When in [London]

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on my dissertation (or at least psyching myself up to write my dissertation) and not much time out in the city. I’ve made it out to a few places though, and in an effort to catch up on what I’ve been doing, I’ve decided to compile a list of some of my favorite typically British things to do in London.

Eating Lebanese food – My first experience at a Lebanese restaurant was a night that Kelsey and I decided to venture out to Edgeware Road, a street so packed with Lebanese restaurants that it’s known as “Little Beirut.” We wandered around to a few restaurants before picking one with reasonable prices and pretty authentic Middle Eastern décor. I had the best hummus I’ve ever eaten, tried baba ganoush for the first time (delicious!) and picked a random potato and lamb concoction off the menu that turned out to be incredible. Kelsey and I have also gone to a nearby restaurant called Safadi Express on High Holburn, where I keep ordering hummus topped with shwarma chicken or lamb. It’s absolutely amazing. I don’t know why I’ve never tried Lebanese food before, it may very well be my new favorite.

Seeing musicals – A few weeks ago Kelsey, Bhumi, Rebecca and I got cheap day-of tickets to see Avenue Q. I’d seen the show before in New York, so it was interesting to see the small changes they made to the show to better reflect British culture and humor. I don’t think the Brits found the show as funny as us Americans, but that’s their loss. On Wednesday, the Hansard program took all of us to see Billy Elliot, which I’ve wanted to see in New York forever. It did not disappoint. The kids in the show were mind blowing actors and dancers, I can’t believe any person on the planet could have the stamina to perform that show, especially the 13-year-old playing Billy. The funny thing is that my guy flatmates loved the show even more than the girls, despite its focus on ballet and dance, but I know they were mostly jealous of Billy’s abs.

Cider – I liked cider before I came to London, even though all of my friends at home make fun of me because it’s “wimpy” compared to beer. I never particularly cared, but in London drinking cider is totally acceptable, they love it here. There are different brands of cider at every bar, so I’ve had fun trying as many as are available. I really like pear Magners, and also Sam Smith’s cider. It’s just so much tastier than beer, it will be sad to go back to the US and have so many fewer cider options.

Florence + the Machine – I spent a significant part of last weekend watching the top 40 British video countdown, where I discovered Florence + the Machine, my new favorite singer. I haven’t downloaded her full album yet, but “Kiss With a Fist” and “You’ve Got the Love” are my two favorite songs right now. Download them immediately.

Pie – Alright, so I only had a traditional British pie once, but it was really good, and it’s really British, so it makes the list. I had a steak and ale pie awhile ago at a trendy restaurant called The Buck’s Head in Camden, and it was delicious. It probably tasted better because there was a special allowing me to get a pint of Strongbow cider for a pound with the meal.

Oxford

A week ago the whole Hansard Scholars program took a trip to Oxford for a day of lectures instead of having class. It was perfect weather for a day trip, the sun was shining over the nearly 900 year old college town by the time we got off the train.

Oxford University is actually made up of 36 small colleges, each with their own specialty. We headed straight for pretty Nuffield College, with a beautiful enclosed courtyard for our first lecture with the legendary professor who started seriously doing election polls in Britain.

We got lunch on the high street at an Indian restaurant, I didn’t know what I was eating, but it was some sort of delicious spicy lamb and pea concoction, and nan, because you always need nan.

After lunch we met at Carfax Tower to walk over to Queens College for the second lecture. Queens College was much bigger than Nuffield, with a quad enclosed by tall ornate buildings. The outdoor hallways around the edge of the quad were arched, I felt like I was at Hogwarts. We had another interesting lecture about the rise of the Conservative party in Britain before splitting up to go on various adventures around the city.

The architecture of Oxford is varied because the city and colleges were built in so many different time periods, but nearly every building you pass is old and gorgeous. Everything looks like Hogwarts, because it is. They shot scenes from the Harry Potter movies all around Oxford. So clearly, my afternoon adventures were a Harry Potter mission.

