More Fun in London Town!

Hi All!

Each time I sit down to type out a blog I have more good things to share!  I guess I've officially bounced back from my nightmare first week in London (finally!).  

Melissa and I have finished our 3rd week of clinical at the Royal Hospital for Neurodisabilities, and we've settled in pretty well around here.  We've made some great friends, everyone is very laid back so that makes it easier to get out and do stuff each week.  I've started going into the pool for hydrotherapy for the patients - after getting over the fact of having to wear a swimsuit in front of everyone I work with, it's been pretty fun!  I'm so used to wearing a swimsuit on the beach or at the pool outside in the summer time, I wasn't prepared for having to do it in the midst of my European Adventure.  I have been eating and drinking whatever I want for the past 5 weeks so I hope I don't scare off any of the patients (but maybe it'll make them come out of their comas!).  

Thursday night we went out with a few girls that work at the hospital, Laura and Georgia, they are both from England and we have had a great time hanging out with them.  They are both going to Dublin with us next weekend, along with another guy that works with us, so there will be 5 of us storming in to Dublin, can't wait!  Friday night Melissa and I were pretty tired so we didn't get out and do anything too exciting.  We rode the tube up to Fulham and ate at a T.G.I.Fridays - it was sooo good (especially the boneless buffalo wings!).  We then went to see Slumdog Millionaire, again, sooo good.  It's pretty dark in parts, so don't go into it expecting a lighthearted flick!  But I do recommend it.  That brings us to Saturday...

Saturday we set out into London - but a lot of the tube lines were closed for maintenance over the weekend so we had to ride on 4 different trains just to get to the market we wanted to go to!  It was well worth it though.  The Borough Market is a food market with TONS and TONS of awesome food (we finally found good food!).  We were advised to go with empty stomaches, which was great advice.  The vendors shove food samples at you left and right.  They had everything from candies, coffees, lots of cheeses and meats, soups, fresh produce, Greek food, Argentinean food, Italian food, Arabian food, etc. etc. etc.  We bought a great feta cheese dip, chimichuri sauce, fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella balls, cumin cheese (tastes like chili), and got to pour our own bottle of wine straight from the barrel.  They had grills going with fresh sandwiches, burgers, wraps, and fish and chips.  I had some tomato and cream soup, a falafel, a slice of a Bailey's flavored cheesecake, and some wonderful coffee.  The guy made my latte with a heart on the top.  I've included a picture.  He made another guy's latte with a leaf on top - such talent : )

After finally tearing ourselves away from the market (trust me, it was hard to do!), we did some sightseeing.  We walked along the South Bank of the Thames River and saw Shakespeare's Globe and walked through the Tate Modern Art Museum.  I'm not such a fan of modern art, there were so many paintings with one solid color on the canvas - I didn't really understand how that made it into a museum?  We did see one drawing done by Picasso, so that was probably the coolest thing we saw there.  After leaving the museum we walked across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.  This is the cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married.  It was spectacular!  We climbed almost 400 steps to get to the base of the dome where we got to see a great view of the city, all the way around.  We then left St. Paul's and saw the Bank of England.  Right by the Bank of England there were about 50 people that rode up on old fashioned bicycles dressed in old fashioned clothes.  We asked one of the guys what it was all about, and it is a group of people that dress up and meet at that spot and then ride their bicycles all around the city.  It was super cute, I only got one picture though.  

Next we rode the tube to Picadilly Circus - which is apparently their Times Square.  Maybe we just didn't see the right part of it, but it doesn't hold a candle to the real thing.  It was still fun to see though.  We walked from there through China Town which was all decorated because of the Chinese New Year celebrations.  We then walked through Soho and saw "The Ivy" which is the super posh celebrity restaurant where Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were just dining a few nights ago.  Next we stumbled upon the Dominion Theatre which is where Queen's "We Will Rock You" show is.  We couldn't pass it up so we forked over 15 pounds each for standing room only seats (it was well worth it).  It's a musical with all of Queen's greatest hits.  Needless to say, by the time that was over we were spent.  We had been on our feet literally all day, so we got home just before midnight and called it a night.

Today we slept in and then headed down to Wimbledon.  It was a rainy, cloudy day and the "All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club" was undergoing some construction so all in all we didn't quite get the true Wimbledon experience (but I guess that can only happen when the tournament is actually going on!).  It was still neat to see since that's about the only tennis I watch, and we found some good fresh food down in Wimbledon at a restaurant called "Giraffe". 

The week ahead is just another typical week.  Nothing planned any of the nights yet, but we usually figure out something to get into each evening.  We leave for Dublin next Saturday morning and return Sunday evening so I will keep you all posted with how that went!  I'm going to try and upload some pictures to my blog so flip back if you get a chance and want to see some photos.

Bye!

Jenna