Finally...spring is in the air

After a period of 70 degree, sun-filled days, the weather has started to revert back to the typical mid-50s, clouds and occasional drizzle.  It was nice while it lasted, but it comes just in time for me to throw all my stuff into suitcases and jump on a plane headed for the States.

I've wrapped up three of four exams, with only Classical Music in London keeping me from a few extra days in London before I depart!

In the mean time, here are a few places that I will miss most when back in the States:

Considering all the time I've spent in/around "Little Lebanon" these past few months, I have eaten an embarrassingly small amount of Lebanese/Indian/Iraqi/Kurdish food.  That said, I can recommend Maroush for some good Lebanese.  Having ordered takeaway lunch there a few times, it is straight-forward and pretty good value for money.  If you don't fancy heading to the heart of "Little Lebanon" to get your falafel fix (which I highly recommend), rest assured, there are a bunch of them scattered around central London.

The Natural Kitchen is a good option if you are looking for gourmet-type food, but still want the convenience of takeaway.  It tries (and pretty much succeeds) to be an upscale "Purveyor of Fine Foods,"  but if you can get passed the pretentious exterior, you won't be disappointed.  It's located right off Old Marylebone road in a nice area with loads of restaurants, cafes, sidewalks wide enough to pass someone without getting flattened (Italy take note) and a typical assortment of soccer mom stores (designer baby clothing, over-priced towels, blah blah).  Needless to say the area isn't good for much unless you plan to eat or take a walk, however, given its close proximity to Regent's Park, it's a great place to pickup some food for a picnic.

Pret A Manger is by-far my favorite fast food restaurant in London.  I say fast food because it is actually more ubiquitous than McDonald's, just as quick and if you get the right sandwich, about the same money.  Think Panera quality, faster than Taco Bell and always-changing, fresh sandwiches.  I'm a fan. The concept is genius: Walk in, pick out your sandwich from the fridge, add some crisps/cookies/drink and pay. No custom orders, that would take time.  It's simple, inexpensive and satisfying.

The Barbican is one of the biggest venues in London, they host everything from musical theatre productions, to lectures on UK foreign policy, to the London Symphony.  Near Victoria Park, the central location means it's no more than a 20-30 minute Tube ride from Regent's, Edgware Road or Westminster Abbey.  I've been fortunate enough to see the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra on several occasions and they are all worth seeing.  

Regent's Park is really something special.  It isn't everyday you can say you go to university in a Royal Park.  Now that the flowers have started to bloom and the ivy on the Tuke Building is starting to come out, it is nicer than ever.  I pity anyone with allergies as we are quite literally dropped right into a garden, surrounded by more flowers than one can wrap their head around, grass that most golf courses would envy and enough people at any given time that you will (almost) want to leave.

With that said, I was shocked to discover the little money-making operation the Queen has set up in her park.

Who wouldn't want to sit in those?

Whenever the sun comes out, comfy chairs appear out of nowhere and get scattered around various areas throughout the park.  Naturally, I walked up (not noticing the big green sign, of course) and plopped down into one.  A few moments later, a man came up to me asking for £1.50! What?! $2.30 to sit in a chair for an hour? I almost hated the Queen..just for a second, then I realized there were perfectly good (free) benches ten feet away. 

Symphonic Rock

On 18 April, 2010, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed Symphonic Rock at the famed Royal Albert Hall.  The set list included music from the best of Coldplay, Queen, Bon Jovi, Led Zeppelin, Robert Palmer, the Moody Blues and many more.  Luck was on our side before the concert even started as we managed to get upgraded from "standing only" seats at the very top to some nice comfy (swivel) chairs in the stalls.

£75.00 seats for £10.00? Umm, yes please!

 Credit: Zach and his Nikon. Gotta love the panorama. 

Concert? Epic. For once, I am using that word without exaggeration.  The Royal Philharmonic is widely-considered to be second to the London Symphony Orchestra in terms of quality, and for good reason.  They were phenomenal and between the mediocre vocals by "Metro Voices" and the hilarious emcee who constantly struggled to keep his mic on, it was a really fun night.

Favorites of the night: "Bittersweet Symphony" and "Layla"

The Larrick

It's always difficult to decide where to eat in London, not because of the endless variety of top-notch eateries, but because we rarely venture out to dinner.  

When Heaven and Jill came for a quick visit last weekend, the dreaded moment arrived: Where should we take them to eat? If we go to a pub, do we want loud, obnoxious, quiet or one that is more of a restaurant? Italian? Dave would like that. Indian? That was instantly shot down.  Thai? Didn't even ask.  

