10 girls in a one-bedroom apartment with ONE
bathroom?! Best time ever. No like seriously, it was awesome.
A while back I had extended the invite to my friends to stay
with me while I was working in London, thinking only 3 or 4 would take me up on
it. To my surprise, 9 of my closest friends planned their flights and stay at an extremely cozy 200 Sloane Street. It couldn’t
have been better.
I think the last time I left you hanging I was just getting
back from Berlin. The first two days of the week that followed were just
work stuff, laundry, cleaning, groceries – you know, all that fun stuff.
Luckily it was a very short week as I planned some vacation time Wed-Fri for
when the girls were here. Jennelle was the first to arrive Tuesday night
from Berlin. I met her at the Knightsbridge tube stop and brought her
back to my pad. One of her coworkers was also in the area so we met him
at Brown’s in Leicester square for dinner and cider before calling it a
night. Poor Jennelle had gotten only about 5 hours of sleep in the past
few days so I let her clonk out and sleep while I went for a quick run around
the royal parks Wednesday morning. I knew the upcoming week would not
include much exercise so I figured I needed to fit this one in. Before
the girls came I set out a big platter of cheese, crackers, hummus, fresh
fruits, biscuits, and all kinds of other snacks so they could load up before
our exploration day. Other than my suite in college, I really haven’t had
a place of my own to entertain people at so I was super excited to have the
opportunity to host.
Then, the phone rang. Hello? “Yes, Hi Miss
Selvitella – we have quite a few guests here to see you. Should I send
them ALL up?”. HA! I was glad to hear that the tone of his
voice was more playful than concerned. The Sloane Street elevators are
ridiculously small so they needed to take 2 trips up to get to my floor,
leaving all the luggage at reception – the lovely concierge offered to take
care of it for them. I opened up the door and there they were! I
was like a Mexican jumping bean. Big hugs for everyone – man it was good
to see the girls again. They all piled in and then came the
luggage. It was like jenga trying to figure out where the bags would go
and really, where anyone would even sit. We moved the chairs in the
kitchen, tossed the luggage in my bedroom, and hung out in the living room to
snack and catch up for a bit. Soon after I put my tour guide cap on and
took the 10-person parade around Londontown.
The first stop was the Knightsbridge tube station so
everyone could get their Oyster cards in the non-rush hour timeframe.
Cards all charged up, we left the station and took the rest of the daytime
explorations on foot. I walked them through the Knightsbridge area, along
Hyde Park, around Green Park, and over to Buckingham Palace. While we
stood in front, two horse-drawn carriages were exiting the palace gates.
We couldn’t really tell who was inside but for the excitement of this story,
let’s just pretend it was the Queen. We took a few group shots by the
magnificent mansion, obviously, and then went on our way. The next stop
was my favorite park in London – St. James. After stopping for a caffeine
charge at the park café vendor, we meandered through the beautiful walkways of
St. James. The peak of the park stops you in front of another royal
building (I still can’t remember the name), where the Olympic beach volleyball
games were held - A very picturesque area where Ben and the Eye peek through
the corners. Obviously another group photo here, duh. We continued
on toward the court house, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben, snapping shots in
telephone booths along the way #sotourist. The gang started getting a
little hungry so I lead them down through Trafalgar Square to Picadilly Circus
where we found a casual pub in Soho. It definitely wasn’t the best pub
but they had a second floor big enough for a group of 10 so we settled.
Everyone ordered their first authentic British meal, accompanied by a cider of
course, and chatted about the days to come. Always thinking about food, I
asked the group what they would like to do for dinner. We had to get up
really early the next day to catch the Eurostar to Paris so another casual
restaurant was the consensus. I reserved a table at the Crusting Pipe in
Covent Garden for 10, based solely on the fact that I like the area. Hopefully
it’s good..! We finished up lunch and continued onto Oxford Street, a.k.a.
