Notting Hill and Portobello Market

Ever seen the movie Notting Hill? Where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant fall in love to the background of beautiful West London? Hugh Grant owns an quaint bookshop in Notting Hill and Julia Roberts, who plays a famous movie star, wanders into his shop. Anyway, the idea of Notting Hill always intrigued me after this.

So, Friday afternoon we ventured out again into Notting Hill with the purpose to discover the world famous Portobello Market. Streets were lined with fresh fruit, veggies, fish, as well as old clothes, boots and fun jewelry. I filled my bags with a coat that I found for 8 pounds, a fun ring, and fruit, lots of fruit. We wandered back in forth, taking everything in, feeling the laid back energy that flowed through everything.

Overall I really liked Notting Hill. The buildings were sweet, pale pinks, yellows and creamy whites. The streets curved and flowed and I wish I could tell you exactly the type of architecture it was. I think if I ever decided to live in London, Notting Hill would be first on my list. The weather was gorgeous, and just being out, breathing in London and all the people enjoying the market, made my day. So next time you are in London, put a Friday afternoon at Portobello Market on your list.

Harrods

So Thursday afternoon I dragged myself out of the flat to discover something new of London. First on my list, the legendary Harrods. So I headed out ready to discover floors of clothes and incredible food halls. My journey started out with a joyous walk through Hyde Park where I breathed in the smells of spring. I would have given anything at that moment to have a book with me, so I could plop myself down on a bench and join the other Londoners enjoying one of the first nice days of spring. Instead I continued my walk through Hyde Park intent on reaching Harrods. After weaving myself through the streets of Knightsbridge I arrived in front of it. Stopping to admire the slightly ugly but impressive building, I pushed my way through the doors and entered.

So what did I think of Harrods? First off I remembered I hated department stores. Second of all I hated stores where I felt I wasn't dressed enough to be there. The floors were filled with Gucci, Fendi, Prada and all that jazz. I only enjoyed two parts of it. First was the book store where I fulfilled my desire to have a book in my purse, buying two books that were on sale. The second part were the food halls, filled with exotic cheese, fish, veggies and the likes. Dotted throughout were adorable counters where you could get anything from sushi to ice cream. I wanted very badly to sit and eat my fill of tiramisu, but by venturing out by myself into London I had no one to share my cute moment with.

I think the fact that I enjoyed only the bookstore and the food halls says a lot about me. Mostly that I'm a nerd that likes to eat. But who knows. Harrods could be added to the list of things to do, get a lunch at counter with a friend and enjoy a day out of the flat.

To be or not to be....lazy

With the joys of having a five day weekend, also comes the questions of how to fill ones time. Living in London for four months seems like a fair amount of time, and I agree that it is, but it does cause some problems, as you don't have to rush around to see London, but yet you don't have all the time in the world. If you feel like spending the day lazing around, watching bad TV and basically recouping after a intense two days of classes, is that okay? Or should one push oneself to go out and see something, whether it be Tate Modern or Camden Market? In New York I don't feel it's a waste of my time to take a day and do pretty much nothing, because I have endless days to experience the joys of New York, and sometimes the best thing one can do for oneself is to lay around, watch TV and de-stress. Sleeping till 11 AM is wonderful after getting up at 7 AM for the past two days, but it is a waste of my London time? Is taking the day easy, going for a nice run and making myself a nice breakfast/lunch a waste of the culture I could be experiencing?

Well I've come up with a way to justify my enjoyable day of lazing.
#1. I've just had two intense days of classes, forcing a week's worth of learning about finance, management, women' writers and British politics, into 48 hours. Therefore I need a day to clear my mind, and not think to much, nor force myself to keep moving when all I really want to do is nap for a little while.

#2. London is a beautiful city, filled with parks, gorgeous neighborhoods and exciting open-air markets. Yet it is still March and COLD. Walking around London is not the most enjoyable way to spend ones day when the temperature hovers around 5 degrees C, and there is a brisk wind blowing your way making you even colder.

#3. A lot of the open air markets are only open or at their prime at weekends, so that crosses another thing off my list.

#4. My plan was to go visit Harrods, the large department store that's supposed to be worth a visit, yet my roommate had already been there and we had decided to try and do something together.

