The first weekend of February we went to London to visit the exhibition Harry Potter: A History of Magic at the British Library. The decition of going was made in January, and we booked the trip before checking if there were aviable tickets. When checking the website it turned out it was all sold out. Needless to say, we were disappointed, but decided that a weekend in London would be nice even without visiting the exhibition.
We arrived in London Friday night, and stayed at a hotel near the British Library called Pullman St Pancras, that I got a really good deal on. When we got there, we got upgraded to a DeLuxe room, which was really good. The view from the room was great, and at the end of the hall on our floor, we could see The British Library. The location was great, and the room brilliant!
Saturday morning we met up with a friend of mine for breakfast. I had been given the suggestion of a place called Vx, which is a shop that prouds itself to be a vegan junk food shop. It was a really small place, but they had a good selection of food and cakes. I went for the Marinara Meatballs Sub, and it was really very good! I also had a chocolate doughnut for dessert.
After breakfast we headed to the Bristish Library to tey our luck. Going to London for the exhibition and not asking if there were any free tickets would be silly, we thought. And we were in luck! There were tickets, and we could enter the exhibition pretty much straight away.
It was a fantastic exhibition! There were rare books, manuscripts and magical objects from the British Library’s collection, as well as original drafts and drawings by J.K. Rowling and illustrator Jim Kay, and objects from The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, Cornwall.
On Sunday we went to have breakfast at one of my favourite vegetarian restaurants in London: mildreds Kings Cross. On weekends they serve brunch in the mornings, and we went for the scrambled tofu, slow roasted tomato, oak smoked house beans, roasted mushroom, sausage and toasted sourdough. Now, that’s what I call a breakfast! Or brunch, if you prefer… It was a perfect way to start the Sunday.
After breakfast we went back to Vx, to end our weekend in London with cake! This time I had a piece of the Unicorn cake. It was delicious, but very sweet, so I didn’t manage to eat the whole thing. However, I would love to go back and try more items from their menu at some point. Anyhow, a great way to end a great weekend!
I’m currently in a café at Heathrow, heading back to Oslo after a coupe of days in London. I have been using most of today for writing, and it went very well. So I reached today’s goal, and am hoping to nap and read on the plane back.
While in London, I met up with the ever so lovely Pogodragon. It’s always good to see her, and I always try to meet up with her when in London. We had a lovely meal at a place called Wild Food Café, which is a vegan place in Covent Garden. I had a lentil cottage pie, and it came with kale crisps. The kale crisps were amazing. YUM!
I am hoping to finish my novel this week end, and I’m planning on going skating on Sunday, as the ice rink in the centre of Oslo is opening then. The great thing about the Spikersuppa rink is that if you have your own skates, it’s totally free, but you can also rent skates for 100 NOK per day.
I have quite a few new books I’m looking forward to reading. I haven’t really read a lot since I started NaNoWriMo. Come done with my novel, and I’ll read!
I signed up for this year’s EasterCon at last year’s EasterCon, and was very excited to go. Dysprosium was held at ParkInn by Raddison at Heathrow, so getting there would be the easiest convention for me to get to, with a lot of flights to choose from.
This year’s guests of honour were Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Herr Döktor, and Caroline Mullan. The only guest of honour I had heard of was Seanan McGuire, simply because she was also a guest of honour at last year’s EuroCon in Dublin. To me, it’s not the guests of honour that are the important thing, though, but the fact that EasterCon gather a lot of fans from pretty much all over Europe. That’s pretty fun, in my opinion.
There were a lot of interesting panels and talks this year, but one can’t go to them all. I chose to attend a handfull, as well as being a lot more social than I have been previous years. All good. The panels I attended were all good, even though I had to leave The Unseen London panel halfway through, as I had a splitting headache, and needed painkillers, water and a nap. I siply couldn’t focus, and was sad not to being able to listen to such an interesting topic.
I find it hard to pick a favourite panel or talk this year. I really enjoyed the Guest of Honour interview with Herr Dötor. I am incredible fascinated by how he’s able to make the cool art. He had some pieces exhibited at the art show, and they were magnificent.
Other than a lot of geeky stuff, there were lots of geeky people. This being my third EasterCon meant I knew more people this time around than two years ago, when I attended my first EasterCon, and Twitter helps too. I have probably been more social over the EasterCon week end than I have been in years. All good, though. There were great chats. Great company. And I had in general an excellent time.
The British National Literacy Trust and Wild in Art have the summer of 2014 been working together to bring Books About Town to London. 2 july to 15 September you can find 50 unique BookBench sculptures all over London, but at the end of summer, they will all be auctioned to raise funds for the National Literacy Trust’s work to raise literacy levels in the UK.
