P.S. About Brownies

By the way, though it was expected I would not be able to find candy canes, I was also completely unable to locate peppermints, which I figured could substitute on the topping.  No matter, I think the brownies are probably better without them, but I'm constantly amazed by the random things you can't buy in London...

A May Bank Holiday Weekend

So, this past weekend was a holiday weekend, coinciding with Memorial Day in the US.  In England, it was "Late Spring Bank Holiday" (but interestingly not in Scotland or Northern Ireland... the UK has far less national identity than, say, a Canadian trout, which will be found popping out of the water just to tell you that Shania Twain is a Canadian, don't you know... but I digress; more about that another time).  So, having a three day weekend, I perfected relaxation.  On Saturday, I made myself fluffy pancakes (highly recommended: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-Pancakes-2/Detail.aspx), went to get two tickets for O.A.R., an amazing band that is popular among college students, and is well-known enough to sell out Madison Square Garden.  I missed them last time they were here because I didn't want to pay an online booking fee and kept forgetting to go to the box office, until they sold out the week before.  As you have probably guessed, they are not nearly so popular here, which has proven to be a problem - all of my friends who know them are busy studying or are away for the weekend, and nobody else knows who they are!  And this band can sell out The Garden!  Anyway, I then met up with some people to see Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and enjoyed it, as atrocious as it was.  I was probably swayed by having played 1.5 of the "Sands of Time" themed video games while my apartment in college was addicted to them.

On Sunday, I went to Islington - which is one of my favorite areas of London because it's not only pretty but the restaurants are actually local and unique instead of the same old bland high street chains (I am not opposed to chains per say, simply bland ones!) - and got coffee and cake with my friend Eunice at Fig & Olive (http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/fig-and-olive-london).  My cheesecake and her gooseberry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gooseberry) tart were both delicious, and we enjoyed them through a narrow passageway leading to a quiet park surrounded by victorian townhouses (as are common in nice areas of London... though they are not often public).  We had actually intended to get food at the Islington Market, but we were unable to find it (or get into it), despite seeing a sign.  However, as a result of our wandering, we did walk past Emma Watson, whose phone number I got.  Okay, I didn't get her phone number, but I did get a photo with her:

Okay, so in case you have no sense of humor, that photograph is fake, so I didn't get a photo with her, but I did walk past her a second time after dropping of my friend at the tube.  At which point I said to her, "look, I don't know who you are, or why you're following me, but it's completely inappropriate!"  Except that I didn't, but I did chuckle to myself thinking about it.  I then walked back through the north part of London, through Camden Town (an area with a big market and the box office I had gone to on Saturday) and through Regent's park, which is beautiful, and has a tasty looking sausage hut that reminded me I had yet to eat lunch, and had no cash.  Oops!  So I went back home, and bought corned beef to try to make a corned beef sandwich (preferably on rye with swiss and sauerkraut! oooooh reuben....), but lo and behold, corned beef here is not, I repeat not the same thing that it is in the US.  It's gross.  And it's dry.  And most of it comes in tins.  Like spam. EW.  I will not be buying it again (I bought an untinned kind, don't worry!), though the horseradish and mustard certainly made it more palatable.  There is something similar to corned beef called salt beef that is sold in food halls and at some specialty sandwich shops (normally emblazoned, aptly, with the words "Salt" and "Beef"), which is good, but still not the same. 

On Monday, I went on a quest to make peppermint brownies (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ghirardelli-Peppermint-Brownies/Detail.aspx).  This quest had, in fact, begun months before, when I realized the difficulty of obtaining 100% unsweetened chocolate in London.  So I had Sara bring me some from New York.  Thanks Sara!  Since then, it has appeared in the (regular, but nice) grocery store near me, which is the only place I have seen it (I think), and it comes in a big 180g hunk (as opposed to easily-melted bars) for about $5.50 for 4 oz (compare this to Ghirardelli for $3.50, or Baker's brand for $1.70 in the US).  Anyway, the chocolate problem solved, I thought the rest would be easy.  Alas, it took me three grocery stores to find real peppermint extract (and two to find fake peppermint flavo(u)ring), which left me near Whole Foods, the grace of London.  I was never a big Whole Foods person in New York, since I didn't see the point (I lived near a great normal grocery store) but in London it allows me to get imported things for less than anywhere else (if they are uncommon), which on Monday meant pepper jelly and Peanut Butter & Co. brand Peanut Butter (direct from NYC).  Of course, they also have fresh peanut butter in-store made by grinding peanuts, so perhaps the PB &Co was a poor choice.  Anyway, I finally made it back home and made the mint brownies.  I had to substitute the Ghirardelli-squares-as-icing with after-eight-mints-as-icing which was probably a poor choice given the chewy nature of After Eights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Eight) compared to Ghirardelli squares (which are creamy inside), and definitely made the brownies quite sweet.  But still delicious.  Highly recommended recipe.  Top that off with a delicious dinner of corn (I have it a lot now that it's in season), which is amazing and delicious, and imported (which I suppose isn't so good).  It comes, pathetically, in little plastic sealed packets and the cobs are about half the length of a proper American ear of corn, despite some of it coming from the US (I think we get shipped the dregs).  Oh well, it's still delicious with butter, salt and pepper.  MMMMMmmmmm

