London Calling

When Helly went back to England, her mom (also Helleyne) went with her to visit for a week. Since Valentina wanted to take the kids to London at some point to see musicals in English, she decided that there was no better time than when her best friend was there visiting. So last Tuesday we booked last minute tickets to London and left on Wednesday. Since we booked our tickets to the musicals last minute too, it was a minor disaster. We could only get 2 decent tickets to Grease and 3 tickets for the Lion King and Mamma Mia.

I was inwardly thankful that I had done my laundry on Tuesday and had clean clothes to pack. Since we flew EasyJet and we had 2 kids in tow, we packed 2 big suitcases for the 4 of us. The flight there was pretty painless. We took the train, which the kids loved, into London Victoria and caught a cab to the apartment in Chelsea that we rented for the 5 days we were there. We hardly had time to unpack and buy some emergency groceries before it was time for me and Alessia to go to Grease. We took a cab to Piccadilly and got to the theater 5 minutes after the show started. She was FANTASTICALLY behaved. It was like a whole different child. I don't know if she was tired or if she was just thrown off by being in an English speaking country, but she was amazing. We had fun at the show, even though I had to explain a lot because she didn't understand when they talked in the silly voices. After the show I took her to look at the lights in Piccadilly Circus before we got a cab back to Chelsea. On the way we grabbed a slice of pizza and Ale found a pink sprinkled donut, which she wanted to buy solely for the fact that it was the prettiest donut in the world. She wouldn't eat it before we took a picture to document :)

Ale with her rock star face on the plane.

We spent most of the rest of the vacation between seeing the typical touristic sites and meandering through Harrods. We went to Harrods 4 out of the 5 days we were there. They bought half of the Toy Kingdom, most of which we had to have shipped back to Italy as it wouldn't fit in our luggage. Harrods was Alessia's (and probably Vale's) favorite part of London. Ale got all sorts of new toys and practically every Peppa Pig DVD ever made and Vale got all sorts of new shoes :)

The kids with a Lego Harrods doorman.

In the evening when they went to the Lion King, I went for a walk along the Thames and ended up in a pub on the Strand. It's amazing to me that with the reputation that Italian men have for being ladies men, that I always meet British men so much easier. I was in the bar 10 minutes before I made some new friends. Apparently I have a great accent. I thought theirs were pretty good too :) Of course I didn't meet the cutest one until 15 minutes before I had to leave, but I've never been known for my timing. Maybe it's better, my family would never forgive me if I brought home another Colin. We have too much confusion already ;)

The next day we went to the go ride the Eye. It took us all day to actually get there. We went for a walk and stopped in a hair salon for kids that we found in Chelsea. It was a great place, all of the chairs were cars and trains and airplanes for the kids to sit in, and in front of the chairs they played cartoons. Ale was ecstatic because Peppa Pig, her favorite cheeky little piggy who likes to jump in muddle puddles, was on. She sat in a police car and got her bangs trimmed and then she got her nails done like lady bugs. It was really cute. When we finally got down to the Embankment the kids were starving. Who knew that pubs along the river are so hard to find. After a nice pub lunch, we made it down to the Eye, but the kids were more interested in watching the mimes and playing at the little park than they were in actually riding it. After we played at the park for about an hour, we finally got tickets. The kids were exhausted though and after Gigi threw a fit for half an hour, he fell asleep and slept through the entire ride. Ale liked it, but I think she was pretty bored. She wanted to draw instead of look out at the city or take pictures with Big Ben. That night I stayed in with the kids while Vale went out to dinner with the 2 Helleynes.

Gigi at the kids hair salon

We spent most of the next day in Harrods terrorizing their toy department. The girl in customer service who sent our box deserves a large gift basket or at the very least a nice bottle of wine. We found another pub for lunch and then headed down to the London Aquarium. After the Aquarium we stayed in for the evening which I was thankful for since I was running on very little sleep. I'll never understand how kids can go to bed so late and wake up so early without being tired. They don't even drink coffee, I don't get it. They went to Mamma Mia Saturday night and I wandered around Piccadilly and took pictures after stopping for a pint. I ran into Helly, who was on her way to a movie with her Uni friends, near Leceister Square and we finally got a chance to chat a little before I had to meet the kids after the show. I can see why she would choose London over Brescia for college, it's fantastic.

One thing that I have missed since I left the US, that I used to scoff at in the States is Starbucks. It was probably the best part of our trip to London for me, since caffeine had become more of a necessity than food on this vacation. But I truely, deeply, sincerely, desperately have been missing Chai Tea Lattes since I left home. They are so freaking delicious. I introduced Valentina to them when we got to London and she drank about 2 a day the whole time we were there. I also created two little frappuccino monsters when I introduced the kids to the Strawberries and Cream blended drinks. It was worth it, because if they begged for Starbucks, that just meant I could drink it that much more :)

Our last real day in London we caught a bus tour, which was fine since it was cold and rainy all day. We stopped at Madame Toussaud's wax museum for a few hours and then jumped back on our double decker to see the rest of the city. Gigi slept for most of the tour, which was fine since he was a terror and spent most of his time at the museum trying to break the wax figures. After a little nap in the apartment we went out with Helly to do some shopping. However, since it was Sunday evening everything closed early, so we ended up just taking a walk and window shopping. We made dinner in the apartment and hung out at home most of the evening.

Me with a waxy Audrey Hepburn

I finally got to see Helly's apartment, which is a surprisingly bright but small studio with a fold-up bed. Unfortunately I was only there long enough to say goodbye. I was sad that we didn't get to hang out more, but with her mom in town and with the kids refusing to sleep there was barely time to eat and shower let alone catch up. Oh well, this won't be my last time in London. And I actually took pictures this time! Yay for a camera charger that fits into the wall!

Vacation with the kids is not my favorite, since it involves lots of heavy lifting and very little sleep. But I still adore London. I want to live there more than anything in the world...its been a dream of mine since I was 14 and I've discovered that it hasn't changed any. Anybody know someone in LDN who needs a junior graphic designer?