London in October

Last Friday Rachel was up in London for work, and I decided to join her for a quick weekend of exploring the streets of East London.

We stayed with Paul, from the W+K London office, at his home in Hackney. He was a great host and took very good care of us. Here is a brief summary of the weekend:

I took a half-day off from work on Friday to begin my journey over to London to meet up with Rachel. I arrived at the house around 6 and we went out to meet up with some of her friends at the pub. This group of friends then took us to a gallery show. After that we met up with Paul, had some dinner, and went to a birthday to do some boogie-ing on the dance floor.

Saturday morning Paul made us an amazing breakfast, and then we strolled over to the Broadway Market. A lovely market overflowing with delicious food stands. After the market we wandered over to Last Tuesday Society—a curiosity shop filled with interesting taxidermy techniques. We then caught the tube over to Notting Hill and checked out Portobello Market. Rachel bought a couple of keys from the 1800s. There was a price discrepancy between the two keys she purchased, and the shop owner said this was because one was from the 1830's and the other from the 1860's (or some such years), how he was confident in this...I have no idea. We took a short wine break in the afternoon sun and then headed over to Hyde Park to enjoy the sunset. After the sunset we attempted finding a place for dinner in Soho, but decided it wasn't really our scene, so we headed back towards home and had dinner at Pizza East—a very delicious and vibrant place.

Sunday we did a bit more wandering around. Started out the morning checking out Columbia Road Flower Market. Rachel got an oyster from a little alley stand. This market led us over to Brick Lane Market. Brick Lane was insane. And huge. We didn't quite have the energy for it, being a little marketed-out, so we hopped the tube to Paddington, and enjoyed a last brunch before I caught the train back to the airport.

Favorite things: The weather (super sunny, and fairly warm), Commercial Tavern, Pizza East, and The flower market.

~ Some Photos ~

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam:

Gallery show Friday night:

Commercial Tavern:

4-way power converter for my phone. Oh electricity, you so silly:

Just a little something Paul whipped up:

Our host:

Broadway Market:

Last Tuesday Society:

Notting Hill Portobello Market:

Trying to work this one out in my mind. Colville Indians in Northeast Washington... 

Colville Road in Chelsea...hmmmm:

Hyde Park. Photo tribute to 2008 trip (the grass wasn't very tall this time): 

Heidi in 2008:

Pizza East:

On the way to the flower market:

Brunch in Paddington before taking off. Proper English meal. Got to hear a New Yorker one table over tell us how miserable she was and wanted to catch an early flight home. "I'm soooo cooooold!" Well, you did decide to travel in October. We were eating outside because we found it quite pleasant out. Even though it had clouded over. Oh well, too bad for her I suppose. Pass me the pepper!