What's in a bus?

In the news today was a bit about the mayor unveiling his new routemaster bus design (below next to the old)

Apparently, Londoners are so enamored of their now-retired original routemaster that the mayor promised to replace the now-common bendy-buses with new double-decker routemasters that would be anew "21st century icon."  So, with all of the development costs, the first 5 will cost a whopping £7.8 million pounds (because of development costs).  And here's what you get over a normal double decker bus:

• An additional door at the back of the bus
• Two staircases instead of one
• Twice the marginal cost per bus (£300k instead of £150k)
• 40% greater fuel efficiency

I know what you're thinking: "40% fuel efficiency increase could save a lot of  money and the environment".  But you'd be wrong, because what you really need to compare to are the normal hybrid bendy buses.  Here's what you get compared to one of them:

• 15% greater fuel efficiency
• half the capacity
• somewhat iconic double decker look that is only marginally different from a normal double decker bus

Yes, that's right, you halve the capacity.  So, great, it goes 15% further per unit of fuel, but with half the people.  For those of you keeping track, that makes it 42.5% less efficient at peak times.  What a waste of money.  All because the mayor doesn't like the bending buses on London's narrow streets.  But guess what? They seem to work.

Cooking in London

Whenever I decide to bake any food in London (and it's almost always bake, since I don't seem to "cook" much), there is always some ingredient I can't get in the local grocery store.  This seems to happen without fail, such that I always plan my baking for a period when I know I can go ingredient-hunting.  So, for example, when I've wanted to make:

• Chocolate pecan pie (highly recommended recipe, basically just a chocolate pie with pecans - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Pecan-Pie-III/Detail.aspx), I couldn't get Corn Syrup
• Chocolate chip cookies, I couldn't get chocolate chips
• Brownies from scratch, I couldn't get baking chocolate
• Gingerbread cookies (also highly recommended - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Big-Soft-Ginger-Cookies/Detail.aspx - but add more ginger), I couldn't get molasses
• Pumpkin pie, I couldn't get pumpkin
• Bacon, I couldn't get American-style (that is to say not big, and thick and gross) bacon (and honestly, I still haven't made it, but I know where to get it now!)
• Wings (haven't made these yet either, remember, I bake!) I couldn't get Frank's Red Hot.

Frustratingly, these are all things you can get at any American grocery store year round!  And now I've finally learned where to get all of these things in London (though Pumpkin is available only in November).  In case you are ever here and need to bake something, the best places to get these ingredients, in approximate price order:

1. Whole Foods in Kensingon, where there are loads of American imports of packaged foods, including Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter from NYC and Boylan's soda from NJ, yum! (http://www.boylanbottling.com/) They also have many speciality foods that are hard to find despite being UK made (like chilli jelly for my crackers, cream cheese and pepper jelly snacks), and perhaps some American-style meat cuts, though I haven't looked (and they can't be, or perhaps just aren't, imported from North America).
2. Selfridge's Food Department, where I was able to find Tabasco Pepper Jelly (delicious!) and Marshmallow Fluff (which I don't normally get but was unable to resist) and baking chocolate (I think).
3. Partridges in Sloane Square, where I saw American-Style Oscar Mayer bacon from... Spain.  Whatever, it'll work.  Also there were numerous cereals and Mac & Cheese, which you can't get here.
4. Random little American Food Stores on various side streets (like one near Notting Hill Gate on the way to Shepherd's Bush on the right off of Holland Park Road) that sell outrageously priced sodas and chocolate chip bags.

You can also, now, find chocolate chips in teensy weensy 100g bags at large Tesco supermarkets, but they work out to be about the same as bags in the states are (despite being teensy weensy chocolate chips as well).