After much deliberation/confusion (long story haha), we settled on The Larrick.  

Located on Crawford St, The Larrick is a small, inviting pub that is on the way to Regent's. It's a place that you always notice, but never actually look inside.  Since the girls were hinting that they were keen on getting some good pub food, it seemed like the perfect choice: not too loud, quintessential pub atmosphere and a small, but mighty menu.  

The whole experience turned out to be a great success.  The lack of table service meant that we could all (for once) order on separate tabs, the staff was really helpful with figuring out both drinks and food, and everything appeared from the kitchen in a reasonable amount of time.  It definitely felt more like a restaurant than a full-blown pub, but that was what we were going for. As a result, we could actually hear ourselves think. Great.  Also, the clientele was decidedly British which made the experience that much better.

How was the food? Everything was tasty, seemed well-prepared and didn't cost a fortune.  I ordered the "Coronation chicken sandwich" and it exceeded my expectations.  When I ordered I was thinking something along the lines of a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich (with a fancy name) doused in the usual condiments: lettuce, tomato and mayo.  

What arrived was an open-faced curry chicken sandwich.  It was served on a thick, toasted piece of bread with plenty of chicken, cashews and masala curry.  The chips were crispy, delicious and came with vinegar! I also had a salad with extra blue cheese (so good)!!

Everyone else seemed satisfied with their meals.  I would love to go back before it's too late.

32 Crawford Place

London W1H 5NN

East Side Exploration

Last weekend, Heaven and her friend Jill decided to pay a visit to London! They got a great taste of the city despite only being here for two days.

Zach, Jill, Heaven and Andrew

We started the morning off right with a proper English breakfast, wandered around Regent's Park, showed them the college, took the tube to the east side of London, saw the Monument (tower commemorating the Great Fire of 1666) and then they took a tour of the Tower of London (I didn't feel like doing it a second time).  

A few hours later, we finished up with a walk along the Thames, a tour of Tower Bridge and made a final stop at the infamous (my absolute favorite) Borough Market.  What a good start to the weekend!

The English know how to do landscaping..

Easter Sunday

Since this was the first time I had spent Easter Sunday away from home, I thought it would be fun to do a Toledo/London comparison.

Toledo:

Usually my family gets up, heads to St. Tim's for Easter service and then we find ourselves at my grandma Carol's house by early afternoon.  Loads of food (always too much), my aunts Beth and Joanne, uncle Dennis and cousins Lauren and Ellie are always there.  It's always really informal which is awesome and my mom and grandma always whip up some incredible cheese potatoes and deviled eggs.  By far the two greatest holiday dishes ever created.  On the other side of the family, my grandma Hilda has made dinner in the past which is equally delicious!

 The infamous cheese potatoes (and deviled eggs)

London:

I woke, threw some clothes on, headed to St. Martin-in-the-fields for Easter service, wandered back to the flat, had an awkward brunch of peanut butter/jelly on a (toasted) waffle, Waitrose cheese and tomato pizza and a glass of orange juice. Later my "Easter dinner" consisted of a delicious chicken tikka masala "tv dinner."

Contrast much?

Easter dinner

My flatmates Dave and Zach were off exploring Ireland on a "Patty Wagon" bus tour, Matt was also in Ireland, but to visit his girlfriend and Nick was stuck with me in the flat.

After church and brunch, it became clear just how exhausted I was from the incessant traveling over the past month.  With school work starting to pile up and finals just around the corner, I was glad we returned from Paris on Saturday evening.  

It was definitely the most relaxing Easter I've ever had. The hours flew by as I sat in the flat snacking, watching TV and just laying around.

Parisian Macarons

Happy Easter, everyone! After a solid month of weekend travel, it's fair to say that I'm looking forward to spending the last month of my experience abroad in my home, "Little Lebanon." The final chapter in the book of weekend escapades concluded with Paris, France. 

Considering its close proximity to London via Eurostar train (it took a bit over two hours one way), Paris seemed like a no-brainer for a quick dose of baguette culture.  With our hotel perfectly positioned between the Gare de Nord (Eurostar) station and the Metro, the infamous "urban sprawl" of Paris never phased us.  Getting from our hotel to our first stop (Musée d'Orsay) took a mere ten minutes.

