LONDON CALLING

London week end finally! Yup, I flew to London on Friday morning along with my two girlfriends. We thought it would be an amazing opportunity to inhale some fresh air and be far from all this hectic routine of ours back in Greece.

At home before our shopping spree

The weather is awesome. Even if I were to order sunny days from God, it won’t have been that perfect. Walking around London was so pleasant; I felt renewed from the inside as if someone got into my soul and injected a high dosage of positivity.

London calling baby indeed!

It is like being in an English version of “Sex and the City” episode where the girls go out for dinner in fancy restaurants and shop all day, laugh and take pictures on every corner of the city.

One of the things that make London so perfect is the shopping. It is everywhere, anytime, anyplace. I can almost say it frustrates me because I want to get into every shop for renewing my entire winter wardrobe. But this time, I decided to be a little bit more modest and given the fact I was all alone without my financial back up (aka: mom), I shopped few essentials but nothing unique to the 2011 Designer’s collection. Where did we shop? Everywhere from Harrods to Oxford Street. Unfortunately, we skipped Camden Town and the Portobello market.

London by night

Hyde Park isn’t usually where I would go when with friends. I don’t know why I hate walking when no shops are around. But we went either way just to see something different from the busy streets and the high buildings. It turned out to be a very relaxing afternoon. All this green around us and the calm environment was worth making the detour to the Park. I didn’t have to walk much as I preferred to pay three pounds and sit on the chairs by the lake and watch swans and ducks fighting over god-knows-what.

Walking in sunny Hyde Park 

Nature, Sun and Romance: A successful trio 

The Hyde Park Lake, the peak of relaxation

Restaurants here are so delicious. In the afternoon, in-between our shopping therapy, we had lunch at Carluccio’s, on St Christopher’s place where we had awesome Italian food and a glass of sweet Moscato. As for dinner time, we went to Umu restaurant, in Brutton Place. The latter is a Japanese restaurant famous for its modern ways to make sushi. Personally, I didn’t like the sushi that much; it was too different from the ones I am used to; but the atmosphere and the fact we were sitting at the sushi counter watching the little Japanese guys cutting the fish and vegetables, made it a fun, enjoyable and glamorous night. The day I arrived, I went to the old time classic C.London on Davies Street, Mayfair with my brother. It was my first “chic” connection with London. The last night of my stay, we went to Frankie’s diner. An Italian restaurant inspired by the sixties cinema and diners. The food was tasty and the décor a pleasure to have dinner in. My brother was the lucky man of the night accompanied by three wonderful women.

At Umu, having a glamorous girls' night out

 Nightlife in London. It is the only thing that I was disappointed with: I cannot find a classy word to explain how irritated I got from the night clubs in this city. Thank god we managed to go to Roadhouse at Covent Garden on Friday but frankly, even there, some things were just OFF. For example, I have a big problem with the bouncers and all these security people. I don’t understand where their complexity comes from. Honey, give me a break! One of them, a big fat short African – American person, wouldn’t even let me put my jacket on the ramp. The reason? No one knows. Another one of them was actually hitting on me the whole night across the dance floor making weird signs and smiling creepily. JESUS CHRIST. As for the people in there, it was a general orgy party. Everyone was drunk by midnight. The truth is we had fun either way because there were so many things to see around you: drunken girls hitting on guys, the live rock band singer with the extremely irritating blonde hair, the bachelorette having dressed up sex with some random guy and finally same-sex newly formed couples very much into each other.

At Roadhouse, I wish I could capture what was going on behind us

As for getting into the clubs, it’s annoying. I am no socialite and cannot dress like a confused English woman trying to impress. Thus, the second night we went out, four girls, FOUR WOMEN WEARING HEELS, we didn’t get the chance to get into Maddox or Sketch. The reason: “It’s busy tonight, you are not members”, they said while staring at us up and down and up again. Really? Then, like South Park’s Eric Cartman righteously said: “Screw you guys, I’m going home”.  It turned out to be very nice chilling home and watching E! Entertainment!

Bye Bye Londonnn!!!!