Sunday night and we're back home for a bit over a week before leaving to Japan. Since the main purpose of the London trip was to see Pearl Jam, Saturday and Sunday were kinda extra days for us to spend.

Being a big fan of flea markets I hoped to see Portobello Road's Saturday market and Brick Lane's Sunday one. One of the qualities I love about Toni is that he usually is willing to adapt to whatever plans I have made (perhaps that's why we make a perfect match :-D) so flea markets it was.

Not going too much into any details (I hardly even bought anything - as hard as it might be to believe!) here are some shots:

Saturday market / Portobello Road

The Notting Hill area around Portobello Road reminded me so much of San Fransisco's Haight-Ashbury, which I dearly miss!

For me, one of the main reasons to travel is to try out different restaurants and tastes whenever one has a chance. This time the menu of the day included some Tom Yam soup at a beautiful garden rooftop Thai restaurant and a delicious mango-banana-pineapple smoothie and some chips with quacamole at the Mexican restaurant/bar next door.






















Back at the hostel we both were in desperate need for some sleep. Having decided to go to some South Kensington pub to see the USA-Ghana match later on, it was time for a nap.

Waking up just to realize it was almost 6 pm. On our way to South Kensington we decided to stop at Harrods.  Within 20 minutes I somehow managed to violate two rules of theirs :-D:

1) no pictures and
2) no open beverages inside the house.

Well, this is as close as I will probably ever get to Gucci and Dior, so these need to be published anyway. Defying the guards of Mohamed Al-Fayed here!

At the pub we met the nicest American couple, who were on their 32-year of marriage (!!) anniversary trip in London. The wife had been in London once before, in 1971, but for the husband it was his first time. Had a nice chat with them watching the USA-Ghana match. USA lost, but I believe the Americans will survive - they still have their baseball! Not sure about the survival of the husband though, he seemed to be a huge soccer fan - at least by American standards!

The Zetland Arms pub where we watched the game:

The American lady recommended me a British drink called "Pimms" (or smth like that). It was sooo good, but caused a bad headache afterwords... Excuse the stupid expression.

Spotted some very affordable vehicles on our way from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus:

Damn, the one below was just the one we would've bought! 

Some night shots at Piccadilly Circus:

Instead of going clubbing we ended up having some pizza for a night meal. Yes I know, London and Saturday night but... but the pizza was soo good and we were very tired!

Last half a day in London today was spent making a quick visit to Brick Lane and Brick Lane Sunday Market. The Bangladeshi people of London are concentrated around this area and the smell of food from the small restaurants and street stalls was heavenly!

Sometimes I wish I still wore glasses! :-D

Back to the hostel (naturally taking the Circle Line to the wrong direction so the trip took ages... how hard can it be to choose between East and West?!?), grabbing our luggage and taking a train from Victoria to Gatwick. The game between England and Germany was about to start and we had time to watch the first half. I wonder how many people missed their flights today because of the match! 

Tip: if you're too far away to see the TV screen, get a camera with a good zoom! Germany leading 1-0 at this point. 

The German team won 4 to 1. Poor England! Good thing we left London before the game. 

So... Great Britain, tick. Another 8 days of work and then it's time for Japan and Hawaii. The blog will be back then. Until then, happy holidays to everyone who doesn't have to go to work tomorrow! It's 2.30 am and I sure will have a hard time waking up...

- Laura