Shopping Utopia. We literally had to plan a meeting time and location
because there was no way someone wasn’t getting pulled away from the group on
account of a shiny object in the window. Luckily we all stayed together
until PRIMARK. Ya, I took them there. They were just as amazed as I
was the first time and I am pretty confident each one of them came out with a
bag. It was already dark, we were shopped out, and our puppies were
barking, (it means our feet were hurting – why does no one else know that
expression besides me and my mom?!). Despite the craziness in the
underground at that time of day, I took (most of) the girls on their first Tube
experience. We got off at Leicester Square and walked over to Covent
Garden. London is way ahead of the states with its Christmas decorations
– you would think it was December 20th here. Everything was
lit up from top to bottom… there’s even a giant Christmas tree in the middle of
CG square. Anyway, we stopped in a pub for about an hour and sat next to
two lovely old ladies who got an absolute kick out of us. They loved the
fact that we were all here from the US and kept giving us tips on what to do
this weekend. I wish we could’ve brought them with us. An hour
passed and I lead the parade over to The Crusting Pipe where I had scheduled
our dinner reservation. I guess I got lucky because this place was the
bomb. We walked down the steps in the Faneuil Hall-looking market place
where a small band was playing in the corner and a ginormous disco ball was
splashing the walls with glitter. They already had the table set for us
under an alcove and garnished with wine-bottle candle holders. It was
perfect. We ordered a couple bottles of wine to share with dinner and
raised our glass to a successful first day in Europe.
Thursday:
First task – get 10 girls out of the apartment by
5:30am. Check. We actually made it to Knighstbridge in time to get
the first train to St. Pancras national railway station. Got through
customs, had a quick breakfast, and boarded the Eurostar at 7am for
Paris. If you haven’t taken this trip before let me just tell you that
your ears have never popped quite like this before. You couldn’t yawn or
swallow enough. Luckily we all passed out 15 minutes into the ride and
woke up 2 hours later in France. Getting from the Eurostar station to the
metro line was a project. None of us know French so that made it very
interesting. Just being polite and attempting to drop ‘bonjour’ and
‘merci’ as much as possible did get us far, though. After about 25
minutes of piddling around the most confusing train station in the world we
finally found our line and took it about 7 stops to Place de Clichy. Val
had found us a sweet 10 person apartment on Rue d’Amsterdam, right off one of
the Place de Clichy spokes. We checked in with the owner, Patrice, who
was probably one of the nicest, mild-mannered people I’ve ever met. Not
only did he bake chocolate muffins for us, he provided us with wifi codes for
all around Paris, set us up with an app that got us discounts on awesome
restaurants, and explained that he did not do this for the money.
Instead, he works very closely with the WWF part-time and is using all of the
profits to help build a fence around a habitat for elephants and rhinos.
He thanked us for helping the animals and wished us a great time in
Paris. We loved Patrice. We got our acts together, booked a place
for dinner, and headed towards the first brasserie for breakfast. Patrice
had recommended one around the corner so we checked that out. It was
amazeballs – fresh quiches, chocolatey cappuccinos, croissants, and
pastries. We definitely started our day right. After the first
tasty treat we walked around our area, which just happened to be Moulin Rouge,
and then up towards Sacré-Cœur. It was a peaceful sunny day, so warm we
didn’t even need our jackets. We trekked up the hills and through the
artistry market, finding our destination at the peak. This is arguably
the best view of Paris, although I tend to favor the one from Arc De
Triomphe. We stood in awe at the monstrosity of georgeousness atop the
hill, took more pictures, and walked back down to the town. We decided it
was the perfect time for a wine break – I mean, we’re in Paris, why not?
10 of us pulled together a few tables out in front of the restaurant, ordered
bottles of Bordeaux and Cabernet Sauvignon, and gazed out onto the winding
streets of cobblestone lined with colorful shops and cafes. It turned
from peaceful to rowdy pretty quick when our waiter suggested we order a round
of shots. We couldn’t say no.. that would be rude, and we don’t
want them to think Americans are rude. We took one down and then
ordered another. Woops. Our fun faces were on and we decided to
jump around the nearby fromageries and markets to pick up snacks for the
apartment. I think we collectively purchased 2 bottles of wine, 2 of
champagne, 3 blocks of cheese, and crackers. Our wine-antics continued
back at the apartment for the next few hours while we got ready for the night.