#5. I wasn't in the mood for a museum chocker-box filled with masterpieces.

So my five reasons for being lazy aren't that great, but they do exist and I will argue that if I want to spend one day of my weekend not exploring the joys of London that is my prerogative. Plus I did venture out long enough to go see Paddington Bear at Paddington Station.

Back from Berlin

I spent the last weekend in Berlin, soaking up the cold, the "art" scene, my grandmother's show and my sisters' company. So what did I think of Berlin? It's still a city of two parts, East and West, and you can definitely see the difference between the two. Yet the amount of public transport they have is impressive and its relatively easy to use, (I took the S-Bahn all the way from the airport by myself), so Berlin easily melts into a complete city.

I felt that it was a little dark and gloomy, but that could just be the winter light, or lack thereof. There was a lot of graffiti, but also a lot of beautiful old buildings and an up and coming art scene. The thing about Berlin is that its struggling to deal with its past. Germany as a whole is facing the ghosts of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust and Berlin is not only facing those terrible facts, but the cold war as well and what it did to the city. Yet Berlin is still there, still alive.

I once heard someone say that the sign of an alive city is one that has construction going on. By that standard Berlin is definitely alive. Everywhere we looked some new building was going up. There wasn't a city block that didn't have huge cranes, gaping holes and meters of scaffolding. I think in 10 years Berlin will be an amazing city, yet for know it still has a way to go.

So after spending 4 days in the city of Berlin, I think I've gotten a sense of the layout of it. I now not only understand where the main streets and stations lie, but also how the public transportation works. I even spoke a little German, though everyone was always willing to speak English to me. So for those 4 days I could say "Ich bin ein Berliner' and even better, know that it isn't correct grammar.

The Joys of Finance

For the past few days, I've been force feeding my brain finance. My gorgeous five day weekend has been filled with waking up, opening my finance book and learning the subtle differences between municipal bonds (tax-exempt from federal, state and local taxes) and something such as a corporate bond. I've become quite familiar with the risk-return tradeoff and how to diversify your portfolio to reduce both systematic (by investing internationally) and unsystematic (basic diversification among different stocks and bonds) risk. I don't know why I'm stressing so much about this test, but since our final grade is based solely on this midterm, our final and some coursework, I think I can stress out just a little bit. The funny part is that there is a certain satisfaction to finally understanding something that you've heard all your life, such as what exactly is a T-Bill or mutual fund. And who knows, maybe I'll go into finance and maybe make my sister happy.

Brighton: The Seaside Resort

Today we went to Brighton, a seaside town on the southern coast of England, the 'channel' part. After a very early wake-up and a semi-long bus ride we arrived in the town that King George made popular in the 18th century, after the sea air was declared good for one. We had coach tour, followed by a walking tour, by a woman who had very interesting way of describing things. We then entered the Royal Pavilion, which looks like the Taj Mahal on the outside, but it is decorated on the inside with a Chinese inspired style. A very interesting combination. The chandeliers in the place were amazing, done with huge dragons and thousands of crystals. We followed this tour with lunch and then a walk down to Brighton Pier. On the way I got hit by car. Yet not a big deal, as I was walking on the sidewalk and somehow my hand got hit by the side mirror of some car whizzing by. It didn't hurt though, just made a loud noise, and I just stopped to exclaim, "OMG I just got hit by a car," amusing my flatmates a great deal, and making me laugh for a while. We then went down to the pier, fighting the wind for a chance to walk out onto the sea and perhaps hit up a few rides. Yet the wind proved too great for us and we spent our last half-hour putting 10 pence coins into those machines that push the coins down different levels and if you position yours right you can win some more coins just to lose them again. We then took the bus back to London after a pleasant, but windy day in the seaside resort of Brighton. For future note it is supposed to have quite a happening night life, though we came no where near it.

Joining The Ranks

Well, I've finally joined the ranks of blogging, after many readings of my sisters' blogs on food, thoughts and their new "upcyling." This is supposed to cover my worldwide travels, mostly though as I live and study in London for the semester and hop to other neighborhing countries once in a while. I know that I've started late in the game, espcially since I have already been here for two months and only have a little over two left. Well better late then never they say. So here comes Buttercup's Travels.