What can I say, Christmas in Atlanta was a blast as always. Not matter how the year has been, there is nothing like going home and hanging out with the family, meeting up with some dear old friends, and simply enjoying life at a relaxed pace. As expected, the Christmas party was a blast and the turn out was fantastic just like every year. Here is one thing about the annual Christmas party that is totally unpredictable: drinking patterns. My parents have been hosting this party now for well over ten years, and even though many of the guests stay the same, the drinking patters change year to year. On some years it is wine that sees most of the consumption, on others it is beer, and yet now and then it is the hard liquor that really comes out - who knows, maybe one year we'll figure it out. My sister and I got our parents one gigantic LCD TV for Christmas, so of course we had to spent a lot of time afterward watching movies whatnot. Christmas time and overseas flights are probably the times at which I catch up with most of the movies I missed during the year, and why not! Anyhow, the picture quality on my parent's new TV is so stunning, it makes standard definition content look far superior to high-definition content on my old clunker. I suppose this shows how far technology has come over the last six years or so. Not that I'm asking for my old set to go kaput, but it shure would be nice to have a need for a new TV.
Unfortunately, I did not really get much time this year to relax in Atlanta, since my sister offered to pick up a ticket for me to cross to pond and visit her in London for New Years - can one pass up such an excellent offer? Absolutely Not. Since I had only a few days in London we pretty much went on a crash course in things to see every single day, with the exception of the day after New Years understandably. So here is a quick recap of all the places that we managed to hit up. First, the changing of the Buckingham palace guard is overrated. There are tons of people, and there really is not that much to see. My recommendation: skip it, especially on a rainy, cold, and foggy day. Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster are another story, and are definitely worth checking out, if only to take a few great pictures. The Tower Bridge is also fantastic and we even got lucky to see it in action. Ever since seeing the Tower Bridge as a background image in a tennis game that I used to play as a kid, I think it was called Great Courts or something like that, I wanted to see the bridge in real life. So finally, about 20 years later, I can finally put a check mark next to that. Regretfully, I did not have enough time to check out the Wimbledon tennis center and museum, but hey, one has to always leave something for next time. Moving right along, the Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery are also worth checking out. Leave yourself plenty of time for the National Gallery for this place is humongous. A nice thing about London is that most of the Museums and Galleries are free, with the exception of special exhibits, so feel free to knock yourself out on art and the like. In addition to the National Gallery we also managed to hit up the Tate Modern, which featured a very interesting exhibit by Miroslaw Balka, a polish artist, which explored the experiences of the dark and our fear of it - quite powerful and almost overwhelming at times. We also stopped off at the London Eye, a gigantic ferris wheel which reaches an amazing height of 135m, and is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe. However, with long lines and a cold, foggy and rainy day, we decided to skip this attraction this time around.
Of course, no London experience would be complete without hitting up a few restaurants, pubs, clubs, and the like. Being in England, I simply had to have some fish and chips, and we did manage to find a place which delivered in all its glory. We also hit up a fantastic Indian restaurant, New Tayyabs, where the curry was right up my alley, and those who know me would know that I'm quite a curry aficionado and pleasing me is not easy. Finally, one night we caught dinner at Vrisaki, a Greek restaurant, where we were offered more delicious food than Zeus himself could handle. On the pub side, two great places come to mind. First, if you get a chance definitely stop off at The Captain Kidd, which is a couple miles down from the Tower Bridge, right along the Thames river. It has a fantastic atmosphere, and being a little bit off the popular paths it is not overrun by tourists. The beer tasted great and the staff was very easy going, and most importantly, having a few pints there won't cost you an arm and a leg. If you feel adventurous, try some of the the home made whiskies for they are quite delightful as well. Another pub worth mentioning is the The Gun Pub. It is a little bit on the pricey side of things, but the atmosphere is great and the outdoor patio has a fantastic view of the O2 Arena, which you can see in the picture on the right. Moving on the clubs and lounges, it seems that densely populated metropolitan areas have an affinity for escaping the masses, and there simply is no better way than through highly priced membership only clubs. Thankfully, my friends are well connected and so I got to sample a couple of these exclusive establishments, namely Bungalow 8 and the Shoreditch House. The former, which I visited on New Years, really did not make much of an impression on me. It's nice all right, but nothing special, and at least that night did not offer anything that would set it apart from most of the other clubs in the city, most of which do not have prohibitive membership fees. The Shoreditch House on the other hand is my kind of place. It is very nicely decorated, but more so on the low-key lounge type side of things as opposed to in your face exuberance. It has a great bar with fantastic city views, nice ambient music is always playing in the background, and best of all it is not overly crowded. Want to play pool, go right ahead, want to take a dip in the roof deck pool, or spend a few minutes in the workout room before treating yourself to some free chocolates and candy, you can do that as well. And finally, the food coming out of the kitchen is top notch and very reasonably priced - must be subsidized by the membership fee. Anyhow, I would totally get a membership at the Shoreditch House if I lived in London, so if you get a chance to check it out be sure to do so.
Finally, at least on one day we managed to get out of London to see some of the country side. We headed east for Canterbury to visit the famous Canterbury Cathedral. The Cathedral is quite fantastic, and while we did not get see the most ancient part of the structure due to a wedding, it was nevertheless worth the trip. Canterbury itself is also a very pleasant little town with lots of small shops and other attractions - too bad we did not have more time to explore it. On the way back we stopped off at Herne Bay, a little resort town on the sea. Once again a very cozy little place, that might have seen better times in the past it seems, but was enjoyable nevertheless. Being right on the sea we had to have some more fish and chips of course, but to our disappointment it lacked in taste when compared to the London establishment. Anyhow, this is pretty much it, the Christmas and New Years vacation in a nutshell. Big thanks go out to my parents for once again hosting a great Christmas party, and also to Martin, Barry, Yona and Zofie for making my few days on British soil a fantastic experience. The pictures from the entire vacation trip should be up over the course of the next few days.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