They have made four different trails, so that you can go book bench hunting. On the webpage you can find maps and descriptions, that you can download for free.
When I visited London in August, one of my goals were to go book hunting. Schedule wise, I found out the best trail for me were the Bloomsbury Trail, as it wasn’t very far from the British Library, where I had been spending the morning at a comic book exhibition.
I pretty much stumbled over the first bench, Jeeves and Wooster, inside the Brunswich Centre where I had gone to have some lunch and visit Skoob Books. Right smack in the middle of the centre, it was easy to find, and I thought it was a good start to my hunt.
The Blooomsbury trail has 12 benches, but I only found 8 of them. That being said, I must admit I didn’t put a lot of work in finding the other four. I was a tad bit tired, and I mainly did it for fun, so I was quite pleased with what I found.
It was fun to look for these beatiful book benches, which book lover can’t find it so? It was also nice to run into other book bench hunters (I even had a chat by the Pride and Prejudice bench with a lady from kent). It’s a bit sad they’ll only be around for 10 more days, and that I will not be able to do another hunt next time I’m in London.
If you do visit London before 15 September, and you think books are awesome, I’ll highly recommend to hunt down some book benches yourself! And, of course, I would love to hear about other people’s book bench hunting stories! Do you have one?
I had decided to take an earlyish flight, so that I had some of the day free to use, and not end up just travelling. After having our plane delayed, and then having to wait for our lugage for ages, I finally got on the underground from Heathrow and headed to Paddington where my hotel is.
I was staying at the easyHotel Paddington, which for being one of the easyHotels, isn’t too bad. OK, so I had to drag my suitcase up four floors (no lift), as I was given a room at the top floor, but at least it was nice and quiet, as the window isn’t facing a street. Except for the fact that I could hear even the tinyest whisper outside my door, which didn’t go quite the whole way down…
I managed to get some errands done, before I found a book shop called Daunt Books. It was such a nice book shop, I think it deserve its own entry, which will come at some other point.
The day was rounded off with having dinner with lovely people at the Real Greek in Paddington street. The food was amazing, and we all shared the meze. Most of the food was actually vegetarian, and I think my favourite must have been the hummus. The falafels were great too. Yum, yum! However, it turned out the be the most expensive meal I’ve ever had in London, I think. Almost 400 NOK! And they say Norway is expensive… Fortunately, you can get cheaper meals in London, and I managed to get meals closer to my budget the other days.
After some hours spent with lovely people, I headed back to the hotel, and spent a bit of time reading, before I was so tired I fell asleep.
Tuesday, 12 August
I woke up earlier than I had planned, so I actually managed to do a bit of walking around in Paddington before I headed for my lunch “date” in Covent Garden. I had luch with a girl I met at the bookcrossing convetion in Gothenburg last year, and it was fun to see her again. After lunch we headed for Forbidden Planet, that I always have to visit when i’m in london, and also walked around Soho and down Charing Cross road with all the book shops.
I did more walking on my own after we had said goodbye. It’s actually quite good to just walk around and look at things. I then felt tired, and went back to the Paddington are, where I visited the floating book shop Word on Water. Walking along the canal is actually something I’ve never done before, and it was really nice. Those narrow canal boats you see really are something else, and I picked up there’s a whole community around them. It was lovely.
After all the walking during the day, I felt tired, and found a pub with comfy chairs, and ordered some food and a pint of dry cider (not the sweet stuff you get in Scandinavia). It was so nice just to relax and not really do anything. So nice I decided on taking a quite night in my hotel room with sweets and reading, before I was so tired I wanted to sleep.
Wednesday. 13 August
This day turned out to be another day with a lot of walking. My first goal was the British Library, for the Comics Unmasked exhibition (which was really good, a blog post will come later). On my there I stopped to look at some Asus pads, and started talking to a guy who turned out to be Scottish (no Scottish accent to be traced…) Most definately a geek, so we didn’t talk much about the product he was showing off, but more about science fiction tv series, compter games and other geeky things. It was a nice chat.
After my visit to the British Library (which also included the compulsory “drool over Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë manuscripts”), I visited Skoob Books, a book shop dedicated to second hand books. That shop also deserves its own entry.
I was the ready for book bench hunting. Of course, the book bench hunt will have its own blog post as well. White I was doing that, I ran into a lady by the Pride and Prejudice bench who also did book bench hunting. I managed to have a nice chat with her too! Quite lovely.
It’s probably needless to tell you my feet hurt so much from all the walking, I decided to have dinner after that, and didn’t really do anything for the rest of the day. It was quite late anyway.
