Summer Holiday Weekend!

Hello! This past weekend was a holiday weekend for us, as Monday the 25th was a bank holiday. Officially, I believe it's called the Summer Bank Holiday. Yeah, sounds kinda strange, but we don't get Labor Day so don't get too jealous. In fact, the UK really doesn't get any extra holidays. It works out to be about the same. The advantage is the number of vacation days they get through work. Standard begins around 20-25 days per year!

Check out pics of this blog post here: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbergey/SummerHolidayWeekend

So the weekend started on Friday, when I went to Central London and met a co-worker for a drink and a movie. We went to an area I hadn't been yet called Leichester Square. It's in the middle of the bustling center of town, but it was actually really nice. There is a big square with trees and stuff, surrounded by all kinds of cool restaurants, bars and pubs. It also has a number of movie theaters right on the square, including the big Odeon complex where all the big London premiers are. I'll have to head down some night and see the red carpet. We saw a movie in a smaller theater called Man on a Wire. It's a documentary about a French guy who tight-roped between the World Trade Center Towers in NY shortly after they opened...pretty crazy!

On Saturday, Oktoberfest preparations began! Hayley and I took her dad's large tent down to Ealing Common where she lives, which is a huge Common/Park. We got a lot of stares, but eventually got the tent up. We were surprised to see the tent has a floral pattern to it with a large deer head painted on the front. It was pretty funny, but at least we know we will be prepared to camp at Oktoberfest and won't have any problem fitting 3-4 of us in the tent. Later that night, I met up with Hayley and a bunch of her friends at a pub. It was bday night for her girlfriend and her gf's co-worker. We stayed at the pub for a while and then headed down to Central London for a bit more fun!

On Sunday I got up and decided to go explore a new area of London, so I got on the tube and headed down to the areas of Shoreditch and Spitalfields. They are known for their Sunday markets, along with cool shops, restaurants and night-life. It is the new ground zero for cool in London, according to my guidebook. It was pretty cool though. I started in Shoreditch where I explored a few of the cool shops, and became very jealous of some neat looking coffee shops and natural food markets. I then went to the Columbia Street flower market, which was a long road full of flower stands and other shops. Merchants were constantly yelling out different deals that they probably made up on the spot. It was pretty cool and they all kinds of different flowers and plants, including olive and lemon trees!

I then made my way down Brick Lane. Apparently this area has really grown over the last few years and it is full of vintage clothing shops, neat thrift stores, exciting nightlife, and all kinds of coffee shops and restaurants. The streets here were also lined with merchants selling all kinds of stuff from fruits and veggies to flea market items. I stopped at the famous Brick Lane Beigel Bake, which was started by some Jewish families who originally settled in the neighborhood and still live there. It is open 24 hours and is apparently always busy. It was pretty cool because you could see the area where they make and bake the bagels while you waited in line. I had a hot salt beef bagel sandwich. I'm not really sure what hot salt beef is, but it was meat. I'm guessing it's prepared similar to corned beef. It was delicious!

After making my way into the Spitalfields area, I meandered through the Sunday Up Market and some of the vintage shops in the area. The market had an amazing food selection with foods from all over the world. I took some pics of the more elaborate displays. At the end of my walk was the Spitalfields Market itself. This market was definitely much more organized and posh than the others, and had more of a normal Saturday Market feel. All in all it was really a good day exploring the streets and the markets and I'll definitely head back when I need to do some actual shopping.

On Monday a co-worker, Fran, and I went to Notting Hill to check out the Notting Hill Festival. The festival is the largest street fair in Europe, and is second in the world behind Rio de Janeiro. The festival itself has a very Caribbean feel and all of the entertainment and food is the same. The fest was absolute mayhem. The area it covered was absolutely enormous, yet no matter where you went the streets were packed with people. The festival is surrounded by a parade route that lasts all day. However, it's not a normal parade. Most of the "floats" were large buses that blasted music that people surrounded and started dancing too. There were also a lot of colorful costumes and outfits that were on the parade route as well. A lot of the residences in the area would hang out in their windows and patios and enjoy the music and festival from above, many of whome would dance like crazy! A lot of the residents would also sell access to their toilet for 1pound and also sell items like water and snacks. The most popular food item was Jerk Chicken, and I enjoyed mine with rice and beans and some salad. It was great!