Week one tea report

TEA!

So far I've done 4 tea related things:

1) 2 boba places

2) 1 afternoon tea

3) 1 tea shop

Details:

1) Boba shop 1 was a chain called One Zo. I got a passionfruit and grapefruit green tea with boba. Solid. Would go back.

 Boba shop 2 was called Munchies Bubble Tea Cafe. Super cute in there, but I ordered a watermelon fruit tea with boba and it was just too sweet. Boo. But, still refreshing. Will not return.

2) Afternoon tea at The Ivy, Chelsea. Solid afternoon tea in a super charming setting with jungle birds/animal pics on the walls and lots of greenery and a cool looking patio space. Sandwiches were really good as were the scones. The fail for me were the desserts. All too sweet. Didn't finish any of them. I had earl grey tea and it was fine. Val enjoyed their afternoon tea blend. Overall a B+ and not bad for a first tea in London this time. :) 

3) Tea store. I needed tea to make morning tea! Mei Leaf is a Chinese tea store that was near-ish the British Library so we stopped in to get some on our way home. I picked up the Empress and the Earl and am enjoying it so far. Lots of teas to choose from. Mostly straight tea and not blended with anything, which is less my thing. But, the teas all look great and they all had charts describing their flavor profiles. And there is a bar where you can order flights of tea to try in store. Maybe next time! 

Week one in London: Prep week!

Disclaimer: I type these fast and don't proofread. So, sorry for any typos. Also, getting these pics on here is non-trivial, so I apologize if the formatting is a mess!

One week in London complete! It's been a busy week, so here's a quick recap of what we've been up to.

Wednesday: Arrived in the AM and took a taxi with ALL of our bags to our Airbnb in Whitechapel. Dropped our bags, cleaned up, and then headed out to stay awake. London welcomed us this week with amazingly cool temps, but lots of rain. SO, typical London? :) I think the locals are sad it's not warmer for summer, but we are LOVING it given the temps we've been dealing with in Texas. 

First stop: a late lunch at a cute cafe near the British Museum. Shared a tuna sandwich, some delicious flavored crisps, and I had some mint tea while Val had chai. Then it was off to the British Museum. It was a ZOO...at like 3:30pm on a Wednesday. Maybe because it was raining? I'm not sure. I'm just glad we pre-booked our entry tickets because the line for no tickets was SUPER long. Once inside we both just needed to look at a few things for our classes. I am using the Rosetta Stone this time, so picked up a book on hieroglyphics. Then it was off to the National Portrait Gallery. Lots of great stuff in here for Women Count!. Excited to go back and spend some more time there.  Then we headed back to our neighborhood and had some fish and chips at Jack the Chipper. Ridiculous name, but we were near the start of the Jack the Ripper tour, so I support it. It was tasty and just what we needed to fall asleep after a long travel day.

But, we did not get a great night's sleep as we soon realized that the AirBnB we had chosen was not going to be a place we could stay. I won't go into details here, but it was not pleasant. :/ Needless to say we did not get a full night of sleep and spent all day Thursday finding new lodging and camping out at the IES center until we had a plan. We did venture out the the Leather Lane Market for a fun lunch excursion. Excited to try this on the regular on days I teach. :) This time Val had a falafel wrap and I had a Venezuelan corn cake with all sorts of yumminess inside. Later that afternoon we went out for boba (see the tea blog that follows this) and then we finally figured out a lodging plan after waiting on a new AirBnB to get back to us. We spent one night in the Premier Inn next to IES (so just lugged our bags a block or so) and then moved into our new AirBnB in Chelsea on Friday afternoon. Exhausting! But, we grabbed a cider at the Dolphin pub across the street from the Inn and called it a night early. We both finally got some sleep! YAY!

Friday we ventured on a day trip to Oxford. First yummy breakfast at the hotel. Then took the Oxford Tube bus to Oxford. Stopped at the Ashmolean, had a delightful lunch at Tree Artisan Cafe, took a walk around the maths building, stopped in the National History Museum, then the Museum of Science History and ended the day with some Knoops hot chocolate. After spending the day in Oxford, it was clear this wasn't a day trip I needed to do for class, so that was helpful! We were back in London by 5PM-ish and took a taxi to our new place. It is SOOO nice! And the neighborhood is very posh. Val picked up some Thai take away for us and we enjoyed just relaxing in our new place. Back on track!

Saturday was another rainy day spent catching up on work and getting organized at the new place. We did take a mid-day break for some late afternoon tea at The Ivy. More about this in the tea blog. 

By Sunday it was time for more adventures. My first run (this time) in London (or really my first run since May). A 2-miler around Hyde Park. So charming. So perfect. So happy. Then we headed to the Science Museum to get some work done for my class. Lots of great stuff in the math exhibit. Notes taken. Then, we headed to Windsor Castle Pub for Sunday roast. Delicious. :) Then I headed to the South side of town to check out the Florence Nightingale museum (amazing!) and the Imperial War Museum (not what I was looking for). Lots of good finds for class today! Then, we had a delicious pasta dinner in our neighborhood at the Chelsea Corner. Great service. Fun times. Good food. Good wine.

Monday was another work day in the morning. Then we popped by a great bookstore (Waterstones on Gower) to pick up a book I had ordered for class. Picked up some boba (more on this in the blog) and then headed to IES for our orientation meeting. The new IES center is REALLLY nice! I'm excited for the students. Then, since it was a beautiful day outside we headed to Granary Square (on Zosia's recommendation) and had dinner at Caravan. We shared some fries and a delicious pizza. It was charming and lovely sitting outside enjoying the weather and the kids running about in the fountain. Then we strolled through the Coal Drops Yard looking at all the shops.  Perfect!

Tuesday was another rainy day, but we ventured out anyways. Had a quick lunch at Pret and then checked out the British Library. We're both now card carrying members. Whee! After that it was off to my first tea store to buy some tea (see tea blog post). And then home for work time. Then, to dinner at Ollie's House for 50p gyoza and 2 for 1 cocktails. AMAZING! We will be back. Such an enjoyable evening.

It's Wednesday now. Another 2 miler. This time down to Battersea Park and over a couple of bridges. Love bridge runs!! Doing more work (trying to get the second syllabus done!). Then Michael and his mom arrive today. We'll drop our big bags at the permanent London house and I'll head to the airport hotel. Tomorrow I head to Portugal for a week long vacation with husband and his mom and Val will go off to explore York. A bit of a stumble at the beginning, but overall a good first week.

A few observations:

1) Bright/Emerald green is THE color this season in London (think #50C878). Women are wearing so much of it. Green pants. Green shirts. Green jackets. Green blazers. It's everywhere. I need a green something article of clothing. 

2) It feels SO crowded here. Maybe it's COVID. Maybe it just takes a minute. Maybe it's still summer travel/holiday season, but there are places here in London that feel just overwhelming in terms of the number of people. It's not everywhere, but certainly a lot of places. People don't wear masks here. I've sen maybe 10 masks in one week. But, I'm just going to wear mine and look ridiculous. It's too stressful. Especially on crowded tubes and in crowded museums. Ack!!