you come across one, snap it up. I know what I'm hauling back in my suitcase. That is if I don't eat them all first. Soooo good.