Roma

It seems fitting to call a city its name in its own language, which is why I've been doing it for these posts. Not to try and prove that I've conquered the city or language. Though it was easier to use Italian than it was to use Greek; "ciao" and "grazie" aren't too much to handle.First stop after checking in at the hostel: the Colosseum. As soon as you walk out of the metro station it punches you in the face.
Inside the Colosseum; I included this to show how blue and clear the sky was that whole weekend!
This picture was taken when I delivered the opening address to the games. Apparently the Colosseum was later used as a fortress with kitchens and such. Which I believe explains why there are those maze-like structures in the arena.

Gelatiiiiii (which is pronounced gelato): I had 3 cones of gelati over the course of 2.5 days. Creme caramel, tiramisu, cioccolate fondente (chocolate chunk), cannella (cinnamon), fior di panna (creamy vanilla). Yum.

Streets of Rome at night - beautiful!

Awesome shot at the Trevi fountain taken by my friend and travel buddy for the week, Cynthia.

At the Roman forum. I'm obsessed with those trees in the background.

View from a hill at the Roman forum. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Sunny and warm, but fresh crisp air.

The Pantheon at night. Who knew that it's used as a Catholic church?? They have regular masses there still..

Il Fornaio bakery: my friend Nicole who is studying abroad in Rome right now took us around to a bunch of local favorites, but Cynthia and I discovered this bakery on our own! Nicole said she had heard of it and was happy we found it. We were quite proud of ourselves.

From the Vatican museum walls: one of my favorites.

At the Vatican museum: the rooms aren't all decorated exactly like this, but they are all ornately decorated. It's a must see.

Sistine Chapel: I have renewed respect for Michelangelo. This was amazing. There were frequent announcements over the intercom in several languages telling us visitors not to take photographs. But everyone blatantly disregarded them.

St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza: we climbed 460 steps (Cynthia counted) to get to the very top of the Cupola (the Dome of St. Peter's) and were rewarded with this spectacular view.

I threw a coin into the Trevi, so I will be back in Rome! And gladly so.

Athina

Souvlaki - tasty. Pitta - delectable. Tomato - fresh.

Oh, I guess a picture of the Parthenon is necessary.

I was just a little happy to be there, in that gorgeous weather.

Hands down my fave statue at the National Archaeological Museum. She is made of marble, found in Athens, c. 440 BC. Her robe is being blown by the wind.

The Theatre of Dionysus. I loved imagining ancient Greeks walking around here.

Shop til you drop. Or die.

Instead of studying for my midterm tomorrow, I will post a quick entry because I had a good day.

I don't have class on Wednesdays but next Wednesday I have an interview with my potential internship placement. So I decided to take the tube and figure out how to get to the company location. It was a good thing I did because it took me half an hour to find the building when it should have only taken me about ten minutes.

Then I hopped back on the tube to find some lunch at a place called S and M Cafe, recommended to me for good British grub. The cafe reminded me of Jerry's Deli, slightly. Really good food for cheap. I missed out on the morning special (buy a drink, get a free breakfast buttie, i.e. sandwich). But my chicken BLT sandwich and chips were delish and under 5 pounds. It was nice eating lunch quietly by myself. They played "Benny & the Jets" on the radio and I felt like Jane from 27 Dresses, in a good way.

After lunch, I decided to hit Oxford Circus to buy some clothes for my internship interview. Of course the first store you see after emerging from the Oxford Circus tube station is the monolith that is Topshop. I veered right to Gap - I wasn't ready for Topshop just yet. I spent a good amount of time in Gap trying on pants and such, but nothing was working out. I was also getting very warm. I don't know whose idea it is to keep stores warmer but it is not a particularly good idea especially when shoppers walk in all bundled up. Come on, store management. You want shoppers to be comfortable, not sweating buckets.

I wasn't really sweating THAT much, but I would have appreciated a cooler environment.

Anyway, at Gap I just bought a top for 6 pounds which made me happy. But that under-10-pounds goal soon went out the window.

