Monday, March 29, 2010

Epic Day 2

In the wake of our epic photography/travel/eating adventures, I’ve kinda lost steam for my epic verbosity. You get captions instead. These are from Saturday.

Opposing hangover cures...

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Kat: A hearty meal

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Olivia: OJ and bed

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After we recovered sufficiently (read "sleeping past noon" for Olivia ^_^), we walked out to Piccadilly Rd. to buy half-price tickets for a Broadway show. These little chocolate animals were bashfully waiting for us in a chocolate store window.

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We decided to watch something neither of us have seen before - and in honor of the location, I proposed a Dickens classic.

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Oliver Twist is one of those defining storylines of my adolescence. Without Dickens, I might as well not have survived my 15th year. P.S. I used to know all the lyrics to this, and to the Phantom of the Opera, from the soundtracks alone (never saw a Broadway show, even on DVD, until I went to college). <-- nerd

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High tea? I don't know. The lady's face is classic.

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Pretty photo, no? ACTUALLY, those glass squares cover the sewage system. !!! Who knew?! I've been fascinated with them ever since I saw a broken pane of glass revealing the ugly truth. I don't know why I didn't just take a photo then...


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Random: I really liked what this girl's skirt did for her legs.

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Olivia and I are easily distracted: We planned to go to Borough Market afterward for food, but I had an attack of the nibblies so we decided to brave Japanese fast food again... With such a pretty clean sign, how could you go wrong?

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And such charming packaging... !!

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You really would be surprised. But this thing started turning gross and waxy yellow as it cooled in my cup once I got home. Ew.

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After our snack, off to Borough Market/London Bridge we went!

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The metro cards here are called Oysters. I love it. In HK, they're Octopi. Something about them little island countries makes people think of cutesy seafood when they take public transportation, eh?

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Mushrooms, glorious mushrooms!

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Butcher

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English food bears such classic names. Maybe it's because so much of their literature mentions eats, and I love British literature. Mmmmmmmmm. Anyway, that's the best I can say about a photo of little dead fish.

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Obviously, I'm all about this.

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Cute!

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Bacon-wrapped display of meats

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This is for Lauryl Lane.

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Falling down!! I owe this bridge a lot. If it hadn't existed, nursery rhymes about it would not have come about. Without said rhymes and ditties, I would have had nothing with which to teach little toddlers English when I lived in Taiwan. Without TESL, I would not have had any income. Without any income, I would never have been allowed to leave Taiwan and attend college. Therefore, London Bridge is personally responsible for where I am today. Or something.

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Watching a storm approach is mildly creepy, although this photo doesn't really show it.

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Trash looks much more regal when you slap a crest on it and daintily call it "litter."

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We ducked into the Tower of London gift shop for a while to escape the rain. For some reason, I mistook its glass exterior for some kind of a furniture/household goods store. What do I know...

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White knight. I really liked these figurines.

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Cute.

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Paddington Bear! Love the galoshes.

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I totally want to live in a city with legit turrets.

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Pretty

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This is St. Katharine's Docks... although I would totally understand how this image, coupled with the blurry script in the background, would mislead you to read it as "St. Katherine's Dorks."

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I love all the details on, well, everything. This is off of a stair railing leading up to the London Bridge.

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My best friend is seriously creepy sometimes. (And other times, I make up the deficit)

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Bridgeeeeeeee

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After getting soaked in various puddles, I was delighted to find a sign that described my feelings exactly.

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If you squint, this tunnel looks like a portal to hell! <-- whimsical much?

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We got home and each completed a workout. We felt quite proud. (Although I could totally be doing better) Olivia is demonstrating P90X here.

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After a shower, we headed back out for what turned out to be our first delicious meal in London. Score!! Also, how awesome is this photo? I didn't HDR it or anything - this is pretty much straight out of my camera, I promise. (ISO 5000, 1/20, f/2.8, 24mm)

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This is the pub we'd tried to locate the first day. Google Maps sent us way far away - it's actually right behind our hotel.

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I see this often. She's just weird.

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My salad! "Rocket parmesan salad" = arugula of awesome. I love arugula. Although that's the most I've ever eaten in one sitting. It got weird toward the very end.

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My grilled spring vegetable linguini, which officially marks my first voluntarily vegetarian meal. It was quite good, although it got oily toward the end. I'd originally wanted shepherd's pie, but they were out.

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Pardon the wonky coloring - it was super dark in there, lit only by tealights. This is Olivia's pork medallions over potato mash with spinach or something.

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We decided to share a dessert - bitter chocolate cheesecake topped with honeycomb ice cream. It was amazing, although that butter brickle stuff sprinkling the plate is deceptively sticky.

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And that was the end of our night... We stayed up until 4 a.m. editing photos and watching the Hangover in our awesome massive bed.