Finally, there's the Stateside Candy Co. online (http://www.americansweets.co.uk/), which is the only place I have found my beloved Wheat Thins (but have yet to order them).

I have yet, however, to find a place to buy an electric griddle other than a £50 number from Amazon ($75!!!!).  This despite checking all of the major department stores and specialty kitchen shops I could find.  Apparently, Brits don't like griddling things (the fact that "pancakes" are giant crepe-like things here probably hurts the cause).

So, the main reason I wrote this post was that I made gingerbread cookies today, and you should too.  I've posted the recipe above, and it was fabulous.  I'll let you know about how my attempts to make molasses-brown sugar-balsamic vinegar mustard work out (to copy delicious Fox More Than A Mustard from Vermont - http://www.sugarbushfarm.com/Products.aspx?pn_deptid=157)

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Weekend Exploring

It's been a long time since I've written, so I've decided to chronicle my weekend - interesting or not!

Despite having lived here for eight and a half months, I feel that I do not have a good conceptual grasp of London.  I understand the area around me in Kensington and Hammersmith (the borough in which I live and the one next to it), and I feel that I have a good general idea of what is where in central London (which in fact consists of a number of boroughs, some with rather long tendrils that reach into the heart of town), but I don't feel that I really understand any of those places.  And when it comes to the outer boroughs, well, I really have no idea.  (As I think I've explained before, "London" generally refers to Greater London which actually consists of 32 boroughs and the City of London, which is only about a square mile in size - almost all of the governmental buildings you probably associate with London are actually in the City of Westminster which is in fact a city, but also a borough in Greater London.  It is quite clear that a "city" in England does not mean the same thing that it does in most of the United States, where it implies certain duties performed by the municipal government).

Anyway, with that in mind, I decided to go exploring on Saturday.  My first stop was at the Shepherd's Bush Market near my house, which was unexciting - a market with numerous clothing, Arab food, and kitchenware stalls.  Next, I hopped on a bus to the "town" of Elephant and Castle.   I say town, because most of London is in fact lots of little communities.  So my borough of Kensington has its own high street (equivalent to the American main street) with the same shops that you'd find on most other high streets (adjusted for the quality of the neighborhood).  The same is true of most other areas in London.  This is unlike, say, New York, where the shops are spread out on the major avenues and major side streets, but no area in Manhattan has a "main street" to speak of.  This becomes less true in the outer boroughs of New York, where only one main avenue will have the stores, but even then there are far more local shops than you would find in London, and the thinking is not quite so linear.

I should pause here and explain my understanding of London architecture.  Most things can be categorized according to the following tree:

• Nice
• Town-like - one or more of:
• Old red brick
• Old Victorian
• Old Tudor
• Old stone churches
• City-like - one or more of:
• Big grand, oldish (think Westminster Palace/Big Ben or buildings like those in Washington DC)
• New, grand, stone (similar to new Federal buildings)
• New modern
• Old stone churches
• Ugly
• Both of:
• Ugly yellow brick
• Ugly modern concrete blocks.

There doesn't really seem to be much deviation from this tree, and my impression of most of the outer areas I encounter is that they fall under the Ugly category.

So, continuing.  My bus ride took me along my street past Holland Park and through Notting Hill (Mostly town-like Victorian, with a few ugly new buildings thrown in at Notting Hill's major intersection), nothing exciting to see there.  Then down Hyde Park, around a corner, and down toward Victoria Station.  Again, nothing I hadn't seen before.  And then, around a corner, past a park, and out into the square in front of the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (most exciting - a separated legislature and judiciary! As a side note, there was a lot of fear about the new court beginning to exercise judicial review.  Admittedly, the lack of a written constitution means that judicial review would be, literally, arbitrary, but nevertheless the concept makes some sense). Here, finally was something exciting.  A bunch of protesters!  At first, I was rather confused, because the main banner proclaiming "capitalism doesn't work!" was backed by others asking for "peace now!" and I could not see how they were strictly related, until I realized that there were, in fact, at least three separate groups - peace protesters ("bring our troops home NOW"), communists (hammer and sickle flag, "capitalism doesn't work!") and people protesting for a "fair votes now " (some form of proportionate voting, rather than the current plurality system).  A photo:

After crossing over the bridge just by Big Ben, the bus went under a railway (leading to Waterloo station, no doubt - there are so many train stations in London!) and promptly entered the "ugly" phase, and remained in that state all of the way to Elephant and Castle.  The high street in Elephant and Castle was nothing to write home about, except for the minor excitement of an oriental grocery store selling, among other tasty Asian goods, root beer, which is very difficult to get here.  Not only was it selling root beer, but it was only £0.79 per can, imported from Singapore and the US (two varieties).  Very nice.  A can of A&W root beer and a box of chocolate pandas -

- and I was on another bus back to Kensington via a different route (remember, it was all about exploring!).  I massed through two more neighborhoods and a green that I had previously heard were nice (and I was in fact a fan, in large part because they were hilly) - Clapham Commons (the neighborhood and green) and Clapham Junction, where, allegedly, a lot of Australian people live (and the evidence was quite strong, judging by the "barbie" restaurants and tiki bars along the street.  Here I changed for another bus to Sloane Square, with the landscape changing back to "ugly" before I hit the river-front area, and ended up in Chelsea (beautiful red brick).  Along the Chelsea part of the journey, which took me up King Street (the Chelsea high street) I decided that Chelsea was one of my favorite parts of London.  Only after I alighted at the end of the bus line in Sloane Square, did I realize that my favorite part of Chelsea had been the part at the very end of the journey, and that this, stereotypically, is where Americans live.  I think that part of it might be cultural (there is much more red brick in the US than there is here, so we may be drawn to it, and there is a store stocking American imported goods right next to the Square) but a lot of it is probably also money-related.  Despite the fact that there are more Americans in England than any other English speaking nationals other than the Irish, I encounter far more Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians than I do yanks.  I can only assume, therefore, than they're all executives!  Seems reasonable.  Anyway, executives are the only ones who could live in Sloane Square.  Very swanky, and very expensive.

After popping into the gourmet food store containing the American imports (I was more interested in seeing their mustard selection, embarrassingly) I headed up toward Mayfair, another swanky part of town that I wanted to get a better grasp of.  I wandered around the area, which contains both the Saudi and (much larger but uglier) American embassies.  The US embassy is on Grosvenor Square, which is a beautiful residential (and diplomatic) area surrounded by townhouses, John Adams's house, and which is also the site of Adlai Stevenson's heart attack.  The nearby streets contain shopping, and restaurants in equal number to, as far as I could tell, members-only clubs and restaurants, such as Cipriani London.  Nothing exciting, but all of it (near the square) beautiful.  Further out in Mayfair and it's still very posh (to be British about it) but a few ugly modern buildings have been thrown in for good measure.

All in all, a nice day exploring, even if it only solidified my sense that there aren't many neighborhoods of London I need to go see still.  I'd still like to go to Greenwich though, and to explore Hampstead and St. John's Wood (both of which I've found lovely when I've been previously).

A Savage Nation

There are many things you may "know" about England; some of them are correct: scones and clotted cream are great, people speak with fantastic accents, it rains a lot, London is a beautiful city, the Queen is old; some of them are not correct: people are classier (than the US), most people speak with fantastic accents, bathrooms are sensibly warm, the tube is great.

What you (and I) did not know, but is demonstrably true, is that Brits (or perhaps just Englanders, or, barring that, just Londoners) will fight for a bargain.  Literally.  Last weekend American Apparel - the rather offensively-run American retailer - had a rummage sale in a slightly shabby part of London known as Brick Lane.  2000 people attended and, as you wouldn't expect, since it's just clothing, that there was a riot, which injured 10 police officers.  Of course.  Why wouldn't there be?  If you're viewing this on email, click here to see the main post, and the video: http://thirdcultureworld.blogspot.com/