That few hours may have been my favorite part of the entire trip. I felt
like I was at home, back in college – hanging out with all my best friends
being crazy and telling stories. Later that night we walked over to the
Eiffel Tower to see it at night. It was just as magical as it was the
first time I saw it, almost exactly 4 years ago that week. It is just
nothing you can even describe – seeing the sparkling lights on that iconic
structure is like gazing at the Magic Kingdom as a child for the first
time. That’s as close of a comparison as I can get. We took a bunch
more pictures and then walked over to the restaurant we booked for
dinner. All I wanted was duck.. omg I want duck right now actually.
Anyway, we ordered more wine and some appetizers for the table. I spoke
very highly of the foie gras I had the first time I was in Paris so I actually
talked a few people into trying it. That’s duck liver by the way.. and
it’s absolutely delish. I apologize to all you vegetarians and vegans out
there but I would eat duck every day. Quack Quack. Following the
liver, I ordered an actual entrée of duck, sided with mushrooms and
onions. It was the best combination of savory, salty, tangy, and sweet in
my mouth all at once. Dammit I’m making myself so hungry right now.
Anywho – after dins we walked over to the canal and bought tickets for the
night cruise, which took us up and down the canal including an audio
tour. Another Patrice recommendation came to life here… doing this at
night was spectacular. The entire city looked like a Christmas tree,
reflecting all its lights into the calm waves of the canal. The cruise
capped off our night – we found the nearest metro and rode back over to Rue
d’Amsterdam.
Friday:
It took a little for us to get up and out this
morning. But it’s fine because I had a giant ham, egg, and cheese crepe
for breakfast, (Note: this was 1 of 3 for the day. No, I’m not proud
of it. But so worth it). We had a ton of adventures ahead of us
– the metro destination was Champs-Élysées to first check out the Arc.
HA! That was an adventure in itself – how the HECK are you supposed to
get to that middle circle without being pummeled by oncoming traffic?
Well, there’s an underground walkway that took us about 20 minutes to
find. Luckily a bystander pointed frantically, saying “boos, tunnelle”
over and over again. We figured out he was trying to tell us there was a
tunnel behind that bus. Ohhhhh, ok, got it. Finally we got
there. We didn’t end up going up to the top but managed to cross back
over, stand in the middle of the street, and take some pictures in front.
It’s not a good picture unless you’re cheating death, right? We carried on down
the Champs-Élysées and stopped here and there to window shop before screeching
the breaks at Ladurée, the best macaroon shop EVER. Yes, yes, I know they
have a couple shops in London but it originates in Paris and we were SO going
in. Encased in glass was a pastel rainbow of mouth-watering cookies,
placed pristinely in a line. Some of the girls bought a couple to try
while others opted for 1 big macaroon. I obviously bought a box of
6. The tiny, pink, gold-detailed, box was just way too cute to pass up..
AND I’m obsessed with these things. After handing over my credit card to
pay for the ridiculously overpriced pillows of sugar, we hopped back out onto
the street. I left the group temporarily to pit stop at Bain Consulting’s
Paris office, right off the main strip, to visit Isa (My friends from Madrid)
who was working there that week. Her office was on the top floor and had
a fantabulous view of the city. It was a super quick visit - she was
actually working so I had to leave. Met up with the girls and we walked
all the way to the end, through Jardin des Tuileries, and over to Le
Louvre. A few of the girls went inside but I opted out since I’d been
there before. The rest of the group and I decided to head to a nearby
brasserie for more wine, cheese, and baguettes. Ya, how jealous are
you? So damn French. I think I could definitely live off of
French food for the rest of my life: crepes, cheese, baguettes, wine, and
duck. I’d be 400lbs but whatever. After the Louvre crowd met up
with us, we walked around to Le Pont des Arts, the infamous bridge of locks
along the canal. Couples, friends, and travelers from all over the world
purchase padlocks, write a message, and lock it in forever on this romantic
bridge of wonder. Val bought a lock and wrote all of our initials on it
to lock in our amazing Eurotrip memories. I got super sappy and wrote
SM+HS on my lock… sorry to embarrass you, Spence. All locked in, we stood
on the bridge looking at the messages underneath the sunset. A quick
group picture was the last thing on the agenda before walking down the canal to
Notre Dame. There was some kind of service going on inside but they were
letting the general public in for a peek in the back. After a few “Amens”
we headed back for the metro, stopping at a few shops along the way. That
night after eating a Nutella crepe for dinner and getting all purdy, we met
Holly C’s friends at a hotel party. They brought us in a boujie back room
and handed us glasses of champagne. Later on – I think it might have been
around 1am, we all got into taxis and went to a huge Parisian club where we
were treated with bottle service in our own little area of leather couches and
chandeliers. I still don’t know how that happened but it was freaking
awesome. We didn’t leave the club until about 4:30am but there was still
time for crepe #3. We noticed the small vendor booth by Place de Clichy
was still open… “STOP RIGHT HERE!”. The poor taxi driver probably
thought it was an emergency. Well, really it was… we needed late-night
crepes. And let me tell you, a steak and cheese crepe was probably the
best late-night treat I’ve ever had.