Our first stop was the Bodlein Library, Oxford’s main library and where they shot some Harry Potter library scenes. We took a tour of the place and learned a ton about the intricate building and library systems that have been in place for hundreds of years. The building is older than our country. We were able to sneak a peek of the Divinity School (closed on Mondays, of course!) where they filmed the hospital scenes and the scene where Professor McGonagall teaches Ron to dance.

After the tour we made our way to Christ Church College, where the Great Hall is as well as a bunch of hallways used in the Harry Potter movies. We were there by 4:45, but the campus closed to visitors at 4:30, which broke our hearts. We ended up wandering around the outskirts of the college while Rebecca devised ways to break in, then decided to meet up with Bhumi and Kelsey near the river.

For dinner we walked back across Oxford to eat at a great little Italian restaurant Bhumi’s friend recommended, stuffed ourselves with carbs, then headed back to the train station.

I immediately looked up grad school programs at Oxford, because I’m so in love with the place, but they don’t have any media or PR programs. However, the trip has made me seriously consider grad school in another country. I’ve started looking up programs, so we’ll see.

Bostonians in London

The last couple of weeks have been a little crazy, it’s getting down to the wire to get majo work done on my dissertation, and nearly time to start studying for finals. Despite the stress I’ve managed to have some really great days in London.

Last week my friend Laura and I spent Friday together wandering the city. Laura is my friend from Northeastern who is studying outside of London. We spent most of the afternoon at the National Portrait Gallery gawking at paintings and photos of famous Brits, past and present. My favorites were a huge painting of Paul McCartney, Andy Warhol’s prints of the Queen, and the new portrait of Princes William and Harry. It’s a really great museum.

We headed to a Mexican restaurant called Café Pacifico in Covent Garden for a late lunch, and found ourselves full of amazing chips, salsa, fajitas, burritos and lunchtime margaritas by the end of the meal. It was wonderful, and far more delicious than any of us were expecting. We made a stop at Scoop, the great gelato place nearby before wandering around with Laura’s friend Sam (also from Northeastern) in search of a good deal for a play that night. After lots of stops, we got reasonable tickets to Waiting for Godot and then killed some time before the show in a French Café in SoHo.

The show was funny and sweet and sad. Sir Ian McKellan (Gandalf!) played one of the leads, which was really incredible to see. I loved it.

After the show Sam and I met up with Kelsey and Bhumi at The Rocket, one of our favorite bars then made it over to Brick Lane, the London street known for late night Indian food. Brick Lane is crazy because Brits "go for a curry" after a night at a pub instead of getting pizza or Chinese like Americans do. Brick Lane is full of these white-tableclothed late-night restaurants, it was really awesome.

This Friday Laura and I embarked on another adventure, this time having a far less intellectual day. We went to Abbey Road to see the studios and the zebra crossing (Brit-speak for crosswalk) and take in the magic of the Beatles. The whole area in front of the studios is graffitied by visitors, it’s really, really cool. People from all over the world leave messages there, the next time I go back I’m bringing my Sharpie. We spent some time on a bench watching foreign tourists take the famous picture crossing the street. Abbey Road is just a busy residential street, so a lot of the tourists had problems and frequently got honked at by annoyed British motorists. It was hilarious, and I loved just being there. The Beatles music is so universal, there were people of all ages and tons of nationalities just hanging out at Abbey Road. So cool.

We decided to walk from Abbey Road to Camden Market, which looked like a nice and quick walk on my map. The walk was certainly nice, but it took about twice as long as I’d estimated. Oh well, it was a beautiful sunny day, so we didn’t mind. We walked around Camden Market for awhile (actually a long street with tons of markets along it). I wanted tons of jewelry, clothes and posters, but was able to resist and save my money. I did splurge on vegan ice cream (delicious!) and some cheap Chinese food for linner. It was a really nice afternoon.