You can’t be serious… driving edition

So, my driving license arrived this week and I finally have a permanent form of identification with my address on it, which is great for signing up for things like libraries (each borough has its own here), bank accounts, and just about any other form of subscription or membership.  Unfortunately, it’s a bit less useful on the driving side of things.
The rules about driving in the UK state that I can drive on my New York license for a year without having to get a UK license.  Within that year you can either exchange your existing license for a UK license, or get a provisional license which has restrictions, and then pass the written and road tests.  For those first twelve months the restrictions on your provisional license would not apply because your foreign license is still considered valid here.  So far, all well and good: you have a choice between sacrificing your foreign license or basically starting from scratch.  Clearly the better option is the former (since I could always just request a new US license by mail), but there is one snag: the UK licensing authority does not exchange US licenses.  However, they do recognize Hong Kong licenses, but I didn’t want to give mine up.  What to do?
In the end, I decided to get a provisional license, but upon receiving it I discovered that not only did I have to pay the one-time £50 licensing fee, but I also had to pay fees to take both tests.  Finding this to be really not worth the hassle, and thinking “when will I ever need it?” I decided to exchange my Hong Kong license.  Alas, after retrieving the form from the post office (I could not get it online) I discovered that in the exchange section after asking where your license is from, it asks where you took your test, if not in that country.  Grr, they got me!  I called them up, and sure enough the loophole didn’t work.  They explained that they didn’t have an agreement with the US authorities, and despite my argument that in fact I still had a Hong Kong license, they wouldn’t budge.  Mind you, I think that their argument is more about quid pro quo (none of the states I looked at will exchange anything but another US or Canadian license) than about actual legal requirements, since Hong Kong accepted my US license unilaterally.
So now I have a UK driving theory test scheduled for the 2nd of November.  I took an online practice one and failed (I wasn’t sure about some signs, road markings, and about whether train crossings here flash red or solid amber as a first warning – I guessed the latter because the former is the US way), though most of the questions were quite easy.  For example (and without much hyperbole): some elderly people are crossing the street when the light turns green, do you:

1. drive toward them and honk loudly
2. yell at them
3. run over them
4. wait patiently while they cross, understanding that elderly people take longer to do things

Presumably once I check out the road signs and markings I should be okay, though I am a little more concerned about the practical test – I need to get used to driving a manual transmission with my left hand.  Fortunately, I have £25 of zipcar credit that expires this month, so I’ll have to take a car to Ikea to practice (and get some artwork/photo frames for my room).
I’ve just arrived in Nottingham (of Robin Hood fame) for a recruiting event.  Besides wanting to meet people and enjoying it, I decided that I might as well get to see new cities and towns in England for free so I signed up to be a recruiter here (I helped out in New York too).  Should be fun!

Yum yum yum.

A good weekend this one!  Yesterday I joined my house-mate's rowing course mid-way (I had taken one in New York so was not behind) where I met an American of about my age who has moved back to London and is also a Third Culture Kid, which is nice (since I don't know many other non-Hong Kong TCKs).   After, I went to meet up with Katie, who was in town to see the opening night of Carmen at the Royal Opera House, and her friend Ale (Ali?  sorry!) who has just moved here (I had met her at Oxford).  We went to see the New York street fair in Soho, which had lame microwave personal pizzas and grocery store bagels (ick) but an awesome recreation of Central Perk from friends.  Sadly, it had an evilly long line.   After some delicious cookies at Covent Garden, we grabbed dinner with their opera companions at a little shop called Bite which had shockingly delicious ribs (both tangy and a little spicy!) as well as Coke floats, so I'm almost convinced it's American-owned (ribs, burgers, and coke floats?  c'mon...) 

After I went to see Insane in the Brain, a street dance version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which I actually found somewhat annoying, though everyone else thought it was amazing (which the dancing was).  The problem is that they didn't treat the topic seriously at all.  It's one thing to try to make it seem like perhaps we outwardly judge people with disabilities (e.g. we pity them when they should be treated like people) but it's completely different to have one of the characters constantly dropping her pants and saying (or gesturing) that she really needs to the bathroom.  I found that portrayal horribly offensive (I never find that stuff funny) but I think that with a few modifications it could have been a good re-thinking.  At one point, for example, she did a complete 80s dance, with leotard, leg warmers and everything, which was hysterical.  Again, if the idea was to show that perhaps we prejudge too much, fine, but why did you need that degrading humor at the beginning?  *sigh*.  Oh well, perhaps I'm too empathic about it.

Today, after pancakes and some laundry I went to see the Tate Modern, where I was shocked to run into an acquaintance from Cornell whom I had thought lived in New York, but in fact is now in London while on a consulting project in Europe.  Great!  He was with another American who had just moved here and was also keen on doing things and making friends, so it looks like I may be acquiring some American friends, though it's kind of strange that I haven't been meeting many English people (although my housemates are taking care of that).

After I got home, I got to sit down to a fantastic house dinner made by my housemate Amit.  We had a cheese plate, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed cheese (I don't remember what type) and bread for an appetizer, followed by fantastic home cooked mussels.  They were (no offense Zach and Jen) the best mussels I have ever had.  I definitely need to get the recipe (for that and the mushrooms).  Amazing!  My morning contribution of pancakes seems rather dull now.

