A little fun in the sun

Sunday was our break day having spent the last 4 days flat hunting.

We started our day by meeting the LBS Men and Women's Rugby Team in Regents Park for a game of touch rugby. We split up into guys and girls, where I noticed the boys kind of just started playing and the girls we got a good grounding on the rules and did drills first. It's the first time we'd met up with LBS and Partners and it was a lot of fun. Everyone is very cool and laid back and as I got used to the rules of rugby it's actually quite fun and a very good workout. It was also a great chance to meet some of my other 2011 classmates.

Another aspect of rugby I think I'm going to like is that when we finished we all had a beer and when that was depleted everyone headed to the pubs. I stayed behind because I briefly lost my husband (who'd been detained from returning from the bathroom because he was trying to figure out how the game of cricket works). We decided to head to Pret (a corner bakery type chain) for lunch since we had skipped breakfast and therefore running on nothing. Sandwiches were yummy and not too expensive (I tend to disagree with folks who say food here is not good and too expensive... sandwiches were approx £3 which is roughly $5... pretty standard for LA or SF... cheaper even).

After we cleaned up and rested we decided to do our first bit of site seeing and headed down to the tube to check out South Bank and Westminster. Quickly we discovered the tube is expensive! One way is £4 and day pass is £5.60 (in our already student mentality we decided all tube outings should be reserved for a full day of exploring and not just an hour or two here or there). While very easy to use it's not terribly comfortable, ventilation wasn't great in the trains and it felt stuffy and slighty smelly. I think we'll be doing a lot of walking and bus riding.

We got off at Embankment which dropped us across the river from the London Eye. As we crossed the Golden Jubilee Bridge we realized... isn't this the bridge the death eaters took down in the beginning of Harry Potter. But luckily it was all clear and sunny skies (we've been very lucky) and we saw no speeding black clouds of death eaters hehe.

The London Eye is a magnificent ferris wheel which takes 40 min to loop around and costs about £17. As the queue was quite long we decided to wait until another sunny day to check out the London Eye. I had noticed earlier that the streets are really clean for a big city... at most you'll find some cigarette butts but not a lot of litter. That does not hold true for near the London Eye, there is trash everywhere. I don't know if its because its a tourist attractions and tourists just don't care or that it's actually kind of hard to spot a trash can.

Along the boardwalk there's a lot of performances, statue people, break dancers (one who did a rather good rendition of Michael Jackson's Billy Jean) and random performers. There was also a lot of ice cream stands and belgian waffle stands. We paid the price and got a belgian waffle with chocolate syrup, it was quite good but probably looked better than it tasted. £3.50 for one... I can see if you stay in tourist areas how money could disappear quite quickly.

As we walked along the river we had a great view of Big Ben and the Parliament. It is a quite impressive structure with very fine detail. Right next to it is Westminster Abbey which is just as detailed but is a nice contrast with its white walls. As it was late we didn't get to go in but we're sure to make another trip to view both of these in more detail.

For dinner we decided to try La Piazza near the Embankment station (using the whole.. there's a lot of people in here it must be good). I was pleasantly surprised to realize that Italian restaurants here serve Italian food like they do in Italy ... i.e., the Lasagna doesn't have all that extra ricotta cheese Americans love adding ... and I dislike. We got Gnocchi with tomato, garlic and basil sauce with Parmesaon cheese on top. Very good but not the best gnocchi .. a bit starchy. And Eugene got the Lasagna with Bechamel sauce... sooo delicious... I probably ate half of his meal.

We were surprised to realize when we got the bill that we were charged for water (we asked for tap but apparently that wasn't an option) £2.90 and a cover charge for the both us. Cover charge? Apparently some European restaurants charge you a cover charge PER PERSON for things we've taken for granted in American retaurants i.e., bread etc. Still the meal wasn't too expensive and they had the green olives I absolutely love (of which I ate almost all of them)

All in all a lovely time in London.