London Calling

Was in London this past weekend to meet Agnes and stay with some EY friends (also on GEP). Instead of me telling about the trip (b/c I am bound to forget something), I defer to Aggie's description of the weekend to our respective mothers.

Per Agnes (with some of my comments thrown in)....

"Hi! Okay, I will give you the run down....First off, it was so much fun!! ....and mom I am going to CC you on this so you have the details too!

I am going to say "Render" for Matt Render (the guy who works at E&Y in the London office who we stayed with. He transferred and is doing the same program Matt is doing. His wife Brandi was so nice and we got along well!)

Thursday:
I got in around 9:30a (after a overnight flight that left Chicago at 8:10p on Wed) and got to Render and Brandi's apartment around 11 or so. Render gave me the keys to their place, I relaxed, showered and then headed out around 1:30-2 to pick Matt up from the other, small airport in London. We met there and it was SO WONDERFUL to see him!! (yeah that's right...it wasn't so bad for me to see her either)

We got back on the train, went back to the apartment and Render and Brandi met us there after work. Their place was pretty nice: one bedroom, small kitchen area, decent size living room area and a huge TV. (The boys loved the TV, of course). (agreed....Sky TV is solid and I'm going to try to get it here in Lux)

We went to this Thai restaurant down the street from their place, had dinner, wine, etc. Then we went to a pub and met up w/some other E&Y people. Guinness was the drink of choice for everyone! We got home around 11 or 12 that night b/c all pubs in London close at 11.

Friday:
Render and Brandi went to work. Matt and I slept in and then toured all of London. We went to a pub for breakfast and did the full English breakfast...sausage, eggs, baked beans, etc (it was solid, and cheap). Matt and I are just dying for coffee, everyone else, (and I am not kidding) are drinking beers at 10a. It was nuts! I have never seen so many people drinking in the middle of the day as I did in London.

So we ate and then walked around....Saw the Tower of London, Monument, Piccadilly Circle, said hi to the Queen at Buckingham Palace etc. (message to Brenden and Kirin: I gave the Queen my best for you). Along the way, we decided to stop in a few pubs. We would sit down, order one drink, split it and then move on to the next site/pub.

We went to see the Producers that night which was interesting.....It's a great musical and we got discounted tickets. Problem was, we were tired from walking all day so we get to the show and Matt falls asleep through parts of it!! (As soon as the lights went out, so did I) I enjoyed it, and I think he would have too if he wasn't so tired!

Afterwards, we went to grab some food at this great Italian Place, had some wine and then met up w/everyone else.

Saturday:
Got up, had breakfast and then we went to a pub to watch rugby and soccer games. (Brandi made us a seriously good breakfast of eggs, toast, potatoes, something else I'm forgetting, and coffee. It was really good....Goetta is the only thing that could have made it any better) We were at this pub in the afternoon and into the early evening. No American football anywhere! We ended up leaving that pub and went to another to meet up w/more people. They had a great beer garden and we hung out there for a bit. After the pub closed at 11, we went to this 100% swanky place in Nottinghill. Very fancy club. Got home around 2. (I somehow ended up with a receipt from this place in my pocket for about 30 pounds...mysteriously, I only remember drinking one bottle of beer. Also mysterious about this place was that you had to walk across a drawbridge, down some stairs, and through a formal dining room to get to the bathroom....can't say I've ever had to do that anywhere else.)

Sunday:
Woke up, I am not going to lie....I had a few too many Guinness's the night before and was NOT excited about flying for 8 hours.... But we just all hung out and then Matt took me to the airport around 2 (flight was at 4:30p). Then, he had to get back on the train and head over to the other airport for his flight. I got in around 7:30p.

The weather was kind of yucky. It was in the 40's and kind of rainy each day."

I would say that about covers it. It was a great weekend and I can't wait for the next trip. Agnes is coming here to Luxembourg for Christmas and we are planning a trip to Rome. Should be fun!