I Walk, Therefore I Am

We decided to "celebrate" Jordan's completion of his first week of school by going to a sushi bar we've been walking by almost every day, called Yo! Sushi. It caught our eye because the whole dining experience is so unique: you sit at a revolving bar that has hundreds of different, colored plates with mostly sushi, you pick which ones you want to eat at your leisure, and then when you're finished they count up your total by the colors of empty plates you have. It is a pretty cool idea, and even though it was overpriced it was awesome sushi!

By the time we hit our budget, we were still hungry, which is almost always the case when we get sushi. Does this happen to anyone else?! So we did what anyone would do... walked over to the grocery store, got a frozen pizza, wine, chips, and a jar of Nutella to finish off our dinner. :)

Side note: I originally discovered Nutella on my first trip to London, and absolutely fell in love with it. Actual love. True love. Anyway, if you haven't tried it, they actually sell it at most grocery stores (including Costco), and it is something you shouldn't miss. I recommend it with bananas. Or just with a spoon...

The next morning we slept in, Jordan made pancakes with bananas and Nutella, and we set off into the London rain. We made this unspoken commitment to ourselves to walk as much as possible, partly to see the city and partly because it's a good workout! Well, first things first, Jordan needed a haircut (another thing you don't really picture yourself doing in London.) So we found a little place, took a chance on a £6 haircut, and it actually turned out great! Here's the new do.

We wandered all the way down to Parliament and Big Ben, and finally made it across the Thames River (which, by the way, has a silent "h" in the pronunciation.) We both agreed, it looks a little cooler from this view. :)

Also, right across from Big Ben is the London Eye. Pictures really don't do it justice - it is HUGE in person! Each one of the capsules holds up to 25 people, and the entire ride takes over 30 minutes to complete. Apparently, the Eye is London's answer to the Eiffel Tower as the world's highest observation wheel. And I stand corrected, you can ride it in January now (when I was here last time it was closed for the whole month of January.) 

Jordan has been dying to see the movie Defiance, so after our walking excursion we went and took in the London movie theater experience. There are definitely a few differences, the first and most obvious being the price of the tickets. For 2 tickets, we paid £27... no longer will we complain about $9 movie tickets in Spokane. :) Also, they have assigned seats, so there is no need to get there early. The movie itself was good; not exactly what we expected, but worth seeing nonetheless. 

Today we woke up to blue skies, a rare occurrence in London! Again, we decided to walk, and ventured down to St. Paul's Cathedral. St. Paul's is one of London's oldest and most famous cathedrals, known for its dome. Not only is it beautiful, but it's neat because you can actually climb the stairs to the dome! Inside the dome there is a "whispering gallery" that is 170 feet across. Jordan and I tested it out and both went to opposite ends, and we whispered to each other from that far away and it was as clear as day!! It was so crazy. Then we walked up even more stairs to the main base of the dome, which has 360 degree views of the city. In all, there are over 300 steps that get narrower and narrower the higher you go...

Feel the burn!!! :) Yes, we're dorks. Honestly, you feel like the stairs are never going to end! 

The pictures got slightly out of order. Sorry!! Here is a view of the famous St. Paul's Cathedral dome. As you'll notice, there is scaffolding all along the side of it from this view. All the cathedrals I've ever seen are always being repaired; it seems like a never-ending process since they are all so old! In fact, the "Golden Gallery", which is a viewing area at the very top of the dome was actually closed to the public for repairs and will be until April. I'm not complaining... the trek to the very top is 530 steps!

Another view of St. Paul's from the main entrance. The dome is kind of hiding towards the back in the middle.

Jordan taking in the view once we reached the top.

Beautiful London...

Okay, we slipped into "tourist mode" and had to take pictures of each other once we'd reached the top. :) It felt like quite a feat!

A little wind-blown, my calfs were still burning, but hey, I made it!

One more view of St. Paul's once we left. I think this is my favorite view. It's interesting because you can't really photograph any of the cathedrals in their entirety because they are so massive, and from each view they seem to take on a whole new look. 

After St. Paul's, we walked across the river to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. We hadn't heard much about it, but after our visit to the National Gallery, which we loved, we figured it would be a cool thing to see. The entire ordeal turned out to be a total comedy hour... First of all, the Tate contains super-modern "art" that doesn't even really look like anything. I'm talking about objects all strewn about on the wall or the floor that are actually supposed to be a piece of art. We perused in total silence for the first 20 minutes, both trying to act mature and interested. And of course, everyone around us is in total awe, and looked genuinely intrigued by paintings of squares and wall art with sticks. Finally... it honestly was straight out of a movie... we both look at each other and were like, "Uh, do you want to go?!" This is why I love my husband. :)

I will have everyone know, we both love and appreciate art, me especially. It just was a whole new take on "art" that maybe we just weren't quite mature enough to handle. :)

In the last 2 days, we have walked probably close to 8 hours. Not kidding! Needless to say, by the time we finally made it back to our flat tonight we were both beat. We quickly decided on a night in with grilled cheese and tomato soup, and a few episodes of Brothers & Sisters, our newfound love. :) My sister lent us the whole first season, and my Mom just shipped us the second season since we're almost done with the first! If you haven't seen this show, I would seriously recommend it!

This is a random picture I took on our way home today from St. Paul's... couldn't resist the cute orange slug bug. :)