Big Ben, Freeze, Camden Market and sushi Posted on October 19th, 2009 by Kait Peterson

So London, it’s amazing.

We left here around ten thirty or so and got on our flight and arrived at our hotel around five, starving.  Where upon we were all hungry which caused a mass exodus from the hotel towards anything that sold food.  A few of my friends convinced me Indian food was a good idea, so I was convinced with a promise of mild, non face burning food, and a promise of a french patisserie for desert, J’aime le désert.  It was quite good, I had some Indian version of fried rice, and we all had nan, which I might add is quite good.  We also had some form of smoothie, involving yogurt, and mangos and ice.  Three of my favorites so that was a hit.  Then we meandered around the streets nearby the hotel which was in Bayswater, which is near Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.  Neither of which I made it too.

Every morning we had the “continental breakfast”, more like a roll and juice with the privilege of having cereal.  We all ended up finding extra breakfast one way or another. We were also given daily public transport passes, that worked till midnight and allowed us to go on the busses, and underground system for free.  Very, very handy for making your way around the city.   The first day we went to the Tate, which had a pop life exhibit which was interesting, lot’s of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami, all very cool.  They also had a John Baldessari exhibit, along with the permanent collection displays.  Then a couple of my friends went out in search of food, soho, and camden market.  We stopped by to check out the globe theater too.  Which has some pretty awesome gates.

A asian noodle joint for lunch, to revive us, then we poked around soho looking at an art supply store, some record stores, and several clothing stores.

Then we popped back onto the Tube, and went to camden market, which was jam packed with interesting people, shops, and food!  I tried a cute belgian waffle place which was fantastic.  A belgian waffle covered with chocolate and fresh strawberries and a mango juice thing!  The second day we went to the freeze art fair, which is a high class art fair, where galleries bring art to sell, and promote, it’s an overwhelming situation, but interesting to people watch.  They had really good food, I tried the suhi place, which was a stand of sorts set up by a local sushi restaurant known for it’s green practices, and tasty grub.  It was fantastic, and I randomly tried what they had for desert which were rice balls filled with red bean paste very sweet, and had a doughy texture but YUMMY! Then I went to catch up with my friends, and eventually found them in Camden market again.  This time I explored the horse tunnel market.

Which is a catacomb of shops, and places to eat, and has a ton of interesting statues illustrating it’s original purpose an industrial stable that the a company who owned a railroad and shipping company used.  The horses transported good between the ships and trains.  It’s very extensive and has the original structure, and lot’s of horse touches added when it was converted to market.

It was tons of fun walking around and seeing everything.  We went to the St Katherine docks, and found another indian restaurant, and we were really close to the Tower bridge and the Tower of London.  The docks were really pretty at night, the water glittered and there were several boats docked there.  The food was pretty good as well.  The next day we went to the royal academy’s exhibit of Anish Kapoor, which was really cool, very messy work.  Then Chaya and me went to a sushi place that was just down the street, and took our food over to a little market close by and ate our lunch in a tiny little park, the market was pretty cool, it reminded me of the christkindl market in chicago except the christmas part.  Then we hopped on a train to go see Big Ben, and a couple of other sites.

Then I went and saw The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus before we caught met at the hotel to meet the bus to take us to the airport.  Getting back was nice after a very hectic trip.