cliff notes of london and amsterdam

Saturday 28 February:

-woke up really early to catch the early train to Schonefeld Flughof and met Ida and Linda in the airport.
-got into london mid afternoon and checked into our hostel in Kensington
-had serious communication problems with melissa, so unfortunately didn't see her this day
-went to trafalgar square, took pictures of stuff
-went to picadilly circus, picked up some chapstick because the wind made my lips INSANELY chapped, i'm talking like frostbite infected looking nasty lips. pretty gross, and the chapstick i had brought just wasn't cutting it. and the one i bought didn't either, this resulted in lots of lotion on the lips and complaining :)
-ate at a really good indian but not indian but in the area of india, restaurant in soho. SUCH tasty food. mmm :)
-our hostel was really ok, minus the perpetually drunk staff. maybe there are no rules in England about drinking on the job, and if there are, then these hostel employees were definitely violating that

sunday 29 february:
-reunited with Melissa when she met us at our hostel in the morning, it was SOOOO great seeing her and we ended up chatting the whole time about how wonderful california and UCSC are...which was great :)
-headed out early and went to Camden Market, it was really cool but all the kiosks had pretty much the same stuff. all stuff i would have begged my parents to buy me circa 8th/9th grade. i'm talking the faux punk stuff in all its greatness. however, i did buy a really cute, cheap handbag inside when you get past all the food stuff. it was only 7 pound!
-from camden market we stopped for some coffee to recharge then headed out to see big ben and the house of parliament.
-the stupid freaking tube betrayed us like usual!
once again not making sense, the british transport people closed the camden market tube stop due to 'overcrowding' due to the market. so pretty much they stranded everyone who was there...thanks tube, so we walked a bit to the next stop and complained in excess :)eme cool really old grave markers.
-stopped for a wrap of some sort and then met Jean-Marc, Trouni, Esther and Esthers friend and the Tate Modern.
they got there earlier than us and were finished by the time we got there. they made it through in a speedy 45 minutes. us? 2.5 hours. Mellissa and i had a blast making fun of lots of the art, but all in all it was pretty awesome, minus the one installation that actually looked like literal poop.
-after exhausting ourselves at the tate we spent a long time trying to find the tube. of course the closest stop was closed UNTIL 2011 (i hate the tube). this forced us to walk really far to the next stop. we decided upon searching for a restaurant on the way to tube station.
-turns out we were in an area of pretty much NO restaurants. anyhow, after seriously backtracking we ate at the first restaurant we saw, a burger place, and i ate a delicciousss lentil/potato/curry burger.
-after satisfying our stomachs we headed back to soho and drank a beer at the BrewMaster, a pub with club music that did not match the ambience.
-met up with Jean-Marc and crew for a bit but instead of going out with them we headed back to to the hostel because we were all pooped and couldn't feel our legs anymore from all the walking.

monday 1 March
-saw the outside of buckingham palace but didn't go inside because it's closed for all of the year but like 2 months but it was a really beautiful day so it was great just being outside.
-walked through hyde park and met the friendliest squirell ever
-walked through harrods and commented on how none of us would ever buy anything as expensive as what is sold in there. all the sales associates were really snobby and looked like models...except with hairy faces.
-ate lunch at the worst cafe ever
-melissa headed home :(
-ida, linda and i went to visit the kensington gardens, didn't go inside because it was about 20 pounds. NO WAY JOSE! but we did have tea at the Orangery which was great
-met up with jean-marc and crew in Notting Hill. drank some coffee and looked at all the insanely expensive houses and ridiculously chic little kids.
-dropped by our hostel to take off our shoes for .5 seconds then rushed directly out the door
-were really late to meeting jean-marc and crew for dinner due to the tube just never functioning correctly.
-went to some really hidden pakistani restaurant and ate THE BEST FOOD EVER
NO JOKE
seriously, i think about this food and start salivating, rubbing my stomach and just going 'mmmmmm'. it's impossible not to after eating such delicious food. it was totally packed but totally reasonably priced. i had 2 plates of vegetarian dishies (eggplant stuff and then lentil curry) with parantha and other sorts of breads for just 10 pound!
-took the tube home happy and stuffed with food

tuesday:

ok, i'm gonna have to get back to you guys because my computers getting really hot and my fingers are tired :)

but i'll be posting some of the beautiful pictures melissa took soon since i can't post a link to the slideshow. but trust me, they're really great