Next stop was Urban Outfitters which was amusing because it looked exactly like the stores back home. I swear the staff even dresses the same. Didn't buy anything here.

Finally, I gave in and ventured over to Topshop. It was madness. I don't know what they're trying to make out of it - maybe a Harrod's for the masses? But they had a candy shop going, a shoe "lounge," a hair salon where people were actually getting their hair cut, a nail salon where girls were actually getting their nails done, "vintage" jewelery cases each equipped with its own salesgirl..

I wonder how much they lose in revenue because of theft. It was crazy in there.

But I digress. I will admit, I stayed for a good amount of time because I was on a mission to find some "business casual" clothes. Three surprisingly short fitting room lines, two hours, and one more bucket of sweat later, I left Topshop with a pair of tailored pants, ankle boots, brogue heels, and a sense of satisfaction.

Oh yea, then I went back to Gap and bought a trench coat I was coveting. It was on sale! And I had to complete my outfit.

After all that, I just wanted to get back home and take a cold shower. Which I did. What I won't be doing is going on another shopping spree like that, at least until the end of this trip in the unlikely occasion that I need to spend my leftover pounds. If so, I will spend it on something extravagant. Preferably from Burberry or Vivienne Westwood.

Cupcakes and cookies and crepes, oh my!

I almost forgot my password for this blog...that's a sign that I need to post more often!

Anyway, I'd like to dedicate this post to all things sweet.

If you know me well enough, or really if you know me at all, you know that I love anything with sugar. More specifically, desserts and baked goods. In fact, the other day I had honeycomb crumble cheesecake for dinner (because I had eaten in the middle of the afternoon and didn't feel like ordering a proper meal when we went to an Italian restaurant later that day). There's another LMU girl here who has just as big of a sweet tooth as I, so we have made it our mission to try everything with loads of sugar. She might even be worse than I as she always buys candy bars or cookies as the grocery store!

Cupcakes:
The Hummingbird Bakery, South Kensington: Beautifully decorated cupcakes with awesome cream cheese icing. They have specials of the day (like marshmallow) but they also carry staples like chocolate and vanilla. My favorite so far is the red velvet cupcake.

Candy Cakes, Covent Garden: Wouldn't call these cupcakes beautiful, but they are way cute. So many crazy colors! The frosting looks more like that fondant icing. I had a really good toffee banana cupcake (by the way, London seems to love toffee - you'll find it in candy bars, in banana bread, in McFlurries - toffee is like the chocolate chip here).

Next stop for cupcakes: Primrose in Covent Garden, which Jess said was really good, and Crumbs and Doilies which unfortunately only has a stand at the Partridges Market on Saturdays - I don't know when the next Saturday I'm in London will be.

Cookies:
Sainsbury's: I've actually had delicious chocolate chip cookies here. They come in a pack of 4 or 5 for about 1 pound. They're labelled "American style" because they are soft and chewy. They aren't as good as those Nestle break-and-bake cookies but very satisfying, especially since they're about the size of a CD.

Tesco: Also has freshly baked chewy chocolate chip cookies, about 41p each. Sooo good.

Next stop for cookies: I've seen Oreos in grocery stores so I know I'm going to be craving those soon. McVities Digestives chocolate cookies are everywhere. They don't sound or look the most appealing but Jess says they're good, so I'll try them sometime. Also a chain bakery called Ben's Cookies. I bought a huge chocolate chip cookie from Harrod's that looked delicious, but was of the crunchy cookie kind, so I didn't enjoy it too much. And it was sickeningly sweet.

Crepes:
Portobello Road Market: There are several crepe stands here. I ordered a simple crepe with banana and cream, but the cream was just whipped cream from the bottle. It was good for a snack while shopping around the market, but not something that I'll be dreaming of.

Creme de la Crepe, Covent Garden: Great range of sweet as well as savory crepes. Had staples like nutella but also other fun ingredients like some kind of applesauce and cinnamon crumble. I enjoyed my banana and double cream crepe, but it was hard to eat out of the cardboard holder. Also it was a pretty heavy crepe - I watched them cover it with butter while cooking it. Delicious but a bit much.