Saturday:
I think we got 3 hours of sleep. We had to be up,
ready, and completely packed up by 10am to checkout with Patrice. The
first thing on the agenda that morning was coffee. But we had to take the
metro to the Eiffel Tower first. We had planned to actually go up to the
top but the line was about 2 hours long and we didn’t have time to do
that. Instead, we got some street food for breakfast and hung out by the
base of the Tower. Guess what I got? Bingo – Nutella crepe.
AND coffee. We played around on the greenery and took about 300
pictures. Before going back to the Eurostar for our return trip, we
stopped over at a café for some of the others to grab a cappuccino, shopped
around, and picked up our bags at the apartment. Another 2 hour journey
of semi-sleep and ear popping but we made it back to London safe and
sound. Everyone was pretty much pooped by the time we got back so I took
them to the pub on my street, which also happens to be my favorite pub in
London. I haven’t been to a ton of them but they are just so friendly
here… maybe it’s because they know me by now but regardless, it’s great.
The girls all seemed to love it as much as I do. We all got Rekorderlig
ciders (my fave) and a British dish. It was rainy but almost made it that
much more perfect. It was a quintessential night in London. We
spent the rest of the night very cozy in my flat, watching British TV and
laughing at Val who tried to eat nuts that she was allergic to. Don’t
worry, she didn’t die. Her tongue was just on fire.
Sunday:
Up and at ‘em. The ten of us were out of the apartment
by 9:30am to make our way over to the Tower of London where they were
memorializing all those lost in WWI. They have been building a sea of red
poppies around the Tower’s moat, for months now and were about to add the last
one in the next few days, totaling to almost 900,000. We got there just
in time and were able to participate in the 2 minute moment of silence with the
giant crowed that had flocked to the area that day. Afterwards, I took
them onto the Tower Bridge so that we could relive Spice World in our own
way. It was insanely busy over there so we decided to walk down to the
market on Brick Lane. I pointed out the beautiful graffiti art on the
brick buildings along our route until arriving at the market. This is
definitely one of my favorites – I think I told you about it before. Any
kind of food you can possibly imagine, from every corner of the world, was there.
We tried Italian gnocchi, Greek stuffed grape leaves, Lebanese dumplings,
mulled wine, and many other ethnic samples. Between our snacks, the girls
and I shopped at the vendor booths inside for jewelry, scarves, dresses, and
other trinkets. We finished out shopping extravaganza, at the market at
least, and took the tube back to Knightsbridge where I brought the girls to the
giant H+M across from my flat. Yes, there is an H+M across the street
from me… serious problem. Even from my semester abroad in Madrid I
noticed the H+Ms in Europe to be 100x better than the ones at home, no idea
why. We dropped some more cash, quickly went back to the flat to change,
and headed for High Tea. I had made reservations at the Capital Hotel
down the street, between my flat and Harrods. We enjoyed our own pots of
tea, mini sandwiches, pastries, and scones with jam and jelly. Do you
know the difference between jam and jelly? Some of you know it. I
alarmed the waiter when I asked for the check only after about an hour – it’s
usually a 3 hour deal – Harrods was closing at 6 and it was already 4:50.
