Such a tourist...for now

I've come to the conclusion that saying that London is a great city is an understatement. London is an amazing, fantastic, incredible, impressive, mind-boggling, I'm-running-out-of-adjectives-to-describe-its-greatness city.

Since my last post, I've gone on to do a few monumental must-dos in London like shopping at the world-famous shopping empire, Harrods, particularly in its Egyptian-themed hand bag section, with names like Balenciaga, Versace, Fendi and high-end names my modest budget had never encountered. You could spend days at this 7-story department store and still not see everything it has to offer, including all its meat cuts, cheese samples, home furnishings, not to mention fashion shows, celebrity signings, and of course clothing, perfume and handbag departments. Not too shabby for a store that opened in 1849 as a teeny tiny grocery shop!

Other monumental visits involved a stop at a pub for a refreshing pint, where I met some British blokes (though my bf prefers me to stick to my American terms and say I had a beer and met some British guys) and most recently, my friend Vicky conducted unassuming tourists as photographers at a makeshift photoshoot of the two of us at the London Tower and Tower Bridge. What an incredible place! I stood right in front of where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, which is crazy to think about. There's so much history in that place and I can't wait to save up 20 pounds (which trust me, is an investment for me) so I can go inside and appreciate the history in person, as well as see the coveted Crown jewels.

In other matters, I almost have a flat!! I probably visited around 10 places in all, some small, some larger, some pretty, some awful. The areas we looked at were Clapham, Islington and Camden (where punks abound), and I ended up settling for Clapham which is a quaint area with very typical London flats. Very Love Actually-type in the scene where Hugh Grant is looking for his love interest from flat to flat, though a little nicer. Now I'm just waiting to hear back to see if I got the one I want, a 2-bedroom, quite roomy and cozy, yet modern, close to the tube station, pubs and restaurants. We shall see, fingers crossed!!

Cheers until next time (by the way, Londoners overuse "cheers" like Italians overuse "prego", it can mean so many things, even as a "thank you", weird...)!