Markets and Festivals

It's been a while since I've posted, which has become a perfect example of compounding procrastination as every time I put off writing a post because I had too much to say, I gained even more to say, which caused me to delay even more.  Fortunately, this week looks to be rather lackluster in terms of after-work activity, so I can finally go back to the front of my list - the weekend of September 12th.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, at the advice of my housemate-cum-landlord, I set out to find "Camden Lock," which I knew nothing about other than that it was a destination, and a lock.  I was told that "it's popular when the weather's nice," so I set out with a general intent to arrive there at some point.  My wanderings initially took me to Portobello Road market, just a 10 minute walk from my house.  Portobello Road is a major antiques market held on Saturdays in Notting Hill, and my journey from end to end lasted a surprisingly long time, along beautiful curving streets lined with pretty white townhouses and hippies selling knick-knacks (or "bric-a-brac" as they call it here).  And not just hippies.  Everyone was selling all variety of market goods, which can sufficiently be described as being identical in nature to every other broad-variety market in the world.

At the end of the market the quality of the neighborhood had deteriorated visibly, and I decided that it would be more interesting to hop on the Underground (which at this point was above ground) and go to Camden Lock.  Before I emerged from the subway station I was half-hoping that Camden Lock would in fact turn out to be "Camden Loch," though my much more reasonable expectation of a canal lock was all but confirmed when I found myself in a mass of humanity of all shapes, sizes, and colors... of tattoo.  It appeared that Camden Town (the area around the station) was in fact a rather edgy (or so they wanted to believe) market, bar, and entertainment area.  The first market, almost immediately adjacent to the station fit this mold, but as I walked toward the lock, things gradually became more international (the first hint was a Chinese-run ice cream shop next to a tattoo parlor) until suddenly, at the lock, it became quite different.  The lock, to the left of the road, was lined on one side by outdoor restaurants, bars, and a Starbucks.  Just past these was the high arch of a bridge to the other side, under which a multitude of revelers gathered for their afternoon drinks and picnics.  Speaking of afternoon drinks, I am not so sure I have ever seen so many people drinking on a regular Saturday afternoon - I think that in New York people went out in the evenings, and even when the weather was spectacular taking wine to central park during the day or going for afternoon drinks outside was not that common (e.g. maybe 1 in 10 groups on the Sheep Meadow).  What was surprising was not that there were a few people having drinks, but that every bar was completely full.

Anyway, across the bridge was a footpath along the canal which continued (I presume) a very long way.  Abutting the other side of the footpath was a courtyard that I entered through a small hole in the wall, to find myself in another market.  This market had food vendors, art galleries, and more knick-knacks.  I spent about an hour there and discovered that it went quite a long way, through buildings that once housed, among other things, stables and a veterinary hospital.  I highly recommend it, as it's one of the most extensive markets I've ever visited, and had a great variety of things to see (or if you're so inclined, to purchase).

Having exhausted my interest in markets for the day, I decided to hop on a bus outside, which said "Hampstead Heath via Trafalgar Square."  After about 10 minutes I found myself in Hampstead and discerned that the bus had in fact already passed Trafalgar Square, and after peeking around it's very cute main street and an underground toilet hopped back on the bus going in the other direction (Pimlico , and rode it to the square.

Trafalgar Square which was smaller than I expected, except for the massive column and lions commemorating Lord Nelson, which were larger, presumably because he was short.  I left the square and wandered across the river to find myself (to my partial dismay) in another market!  It turns out that it was the Thames Festival, and it was quite fortuitous because I was able to sign up for ZipCar for a discounted rate (which was then credited back to my account for use, so it was essentially free if I use the credit), which I had intended to do anyway (it is much cheaper than in New York).  I walked along the water to the millennium bridge, where I found a fantastic fire festival set up, with whirling, oscillating, mechanical globes of oil lamps and flaming flower pots.  It was really quite spectacular, even more so because in New York such a display would have been observed from a distance with binoculars, while here young children lay under and jumped around a variety of flaming contraptions.  I was both apprehensive and pleased.  I crossed the bridge feeling rather happy to find the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral looming over me, and made my way home.

The next day I returned to the festival with a young couple that my parents had introduced me to, and had dinner (my first out... it was bland) and watched a fantastic fireworks display with a finale that filled our field of vision with sparkling gold glitter (and rained ash on us... that was interesting).

All in all, a great weekend!  Hopefully I'll get around to posting photos eventually.