The girls HAD to see the inside of Harrods before they left. There was no
way we weren’t going to lose each other so we picked a meeting spot outside by
the Christmas tree and went along our merry ways. At 6 we met up, dropped
our things at my apartment, changed into less-High-Tea-outfits, and went into
Covent Garden again for our last night out together. Sunday Funday
brought us to Punch and Judy, the balcony bar that I like to bring my visitors
to. We got a drink and sat outside, overlooking all the Christmas
lights. Punch and Judy had already stopped serving dinner so we decided
to walk back toward Leicester Square to find a restaurant. A guy standing
outside Maxwell’s restaurant and bar spotted us and said, “Do you want to
have amazing food at Maxwell’s? We LOVE the United States of America
here! We LOVE American football”. We must’ve been dripping
stars and stripes and he may have been lying but he totally got our
attention. We got a table for 10 at Maxwell’s and ordered a few drinks
with dinner, recanting all of the awesome things we had seen, done, and tasted
that extra-long weekend.
That was the last night with the 10 person
crazy-parade. I had to go into work on Monday for a meeting but the girls
got in an extra day of exploring and visiting the London Eye. When I
arrived back to Sloane Street that night, I walked into a spotless flat, with a
thank-you card, and gift placed on the table. My friends are better than
your friends. Sorry, that’s rude – but they really are special
people. I should be the one thanking YOU GIRLS for booking flights to
come visit… no need to thank me. It was a vacation of a lifetime and I
have all the best people to thank for it. You are all amazing.
After all that fun, I’ve spent this week catching up on work
and juice-cleansing. Last night was pretty cool though – I went to an
old, abandoned tube station to watch a movie. I know, sounds pretty
bizarre, but it was actually an organized event, posted on
TimeOutLondon.com. They have this pop-up theatre running for a long
weekend – you pick the date and the movie you want to see and buy a ticket for
5 quid. A few of us walked over after work and approached a random side
door covered in graffiti – we weren’t sure if we were in the right place but it
said right on the door, “Here for the pillow cinema? Please knock”.
Well alright. Knock Knock. A man looking all dapper in his
suit greeted us at the door, took down our names, and gave us our pillow
theatre wristbands. I bet you are all wondering why I keep saying “pillow
theatre”… would’ve been nice if I explained that before, huh? OK, so the
whole idea is that they have a bunch of giant beanbags in the old tube station
and you can bring your pillow there to hang out and watch a movie.
Apparently a few weeks ago they had “Hot Tub Theatre” and replaced the bean
bags with blow up hot tubs. Cool concept but also somewhat gross, count
me out for those germs. So anyway – some of the crew grabbed drinks and
snacks at the bar and we walked down into the dungeon of mystery. We
opened the black curtain and were presented with basically a couple-fest.. but
it was OK because we were a group of 2 and 2.. just sharing the bean bags a
little differently than the others. The movie, “There Will Be Blood”, was
extremely odd but the atmosphere was unique enough to keep my interest.
Today we had our regular Friday morning breakfast at a
nearby restaurant, Dishoom, that is opening up shortly to the public but
allowing local businesses to try them out. I’ll give them a thumbs
up. Tomorrow I am actually venturing off on a solo adventure: I bought a
bus tour ticket that takes you around for 10 hours to Bath, Stonehenge, and
Windsor Castle. I am pretty much out of weekends since Ash is coming next
week (YAY!) so I figured I needed to venture outside London at least
once. Don’t worry, I’ll be back with more stories and pictures after the
tour.
Thanks again for keeping up with my adventures – I am so
pleased to hear how many of you I’ve kept entertained throughout my
journey. I’ll only have a few more to post before leaving on Nov 30th
so enjoy the rest of the time with me while you can! XO
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Standard tourist pic |
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| Dinner at The Crusting Pipe |
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| St. James Park |
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| In front of where Olympic Beach Volleyball was held |
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| Sacré-Cœur |
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| Wine bar pitstop |
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| Night cruise |
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| Locking it in |
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| Le Pont des Arts (Lock bridge) |
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| Quack Quack |
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| Arc De Triomphe |
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| Ladueree |
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| Paris Day 2 Wine Bar Pit Stop by Le Louvre |
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| Notre Dame |
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| CREPES |
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| How do you fit 10 girls in a 1 person flat? Like this. |
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| High Tea |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Brick Lane Market |
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| Pillow Theatre |