Speaking of our hotel!  Le Parisiana certainly lived up to it's two star rating.  Everything was great (especially the breakfast) except for the overwhelming stench of cigarette smoke that jumped out at us as we opened the door to our room.  Awesome.  It was like someone was stuffing them down our throat. All was well though because we threw open the doors that I guess were more like windows due to the lack of a balcony and it seemed to help.  To remedy the pillow stench, I whipped out some of my handy dryer sheets (why I had them isn't important) and put them under the pillows.  After returning from our first day in the city, the cleaning staff seemed to take the hints and gave us fresh sheets, a big bottle of French "Febreeze" and some chocolate Easter eggs.

In the midst of waiting in line to purchase our tickets, Bri and I heard English and instantly turned around to introduce ourselves.  Tim and Cara from Vancouver, BC were brother and sister traveling around Europe for four months! Oh the people you meet.  They both seemed to be great people (after talking to them for five minutes), in fact, when it was our turn to figure out how to purchase tickets from the machine, they lumped all of ours onto one tab and ended up buying my metro pass! 

Sadly, they had planned on taking a connecting train to Versailles for the day and so we were forced to part ways 20 minutes after we were introduced.

Arriving on Thursday and departing on Saturday evening meant we had 48 hours explore Paris.

Day One: Notre Dame Cathedral, Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower  

 Notre Dame Cathedral 

After we got a taste of the Paris Metro (which has nothing on the Tube, mind you), a medium-sized line awaited us outside of the cathedral.  Being Good Friday and considering the place has been around since 1163, the smaller-than-expected crowd was a welcome surprise. 

Known to the French as Notre Dame de Paris, Notre Dame Cathedral was completed in 1345, effectively taking the better part of 182 years to complete.

Although I don't have documentation of the Good Friday service, my experience at the cathedral wasn't memorable for the right reasons.  As I was being funneled around the perimeter of the nave with countless other tourists (cameras flashing, people chatting, yelling, laughing and pointing), the clergy were (attempting) to conduct a full-blown service.  It all felt very wrong. 

Nevertheless, the beauty of the place was undeniable.  If I have the chance, I would love to go back and attend a service sans hoards of tourists, camera flashes and obnoxious behavior.

I love stained glass

Musée d'Orsay

With the bizarre glimpse of Notre Dame Cathedral complete, a quick walk down the Seine was the only thing that stood between us and our next stop, Musée d'Orsay.

The Seine River

The national museum of the Musée d'Orsay was created when works from three museums came together.  On 9 December, 1986, the museum opened its doors to showcase western art between 1848 and 1914.

Paintings originated from the Louvre, Musee de Jeu de Paume and the National Museum of Modern Art.

Countless works of well-known artists covered the walls, most notably: Degas, Manet, Renoir, Monet, Mondrian, Van Gogh and Cezanne.  One of the three main collections focused on the late 1800s (1870 - 1880ish) which happens to be when many Paris-based impressionist painters came to prominence. This meant there was lots of great impressionist art to ooohh and aww at.

The museum was definitely a highlight of the trip for me.  I can't say enough good things, the collections were full of famous works that I've only ever seen in textbooks, it wasn't so big that it was impossible to complete in a few hours, the food at the cafe was reasonably-priced and tasty AND not having Louvre plastered on the front door meant we actually had room to breath as we walked through the galleries.

Rain, sun, rain, sun and some drizzle summed up the weekend weather.

Notice the blue sky in the pictures from Notre Dame.  Now check out that sky in the picture I snapped from the top floor of the Musée d'Orsay. 

The queue to get tickets

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is one of the greatest monuments in the world. Ignoring it's existence is like passing up a free tray of just-baked chocolate chip cookies at Max n Erma's, you just don't do it.  The only question was when we were going walk underneath the towering hunk of iron. Day or night? How about both?

With our minds thoroughly saturated with art history and our stomachs full from lunch, it was clear some fresh air was needed.  Thankfully, the walk to the Eiffel Tower was pretty manageable as it entailed mindlessly following the Seine River due west until we saw the tower.

Eiffel Tower: it's hard to miss

I tried to get the tower in the reflection of the puddle..It kinda worked.

Peace Memorial

Ignore the dashing couple behind me

With Saturday reserved for the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées and Louvre, we had plenty of time to walk around and soak up the Parisian sun/rain until dinner.  

One of the many meat markets we stumbled upon

Rue de Granelle

Dinner: Cafe Roussillon

Cafe Roussillon is located right off of Rue de Granelle, which runs into to the Champ de Mars (the path that connects the peace memorial to the Eiffel Tower). 

French food = rich, right?  

Ordering food in a foreign country is always a bit haphazard. It has been my experience that even if the waiter speaks mediocre English, things can still be easily misunderstood, translated and result in an unpleasant dinner.  This wasn't entirely the case when I ordered "rivoli" hoping for some sort of meat ravioli, salad and bread. It was all that and more.

