Nate is still with Ernst & Young -- nearly 6 years now! He is now a Manager in their IT Audit division and has become both a respected advisor and reliable coworker in his time there. This past fall he got to go to Virginia Tech for recruiting events, including the Business Horizons career fair where he first met E&Y as an MBA student, and interviewing in the Career Services office where my dream of getting into this line of work was launched. In a similar vein, he will be heading to Baltimore in June to represent the Southeast Subarea at a big recruiting event for undergraduates, which I think says a great deal about his personality, skill, and mentorship abilities. To put it bluntly, my husband is "kicking @$$ and taking names" and I am very proud of him! Wherever his professional life takes him in the years to come, the sky is the limit and he is and will continue to be a rockstar :).
As an early 30th birthday present, Nathan and I planned and prepped and then finally WENT TO LONDON for the first time! We had dreamed of a European vacation for many years, and since neither of us had ever studied or really traveled (besides our resort honeymoon) abroad AND Nathan is obsessed with soccer, we knew that if we were going to go anywhere first, it should be England.
We flew out on our first red-eye flight direct from Raleigh to London's Heathrow Airport. We left here around 6pm on Thursday, April 11th and landed around 7am their time (Friday, April 12th). We were EXHAUSTED!! Neither of us slept very much on the plane (nerves + strange surroundings + crowded plane), so after a 30 minute cab ride to our B&B in Kennington and having a little bite to eat, we succumbed to a nap for an hour or so, just to rest our eyes and recharge a bit. After that, we powered through and headed to Waterloo (just one tube stop up from Kennington -- and the station was only about a block from our B&B!) to do the one thing I wanted to do in London: ride the London Eye. It was a great way to see the city from the comfort of our slowly-rotating, room-sized pod.
It had been raining a bit when we first arrived, but cleared up by the time we were getting off the Eye and walking to find a real meal. Luckily, we weren't far from Southwark and a restaurant I had on my list of recommended spots: Giraffe. We each got neat sampler platters -- Nate's was all vegetarian breakfast foods (including a new fave: beans and toast) and mine was a veggie Mediterranean platter with hummus, grape leaves, etc. I also enjoyed what would be the first of many interesting juices/smoothies in London. This one was GREEN :).
When we woke up Saturday morning (4/13), we knew we had a full day ahead. The main event was that evening -- we got tickets to the FA Cup match at Wembley Stadium (Nathan couldn't wait!) at 5pm. We took the tube and a bus out to the Pimlico area for breakfast at The Orange which was quiet and pretty, with some delicious juices and I especially enjoyed my porridge with spiced plums. After eating, we took a bus to Westminster Cathedral and walked around. We head up to Buckingham Palace where we happened to arrive just before the "changing of the guard," so that was neat. Afterwards, we walked over to see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, each from the outside.
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| Westminster Cathedral |
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| Buckingham Palace Gates |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Our fave London shot |
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| Nate in front of Parliament |
We hopped on the tube towards Wembley, where we encountered the first of many crazy Millwall Fans. Apparently the known (to everyone but us) hooligans of London soccer, the Milwall supporters were drinking, singing, and banging on the train doors all the way to the stadium. Totally different than anything we'd experienced at a sporting event in the States. Imagine, perhaps, the most obnoxious, rowdy, angry football or hockey fans you've ever seen, and then make them the type of people who end up fist fighting fellow fans in the stands over who knows what. It was a crazy scene, but we survived!
Wembley was a very impressive stadium, even on a rainy night. Luckily, they built it so that the field is exposed to the elements of the day, but there is a partial dome covering fans in the seats, so we stayed dry once inside. Nate also had a "veggie one pie" (kind of like an in-hand pot pie with veggies and some indian spices) at the game which he liked a lot. Since Milwall was clearly going to lose to Wigan and not be happy about it, Nate and I scooted out a few minutes before the end of the game to head back towards the tube station. Luckily, we beat the rowdies out of there and made it home safely after the game, around 8pm.
Sunday morning (4/14), at the suggestion of our friend Allie who lived in London for a year, we took the tube to Liverpool Street in East London and walked over to the Spitalfield Market. It was a really cool place (we ended up going back twice to shop/eat!) with food and gift vendors of all kinds, and a neat indoor/outdoor atmosphere. We had a simple-but-tasty breakfast at Luxe, including of course two new juices, and just spent our meal enjoying the music and chill vibe. We then walked around the market for a while, checkout out the beautiful food options (though we were too full to try anything!) and trinkets. We ended up buying some magnets and singled out an old-looking map of the London Underground that we later came back and bought for 5lbs.
We then attempted to look around the Museum of London (free), but were too tired to really appreciate it. Instead, we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral for a quick glimpse (just a day before they started blocking things off for Margaret Thatcher's funeral! Good timing!) and then sat down to rest and eat lunch at Pizza Express (so much fresher than your normal quick pizza place!).
Once we felt a bit more energized, we took the tube a bit farther to a line called the DLR, all the way to Greenwich Park, where the Prime Meridian is located. The park was large and lovely, but hopping with people! We walked up to the Royal Observatory and overlooked the park on a bench for a while, but then were ready to head back to the B&B for the evening.
