Thursday August 7th:
Charlie and I went to visit her friend's house in somewhere UK (not too far away) to have a BBQ with her school friends (before university). It was a TON of fun :] Charlie's friends are super nice and hilarious. I didn't understand the inside jokes but everyone was super kind. Grilled/fried onions on burgers is super popular I believe. The burgers and sausage things were so tasty. As was the grilled squeaky cheese called "halloumi." delicious! they grilled on cute little disposable grills in aluminum foil pans. i'm not sure if this is normal? i guess people don't normally have the space for a whole grill or often would use it since it's so cold for most of the year. everyone liked the brownies i made :] sunflower oil apparently is a good substitute for vegetable oil and charlie had never heard of canola oil. couscous was very popular and I ate the most tasty chips ever that I plan on hunting down when I get back to the states. might be better for me if i can't find them though honestly. I finished writing the last of my postcards too. that's about it for thursday, it was super nice and relaxing. definitely needed a break from the city!
Friday August 8th:
To London! Well, first to Shenfield to visit the candy store. They're super nice and give samples to all the people getting off the trains at the end of the day so I decided to go buy some things (took lots of convincing, haha). They had a lot of American candy and peanut butter and hersheys and cereal as well as the home made treats and English candy. Loads of fun! Then we went to mail my last postcards and luckily the post lady had a water sponge thing so we didn't have to lick all of the stamps again! It still took awhile and some really interesting sticker placing. I counted on using the small stamps again but she gave me the pretty Commonwealth Games stamps which are bigger. (PS google the Commonwealth games. Has anyone else in the States heard of this before???) Charlie is a pro though and we figured it out :] I stopped by the bakery to buy a brunch sandwich (chicken breast and cheese) which was quite tasty. I also managed to drop a ten pound note and somehow lose it which is super sad but it happens I guess.
Next, to London! We took the train from Shenfield to Stratford then to a station in Westminster to see parliament and Westminster Abbey (where Will and Kate got married). I have pictures :] The weather was rainy when we left but had cleared up by the time we reached London. We walked to Buckingham Palace to see the State rooms and the Royal Childhood exhibit. It was AWESOME! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the palace but it was sooo exciting. We learned a lot about the Royal Family (some of it I probably should have known but history is not my forte). Then we had scones and tea at the palace in the outdoor cafe! Phil texted Charlie asking what we were doing (he was planning on meeting us when he was free) and he response of "Having tea and scones at the palace" didn't seem too realistic without clarification. The palace is only open during the summer so we had to make sure he understood we weren't being sarcastic to him. We then explored the gift shop (woo) and made our way to Harrods. We beat Phil so we had emergency Starbucks (hadn't had any caffeine yet, this was like 3:30pm) but had to drink it all before going inside so that wasn't as nice.
Harrods. Wow. This store is HUGE. 5 stories and I don't even know how long and wide. We spent hours inside and didn't see half the store. I saw areas that I didn't find last time I visited. We saw the Disney Cafe (yea, that exists) and all the fancy jewelry and designer clothes and evening wear. The food floors, toy land, and gift shop were my favorites. I have quite a few pics from toy land. It was too insane and crowded to take many pictures elsewhere. Security was plenty as were tourists and actual rich people who could afford to shop there. People from the United Arab Emirates tend to visit this time of year and shop and have nice vacations. Some of them bring their super fancy sport cars and it angers the Britains but nothing is ever done about it really. We saw a car that was UAE and the license plate was 1. That essentially translates to "i have money and i'm important" We think it might have been the ambassador because Phil said that he saw an ambassador's car and it was also 1 (different country, can't remember which).
After an exhausting exploration of Harrod's we went to dinner at Pizza Express. It's actually way nicer than it sounds. I had a lovely lasagna, Phil had a huge calzone, and Charlie had a great salad. The dough balls appetizer was delicious (should have gotten the double) and my dessert (chocolate gelato + chocolate sauce + chocolate cake pieces) was amazing. A trek back in the rain to the underground and a sad farewell to Phil (who is also leaving London this weekend) and Charlie and I eventually made it back. I've been procrastinating (taking a break?) packing but need to finish as I'm starting my journey in a few hours to Heathrow and on to Finland! Updates tomorrow from Helsinki :]
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