Imagine the richest "alfredo" sauce you've ever had, add a few more splashes of heavy cream for kicks,  toss in a raw egg yolk, stuff the pasta with extra-fatty, greasy bacon and finish it with the most random vegetable you can come up with (leeks).  That was what arrived steaming hot (almost bubbling) in a small bowl with a massive side salad and lots of crusty bread to soak up all the "broth." 

Delicious isn't the right word as it was the most incredible contradiction of pleasure and pain.  Pleasure because it was by-far one of the richest, most delicious things I've ever consumed and pain because I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite.  Immensely satisfying and completely worth it.  

Dessert? How about tiramisu with ladyfingers that tasted like they had been soaked in espresso for 48 hours? What better way to finish up a meal of cream, butter, bacon, eggs and red wine, than with a dessert packed with thick, tart marscapone cheese, espresso that gave me a legitimate caffeine buzz and melt-in-your-mouth ladyfingers.  

Eiffel Tower

First shot of the Eiffel Tower at night. Incredible.

In contrast to the midday, blue skies that filled the background of the photos from earlier in the day, the big pile of rusty iron suddenly became a glowing piece of art once the lights got a chance to show their stuff.

View from the top observation deck

UFO?

Me overlooking the Seine

A full day of climbing endless sets of stairs meant we were pretty tuckered out and headed for the hotel after our descent back to solid ground.

Day Two: Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées and the Louvre

 Arc de Triomphe

As I was staring at the arc, it was impossible not to notice the five lanes of traffic flowing around the base with cars jockeying for positions that were, at the very least, questionable.  In that, they would merge when buses, trucks and small cars were in the way and just assume they would be let in.  Sometimes, by grace of God these hooligans are given the go-ahead and sometimes there is contact. Interestingly, when there is a minor fender bender, motorists keep on truckin' like nothing happened.  

Moral of the story: if you ever drive around the Arc de Triomphe, make sure your car already has a few battle scars.

I found it interesting that many of the car companies had "dealerships" sitting right on the Champs-Élysées.  These supposed dealerships, after closer inspection, turned out to be glorified museums.  Several of the car companies (Toyota and Citroën) had some extra-special displays that were worth noting.  

Above you'll see Toyota's big "walk-in commercial" that featured a real Prius plug-in hybrid, several city cars, some former rally cars and a "design your own Prius" table.  Pretty cool designs, I must say.

In Paris, chocolate shops are more ubiquitous than Starbucks and, as you can probably imagine, range from expensive to outrageous.  This one prided itself on edible packaging.  That meant even the bowls, boxes and cups were cast from chocolate!

 The most unique building on the Champs-Élysées was definitely the Citroën showroom.  Just as Ford is to America, Citroën is to France.  They build cars for the masses and most-notably sponsor a championship winning World Rally Team.  The French are crazy about rallying and it showed with the extravagant multi-level displays that showcased their illustrious rally heritage.

Lunch: Paul

After walking up and down the famed road a few times to scope out the "best" lunch spot, Paul looked more and more like a winner. A classic French bakery, Paul has served up delicious pastries, breads and fresh sandwiches since 1889.  By accident, I ordered a smoked salmon baguette (which can sometimes be iffy), but this one deserved two thumbs way up.

French food, I love you.

Fresh breads were everywhere.. It was dangerous.

Louvre

To sum up the Louvre: massive, beautiful, ornate, awkward layout, need an extra lifetime and a PhD in art history to appreciate everything on display, the Mona Lisa might as well be a postage stamp.  It's uber-impressive, but impossible to wrap your mind around.  

Outside the Louvre

Our entertainment for the train ride to Paris was the "easy" crossword out of the Evening Standard.  It was quite a painstaking process, but over breakfast on Easter Sunday, we managed to completed the (few) remaining clues with a little help from Google.  It was a glorious feeling. 

Thoughts? 

Did I get my fill of baguettes and culture? Absolutely.  The only thing that was more bountiful than all that fresh bread and priceless artwork was the cigarette smoke that enveloped everything like smog in L.A.  

Nevertheless, it's the good things I will remember and Paris really showed me why it's considered one of the greatest cities in the world.  

From the picturesque walks down the seine, to the priceless artwork that seemed to be everywhere, to taking in the Parisian skyline from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, to sneaking one last bite of French culture in the form of a Parisian macaroon at the train station, it was one trip I will never forget.


Happy Easter!!!