We had a nice Indian meal at Kennington Tandoori near our B&B and then were pleasantly surprised to find "The Voice UK" on TV that evening -- we were right at home enjoying this British version of one of our favorite shows until bedtime.
Monday (4/15) was a beautiful morning and we headed over to Hyde Park for breakfast at Serpentine Cafe. It was a lovely spot on the water, and we arrived just before a group of tourist teens (yay!). We then walked over to Harrod's, the huge department store we had heard about, and were amazed at all it contained! Everything from food and wine to clothing, toys, dishes, and electronics. We had fun looking around the Toy Kingdom, including the Harry Potter section. We stopped for tea and macaroons at Laduree and then walked back through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace.
After so much walking, it wasn't long before we were hungry again! Close-by was the multi-floored Whole Foods Flagship Store, which housed Saf, an all-vegan restaurant! We had some fresh, unique foods there and browsed the store. We headed back to the B&B to rest around 3pm.
Though tired from a day of walking, we rallied to head to the theatre district for a show that evening. Nathan called ahead and the Picadilly Theatre still had a few 20lb day-of tickets left for their Spice Girls-inspired show, Viva Forever. We took the tube to Picadilly Circus, got our tickets, and then enjoyed a delicious vegetarian meal at Mildred's + gelato at Scoop before the show. We had a lot of fun at the musical and enjoyed our excellent seats! The city and tube were still plenty busy when we left the theatre at 10pm, after a full day.
Tuesday morning (4/16), we had a simple breakfast at the B&B and attempted to cram in a few extra sights around town, including the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station and Neal's Yard Dairy (owned by the sister of the cheese monger at Southern Season in Chapel Hill whose cheese classes we have taken!). After lunch at Canteen and picking up a few more gifts at Spitalfields, we went back to the B&B for a bit.
That evening, we had planned to watch the Arsenal soccer game (Nate's favorite team) at a sport bar near the Victoria station. We stopped first at Ms Cupcake (vegan!) in Brixton, but didn't like the area enough to stay in for long. We took our cupcakes back to St. James' Park near Buckingham Palace and ate those as our "dinner" of sorts, since we'd eaten so much earlier in the day. We read in the park for a bit, but then realized that we still had way too much time left before the game and preferred to watch closer to "home." We ended up at a dive-y, local pub called the White Bear Theatre Club just down the road from the B&B, and enjoyed splitting a beer, watching the game with a few other passionate fans, and people watching when the local running group made their stop for refreshments. Arsenal tied (which Nate was pleased with), and it was an easy walk back to our place.
Wednesday (4/17) was our last full day in London and we spent the majority of it at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. We got there fairly early and enjoyed a really cool audio tour that walked us through a player's "game day" experience. We got a bunch of stuff from their Armory Store afterwards, and as you can imagine, Nate was VERY HAPPY :).
We went on another goose chase for a particular lunch location, only to find out it was both closed and in a weird part of town. Instead, we headed to an area near the old Arsenal Stadium in Highbury (now apartments and a park!) and ate a very tasty Turkish lunch at Globe Cafe.
After an hour's rest back at the B&B, we headed out for our last evening in London. We checked out the EY office in Waterloo, which overlooked the River Thames and Big Ben from it's top-floor conference room. We also went to check out the London Bridge, which was surprisingly unimpressive. Apparently the TOWER Bridge is the one everyone sees in the pictures, but it was too far to walk to, so we just took photos from afar, ha. We rode on the top level of a double-decker red bus to the Southwark area, and then walked by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on our way to dinner and wine at Laughing Gravy. The restaurant was just lovely, and a perfect way to end our fabulous London adventure.
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| EY London! 1 of 2 offices in the area! |
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| View from the conference room at EY Waterloo |
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| Duped by the London Bridge! Here is our view of the Tower Bridge, though! |
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| Walking along the River Thames |
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| The Globe |
We were picked up at our B&B at 7:15am on Thursday morning (4/18) and after the last bit of gift shopping at the airport and breakfast at Pret-A-Manger (another great fast-casual spot we saw on every corner), we hopped on our 8-hour flight back to Raleigh. It was long, and we were deliriously tired once we got back to NC, but it was great to be home. Danny picked us up from the airport around 3:30pm, we showered (glorious!) and ate a super early 5pm dinner at our local Mexican restaurant (though it felt like 10pm to us!). We did our best to stay up late to have a better chance of getting onto East Coast time the next day, but I think we only lasted until 8:30pm. :)
Despite some crazy jet-lag, a bit of rain early-on, and not the BEST sleep for a week, our trip to London was really all we could have hoped for. We did as much as we possibly could have in our short time there, and could have easily enjoyed another week of sight seeing and eating in the UK. It was awesome becoming pros at public transportation, walking so much that the extra calories from tasty treats didn't stick, and creating countless memories at places we had only ever read about or seen on TV. We feel lucky to have been able to take a trip like this together as a young couple, and look forward to many more adventures -- domestic and international -- in the years ahead.
Cheers!
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