The Day it Snowed

After we went to market on the first day, we came home and rested. The flight, being in a new place, and a body deprived of sleep can catch up to you; we were all exhausted. The next morning I woke up amazed at the fact that I was in London. I think that was when it hit me. London. Outside it was very dark and cold and the flat mates were already up watching TV. I couldn’t be indoors, despite the cold, I wanted out. So I suggested a walk. Once we were all bundled up we headed out to find Smithfield Market. We found it, but it was closed. So we kept walking and I’m glad we did. We began finding different historic landmarks. First, we literally stumbled upon a section of the London Wall. It was the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot. This section was near a little pond which had frozen over because it was so cold. Darrin wanted to see the ice crack so he tapped the surface with his foot only it didn’t crack like in the movies and all Darrin accomplished was lowering his body temperature further. The more we walked, the more we saw! We found St. Paul’s Cathedral, kept walking, and realized we had reached the Thames. The Millennium Bridge was right in front of us. Now, if you don’t already know, the Millennium Bridge was endearingly called the Wobbly Bridge by Londoners because after it opened in 2000, it swayed so badly. After a few days, the bridge was closed and modified to eliminate the motion. Or so they claim. Frankly, I was scared shitless crossing the bridge because A) it’s so fucking long and B) it sways like a motherfucker! Regardless, I made it safely across and even better, as we were crossing it began to snow. This was not a heavy snow in the least, and I’m sure lots of people wouldn’t even consider it snow, but to us Californians it was totally snowing. On the other side of the bridge we found so much! First, The Globe Theatre! We walked inside to warm up but didn’t get a chance to see anything really, other than the lobby and the outside of the building. Still, being there was a great feeling. We kept along on our walking adventure and found Borough Market. If you’re ever in London on the weekend (as they say here) you MUST visit this market. There were so many delicacies, cheeses from all over Europe, delicious breads and pastries, fruit, vegetables, meats, oh my! There are vendors cooking and selling food like at a fair: wild boar sausage, lamb burgers, real bratwurst. We opted for a beef burger with an amazing combination of sauces. I tried the hot and spicy and the cranberry. Man. It was heaven!

The cheese was REAL CHEESE, none of that processed singles stuff. It ranks up there with the most delicious burger I’ve ever had in my life. This was a neat area of town and you can get to the London Dungeon from there or to the Clink Museum, a prison museum. This is kind of underneath the London Bridge so when we came up from underneath we were able to walk across London Bridge, which is, despite rumors to the contrary, not falling down. It isn’t even the real London Bridge. Did you know the real one is in Lake Havasu? Some rich guy had it moved brick by brick. Nuts. We didn’t realize how far we had walked so we took the tube (the underground subway) home for the first time. More on that later!

This was a fun day especially because we got to bond as flat mates and we were open to explore a city that is both easy to navigate and amazing.