Sorry it's been so long...
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2006
1
25
52
Trip End
Ongoing
London,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
On Friday night I went my office Christmas party which was held in one of the hotels on the Strand. I helped to organize the event so it was partly a working evening. The hotel messed up pretty badly, the food ended up being cold, and they started serving the wrong dishes to everyone, not to mention about another million things going wrong. It certainly wasn't the kind of service you would expect from a high class hotel in London. Overall though it was a great night and I had a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of the people from the other office and finally put a face to the voices I hear on the phone all the time.
On Saturday I decided to take a wander around Bethnal Green, my new neighbourhood. I took a walk down Brick Lane which is littered with Indian and Banglideshi restaurants. Parts of the street smelled so good my mouth was literally watering. For a girl who loves curry I think this is going to be a great place to live. I also found a bagel shop, "beigel bake", that I'm excited about. Not quite Tim Horton's but they don't skimp on the cream cheese so they'll be great to have handy for my bagel cravings.
On Sunday I went with a friend to explore Camden Markets. The atmosphere in that part of the city is amazing. It's a great place to people watch as everyone has their own style. The stalls\shops are great and you can find some amazing things. Unfortunately, unlike other markets you're unlikely to find a too many great deals in Camden. Amazing stuff on offer but they tend to charge shop prices. Still, I will definately go back at some point. I had curry for lunch there and I think it was some of the best curry I have ever had.
This weekend I went to Brighton on Saturday with a couple friends. It was such a lovely day. The weather was the best we could have possibly hoped for, it was sunny, not too cold and not too windy. We first went to the Pier where we rode the Merry-go-round, ate candy floss and enjoyed some video games. Then we headed to the Royal Pavillion. The royal pavillion is a royal palace that was made for King George IV. It's unlike any other royal palace I've ever seen though. While most palaces are pretty, they tend to also be somewhat stuffy. This place was decorated lavishly with asian influences, my favourite room being the dining room where a giant chandler hangs from the ceiling in the claws of a great dragon. It's pretty cool to see.
Saturday night we can back to London to go to a friend's housewarming party. It was a pretty small group, just about 12 of us but it was lots of fun and great to catch up with everyone since it's been a bit harder to keep in contact with everyone since moving out to East London. We spent most of Sunday watching movies and just relaxing which was really nice way to end the weekend. Unfortuately I've now lost my coat (second one I've lost this trip). Been a bad week for losing things as I left my umbrella at a pub on Tuesday.
Sunday evening I went to the British Museum with my room mate. The have a special exhibit on Maori and South Pacific cultures. It was great to go since I found it all really interesting on my trips to Fiji, New Zealand and Hawaii. I also made a quick stop to see the Rosetta stone which was cool to see in real life. As a history lesson...the rosetta stone is a stone that they found that had the same story written on it in 3 languages including Greek and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The stone is what made it possible to start deciphering the hieroglypics. I just quickly walked through the Egyptian section but I will be going back. I love the Egyptian stuff it's so facinating and the British Museum has a fantastic collection.
In other, although no travel related, news....I found out on Saturday that my sister-in-law had an ultrasound this week and it looks like there will be a new girl in the family soon. I wish I could be there when the baby was born but it's still really exciting news. So Congrats to my brother and his wife!!!!
From now on I'm going to try to update once weekly, ciao for now.