Thursday, 14 August 2014
This was my last proper day in England for this time. It was also the day where I took a day trip to Norwich to meet up with my friend P. Getting from the hotel to Liverpool Street railway station went surprisingly smoothly (no changing of trains was nice). And the train trip was good to.
P. picked me up at the station in Norwich, and we headed for his place, where I got to see his cat again. It was nice and relaxing, and good to see my friend again. The hours just flew, and I then had to go back to the station and take the train back to London.
I stopped by a place called Le Gourmet Brasserie to have my evening meal. The place itself didn’t look like much, and I was told I couldn’t have the falafel as a meal (not sure about what the reason was), so I got to have falafel and feta cheese in a wrap instead, and to be honest with you, I’m glad I did. It was so yummy! I wouldn’t brag about the service or the place, but the food was both very tasty and very cheap, so I guess you can’t expect more?
Then it was time to head back to the hotel, pack my stuff, and get to bed…
I went to London with the Girlfriend last week end. Arrived Friday night and went home on Sunday. It was nice. We did things like visiting the huge bookshop Watersone’s at Picadilly, the Biritish Library, Lonely Planet, and going down Oxford Street at night. Not to mention pubs, and the lovely cupcake heaven Peggy Porschen Cakes. I never get enough time in London!
I was very happy that the Girlfriend wanted to go to the British Library. There’s currently an exhibition on children’s books illustrations there, which I loved. That, along with the original Alice in Wonderland and Jane Austen manuscripts were my personal favourites. The Girlfriend’s were “the old books” (her words).
The only letdown was the hotel. We had booked a room at the Holly House Hotel in Victoria. The booking page said the following about it:
In central London, Holly House Hotel is only 5 minutes’ walk from Victoria’s rail, tube and coach stations. There is good access to the Gatwick Express airport service.
Each room at Holly House has free Wi-Fi, tea/coffee facilities, a TV and a small fridge. Most rooms have en suite facilities, while others have shared bathrooms.
Each morning, a continental breakfast is served in the spacious dining room. The property has a 24-hour reception and check-in is available from 14.00 onwards.
When we arrived, we got our keys, and it turned out it was a “two in one” hotel: There were actually two hotels, with two doors, sharing owners, reception and “dining room”. Our room was at the part called Ivy House Hotel, but it didn’t really matter. The room faced the railway, meaning the noise from the trains bothered us though out the night, so we didn’t sleep very well. The so called en suit bathroom was really tiny, and not very nice, so we couldn’t bear the thought of showering there. The room was also very small, so moving around was hard, and even after we turned the heat off, it was sticking hot. I could kick myself for not checking TripAdvisor before we booked. The only good thing I can say about the hotel is that it was very cheap, approx. GBP 110 for two nights.
I have a review coming up for the hotel, indeed. A good thing we only stayed for two nights, and that we hardly spent time at the hotel.
I spent my Easter break in England, and had one day in London before I headed for EasterCon in Bradford. There will not be any post about that here, but I did make a video about my day in London.
London is always great, and I managed to meet up with a Norwegian girl I know from Twitter, walk around, have lovely meals, and had in general a lovely time.
I love England. Since I finally live a place with direct flights to London, I decided I wanted to spend my spring break there. I left Norway 2 April, and entered the door to my home the night that led to 7 April.
I visited London, but also had a day trip to Norwich to meet up with a friend of mine.
Left for Torp airport right after work. The trip there wasn’t too bad, I slept quite a bit, and managed to arrive before the check in had even started. After a bit of waiting, I was able to get my boarding card and go through security.
I must say the whole fluids rule to me seems pretty pointless. You put the stuff in a plastic bag, but once you have gone through security you can very well open the bag and take the stuff out. Am I the only one who really don’t get this? I mean, c’mon! What difference does it make? *shakes head*
Had (expensive) dinner at the airport. Not exactly a whoohoo sort of meal, but better than nothing.
And then I was off. We landed at Stanstead 20 minutes ahead of schedule, I found the Terravision ticket booth, got my return ticked, jumped on the bus, that took me to London. Alas, they had not thought it might have been a good idea to announce the stops, so me thinking it was a direct bus to Victoria, jumped off the bus, and realised a tad bit too late that I was not at Victoria at all, but at Liverpool street! Not happy, it being in the middle of the night and all. Fortunately, thanks to the nice man working for Terravision (ticket sale), he managed to get me a bus ride with an other bus, not having to pay anything extra, and hence managed to get to Victoria safe and sound. I even managed to find my hotel without any hassle, it was just a short walk from the station.