Next stop for crepes: The Kensington Creperie which is in my hood. I've heard good things about this place. Needless to say, I'm partial to KC's - I miss the easy to tear paper wrapping and homemade custard cream. But I'll continue the search here in London.

Other notable mentions:
Oddono's, South Kensington: This is the most delicious gelato I've ever had. My flat is obsessed with it - we've gone at least once every week, sometimes even twice. I can't say til I've been to Italy and had gelato there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's comparable. The staff seem to be Italian (at least their shirts all say "Italia" on the back). They make the gelato every day and often switch up the flavors, though staples like chocolate chip and vanilla and mango sorbetto are always around. My favorites so far are tiramisu and caramel.

Bailey's Haagen-Dazs ice cream: I've never seen this flavor in the States but since the grocery store only seems to carry Bailey's and strawberry cheesecake I gave in and tried Bailey's. So. Good.

Okay, I just realized that this post is a little ridiculous, so all I will say in closing is that I love sweets. So sue me.

All that jazz.

I'm not usually particularly into jazz, but a couple of the LMU guys are. About 3 weeks ago (one of the first weeks we were here), the guys couldn't stop talking about jazz and I was down to watch live music especially in London, so we decided to try to find some live jazz. We checked out timeout.com, which has great listings and recommendations, and have been hooked ever since.

We've only been to 3 venues so far, but we're hoping to make this a weekly thing as we've gone once every week since that first time. We've got some prospects for tomorrow night but we usually go on weekdays since it's cheaper (oh and since we've been gone during the weekends).

The stuff we've seen and heard so far:

Zed-U feat. Jason Yarde: Cafe Concrete @ the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. Really cool spot - small, eclectic. The concrete walls, affixed with painted plates, created an asymmetrical space. The jazz was unlike anything we'd ever heard. Pretty funky. Percussionist, bassist, clarinettist, saxophonist. Also, the saxophonist was controlling an electronic/distortion/synthesizer device with his foot. It was producing some unique, reverberating sounds. We were stoked from this first night which is why we continued to search out places.

The Cedars & Jackie Levin: The Sheep Walk, Leytonstone. The venue was above a pub filled with older men watching a football match. So we were a little confused at first. But when we went upstairs everything made more sense. The space was a mix between a darkly lit bingo hall/2nd grade classroom. It was a lot cooler than I am making it sound. Like that crazy older aunt who chain smokes and wears polyester pantsuits but has travelled all over the world. We played I Spy for a good 10 minutes and these are some of the decorations we spied: a wooden owl, a hanging parrot, a sombrero, roses and roses, Christmas lights, lots of records and memorabilia. The Cedars were a folk band - the stout and tattooed female singer had a nice dense voice. Jackie Levin was a Scottish folk blues guitarist/singer who told stories in between his songs. One of his stories was about Laurence Olivier and Richard (?) Olivier, Laurence's son. Another story was about Shannon Doyle, the Canadian Irish something assassin something transvestite. Awesome performance. Guinness wasn't as good as it was in Dublin though. Good, but not Dublin good.

Robert Mitchell: Charlie Wright's International Bar, Old Street. Nice, candlelit bar. There was a bassist, drummer, and pianist (Robert Mitchell). Great musicians and performers. Robert Mitchell's fingers were flying. And in the last song they played, the bassist's part was beautiful. This jazz was more mellow than that first day, but exactly what I think when I think jazz. One of the guys bought their vinyl recording. It was a really chill time, perfect for relaxing and reveling.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. The list will definitely continue as the weeks pass. These jazz/blues nights are a big part of the reason that I feel I have been taking advantage of living in London. When I get back to LA I am going to try to do likewise.

Let's talk about food!

After cooking myself dinner tonight, I had an urge to write about food and my eating habits here in London.