17 May
Woke up quite early, and headed for Victoria where I went to do some shopping at Lush and such things. Then I got a message from , who was frantically busy at work and couldn’t make lunch, so I found a pub inside the station and had a really yummy meal, before taking care of some business, and then headed to the Natural History Museum. I had decided on walking there, and managed to take quite a fe detours, before I finally got there.
I walked around the museum looking for the bookcrossing bookshelf, and it took me quite a bit of time, effort and asking for directions before I finally managed to find it. I left a book there and picked up a book, that I’m actually reading. I’m taking a break from it at the moment, as there’s another book I really have to read first (one that has a waiting list at the library). While there I did have a bit of a look around, though, and even built my own arachne. *giggles* I probably should go back to that museum at some point, I really kind of liked it!
After I was done at the museum, I headed for Waterloo and probably what I would call the easiest found bookcrossing zone. So many books! Alas, I picked up a book I quickly found out was not my cup of tea at all, so I set it free the next day, but I didn’t know that at the point. I dropped a book there too.
Then headed to Kensington, where I knew I could find an Internet café, where I spent an hour doing Internet stuff before going back to Victoria.
Taking the underground back to the hotel was fun, I had to struggle not to laugh out loud each time I heard “Please, mind the gap!” London really isn’t quite the same after Neverwhere. Thank you, Mr Gaiman! 😉
Stopped by the local pub for fish and chips on my way back to the hotel, and had that for dinner. Had a bit of rest at the hotel after that, before I headed for Camden.
Camden was pretty much deserted. Not many people, but I had a nice walk. Strolled around and looked for a place called the Black Cap, which I’d been told would be a nice place to visit. Alas, I had no address, and hadn’t thought of looking it up, so I had no idea where it was. Oh well, didn’t find it, so I went back to Victoria. Didn’t do much, but read for a bit before I had an early night, which actually was quite nice.
18 May
Woke up slightly early, and headed to Starbucks for breakfast before heading for Bethnal Green. I was supposed to visit a OBCZ there, but it turned out to open 4, and not noon as stated on the homepage, and since there really isn’t much to do in Bethnal Green, I headed back to the centre of London. I decided to do “London on a whim” and jumped off the tube at some random station. Had a walk, and found a small park where I had my coffee and a rest. It was actually quite nice, and the weather was wonderful too.
After that I had a walk to Covent Garden, where I looked at the Seven Dials, and had lunch at the Nags Head, where I left a bookcrossing book.
With my tummy full of food I went back to the hotel to have a rest and freshen up. Then I headed back to the city centre, spent an hour at an Internet café before meeting up with people at the Ben Crouch Tavern. The first one I met was Pogodragon, who fortunately reognised me. The pub was very full of people! After a bit Tallarn arrived, whom I found outside looking for people. Not long after Missyk8 turned up, and then Poggs, LadyCat, Littleangel_103 and Nniaa. It was great to see them! After a bit LadyCat’s partner Midwich Cuckoo turned up too. I had a fab time, even though the pub was crowded. It was really good to meet you all!
After a bit Missyk8 deserted us, as it was just too crowded for her, I think. I don’t blame her. After a bit we left Poggs and Nniaa, as we needed food (sorry peeps, wish I had more time to talk to you… Next time, I promise!). Littleangel_103 seemed quite knackered, so she and Tallarn decided to head home, while Pogodragon, LadyCat, Midwich Cuckoo and I had a wonderful meal at an Indian restaurant. I had a really nice time at the restaurant, the company was most excellent!
When everybody were full of food, we headed for Soho. Thanks to Midwich Cuckoo for showing me the “lesbian” pub… Interesting enough, it was full of gay men. Not that I mind, but where were all the girls? 😉 After a drink outside Nellie Dean of Soho, neighbour of Candy Bar, we headed home, all four, and while Pogodragon headed in one direction, LadyCat and Midwich Cuckoo kept me company on the tube until I reached Victoria!
Fortunately I had already packed, so I pretty much just straight to bed.
19 May
Woke up at 1.30 am (yes, in the morning), had a shower and got ready to go. Checked out of the hotel and went to the bus stop. The bus left on time, and I slept through most of the trip to the airport.
I had no idea an airport could be so busy at 4.30 am, but it was! Was happy to have checked in and gone through security, and after buying tax free wine (3 bottles @ £15 total, not too bad for decent wine), I had some Starbucks breakfast. Got on the plane, chatted with the elderly American gentleman who sat beside me, and arrived at Torp 15 minutes ahead of schedule, which made me get an earlier bus. Very nice!
So, here ends my tale of my short trip to London. I miss it already!