I've been pleasantly surprised. People who'd been to London before kept telling me to get used to Indian food. I haven't had Indian food yet (though I will for sure). But I've had a lot of different kinds of food when I eat out. For example: Bella Italia, an Italian restaurant, isn't fantastic but didn't bother me so much because I'll just go to Italy for mindblowing Italian food. Bistro Celebre, a French cafe, has delicious French mocha and croissants. Nando's, a Portuguese restaurant, has great chicken and sauces and Portuguese rolls. Beirut Express, a Lebanese counter, has yummy shawarmas (like Greek gyros). Wagamama's, a Japanese fusion restaurant, had nice hot noodles (I ordered what was supposed to be yaki soba, but got something more like chow mein, though it was still really good).

Then, of course, there are the pubs. I don't have pub food very often but the stuff I've had has been pretty good. Fogg's in Camden Town seemed like a pub at first but it was a little more classy. Really good burgers though. A pub in Bath, whose name I forget, provided me with a delicious English breakfast: bacon, ham, sausage, over easy eggs, beans, tomatoes, chips.

I don't go out to eat very much though. I usually go grocery shopping once a week at either Tesco Express or Sainsbury's. Tesco Express isn't really like anything we have in the states..it's the size of a 711 but carries a better quality and a better range of groceries. At Tesco, I can buy fresh fruit and veggies, milk, cereal, bread, sliced meat, you name it. Sainsbury's is a big grocery store, like Albertson's.

I buy the normal boxes and boxes of cereal and litres and litres of milk, bread, eggs, sandwich meat, yogurt, oranges. Breakfast and lunch are easy to do. Dinner, however, takes either a little sacrifice or a little creativity. At the end of the day, if I don't have something good and hot to eat, I get tempted to eat out. So I have to stay stocked with easy to cook but nutritious meals.

Some of my flatmates get bored easily if they eat the same thing day after day, but I don't mind so much. I don't mind eating simple penne and tomato sauce 5 days straight as long as it fills me up. I've also made ramen noodles (stuff I had to cook on the stove, not just Top Ramen) for dinner which was good because I made them chow mein style. The past couple of days I've been having rice. I've never cooked rice in a pot on the stove before, but I've gotten pretty good at it. I haven't bought meat so I just put sliced ham on the stove and cooked them like bacon. Yum. It sounds a little pathetic, but my rice and ham actually made me really happy tonight.

Anyway, point is, I've learned that when you're on a limited budget, what really matters is hot food with some carbs.

In Dublin, I ate sandwiches all throughout because it was the cheapest food I could find. Dublin is expensive. They were pretty good sandwiches though.

In Istanbul, the food was Mediterranean and delicious: bread, cheese, olives, eggs, tomatoes, doner (again, like Greek gyros), tea.

So, food here hasn't been bad at all. But, I'm definitely excited to go to Italy and France and get some real good grub on.

It's snowing in London!!

Went to Istanbul from January 29 to February 1! Here are some pictures.

The Bosphorus: We took a boat tour and got to see the landscape of Istanbul. The Bosphorus is the strait between Europe and Asia. Istanbul is on both the European and Asian side of Turkey, thereby becoming the only city on 2 continents.

Topkapi Palace: Was the royal palace for about 400 years until the sultan moved to another palace. Very impressive rooms, harem, windows. I fell in love with the Turkish tiles. The palace also has a rococo flair though, because it was redone in the 18th century. Seems fitting for a palace in Istanbul, which is truly cosmopolitan.

Egyptian Bazaar: Lots of spices and food and jewelery. Really fun and colorful. The male vendors all try to lure you in and are very aggressive. I bought some delicious Turkish delight!
Hagia Sophia, take 1: I couldn't take a centered photo from the floor of the Hagia Sophia because there was a huge scaffold in the middle for renovations. So this photo shows only half of the height of the mosque! The Hagia Sophia is called the Ayasofya in Turkish, which I rather like.

Hagia Sophia, take 2: It was gloomy the day we visited so the lighting wasn't too great, but the artwork was still amazing. The wooden circle on the left says Allah and the one on the right represents either the Prophet Muhammad or one of the caliphs. I love the painting of the seraph in the top right of the photo.