aventuras de alyssa

Week one down! Here’s a recap of my week after Monday, which can be found in my previous post.

tuesday

After Monday’s long day, I was looking forward to a bit more relaxed day on Tuesday. I ended up having two flat viewings in Islington, one of which is actually the flat that I’ll be moving into. Before those, I stopped at the Covent Garden Market and had tapas and wine at Tapas Stories. There was live music and it was nice to sit and enjoy the atmosphere. I used all three methods of public transportation today, the underground, the overground, and the bus! I initially thought the underground was challenging to navigate, but by Thursday, I got a hang of it and the signage is significantly more helpful than NYC. I met up with a colleague who is also in the group that I’m joining. We went to The Prince Alfred for drinks and I discovered my love of Camden Hells, which is a popular lager around here.

wednesday

More flat viewings today, which brought me to Chelsea. I saw four flats, two of which I liked but they didn’t work out. I showed up early, so I ended up stopping at The Cadogan Arms for a glass of wine. After the flat viewings, I met up with some of the people in the group that I’m joining at work at a bar in Kensington called the Gloucester Arms. The pub names are so funny – two with the word arms in them on the same day. We got some beers and I had the cheesiest mac and cheese I’ve ever had in my life. It was a lot of fun getting to meet the group – I’m so excited to work with them! On my way back to my temporary housing, I got to see the Shard lit up purple in honor of Her Majesty. On a more random note, I’m thankful for the street signs that indicate to look left or right!

thursday

On Thursday, I spent the day with my relocation agent (similar to a broker/real estate agent in the US). He had been the one coordinating all the flat viewings I had done on my own, but then took me around for a day of more viewings in a variety of different areas. We saw some nice places, but they were further out from the center of the city than I wanted to be. After we wrapped up, I went for a walk down along Paul’s Walk on the Thames to Tower Bridge. The weather was gorgeous! I had decided to put in an offer on one of the places I saw on Tuesday, so had to wait to see if I was accepted. I didn’t find out Thursday night, so I planned on going to two more viewings on Friday. I had a quiet night at my temporary housing and ate some Ramen from home 🙂

friday

I had two final flat viewings (what a whirlwind of a week!) and of course, the first one I liked more than the place I put an offer in on. I decided to put an offer in on this one as well, and long story short, my offer was accepted on the first place and so I put a deposit down, but held out hope that flat #2 would prevail. I found out on the next Tuesday that it wasn’t accepted, so I’ll be living in flat #1 in Islington, which was the neighborhood I wanted! Sometimes, it doesn’t all work out the way you wanted, but it works out the way it’s supposed to.

My friend who’s been in London since 2019 recommended a bakery near the flats I was viewing, so I popped in for the best croissant I’ve had in my life. It was the Maple Bacon Croissant from Pophams – I got it warmed up and it was incredible. 100% highly recommend!

Friday night I met up with some friends – new and old! We went to Dalston’s Roofpark for drinks, which was very fun and then very cold! The weather has turned over to autumn quite rapidly, so I was glad when the bartender offered us blankets to keep warm while we finished up our drinks. Afterwards, we went for dinner at Dukkah, a Middle Eastern restaurant. The food was amazing, we got almost one of everything on the menu (our eyes were bigger than our stomachs!) and everything I tried was delicious. I’m still thinking about the hummus!

saturday

I was a bit tired from the week of moving & flat viewings, so I took it easy Saturday and went out to Greenwich, per Mackenzie’s recommendation, and it was a beautiful sunny day to explore. I took the ferry over, which was simple and very scenic. I spent the afternoon walking around the National Maritime Museum and the grounds around the park. I went to see the Prime Meridian and the “landmark” is at the Royal Observatory and you have to pay about 16 pounds, which I didn’t think was worth it. I could see the landmark through the gate and it was cool knowing that I could walk on the meridian (albeit not at the “official landmark”). Then I met up with my friends from Friday night and we walked along Southbank and did sort of a pub crawl along the queue for the Queen’s lying-in-state viewing. It was wild to see how many people lined up to pay their respects. I read somewhere (and don’t quote me on this) that it reached up to 7 miles long and over 12 hours to wait.

Saturday night we went out to The Ship in Wandsworth. They had an outdoor seating area and we were lucky to snag a table. When it got cold, we moved indoors and it was a ton of fun to dance and enjoy the throwback music they had playing. It was a great night!

sunday

Since we all know that I can’t just relax, I had plans with the girls from work on Sunday! We got breakfast at this adorable cafe, Bite Cafe, after we realized that you can’t, in fact, get afternoon tea at 10 am 🙂 It ended up working out perfectly and breakfast was delicious. We then attempted to get near Buckingham Palace, which turned out to be a nightmare. It was a two hour wait to walk what would normally be an 8 minute walk. We got to see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and a few flowers laid out for Her Majesty, but it was too much to try to get closer than that. We ditched the line and went to Wagamama for ramen and then strolled around Southbank before hitting up Founder’s Arms. One of the girls and I had bought tickets to a candlelight ABBA tribute concert at Butcher’s Hall. It was an incredible performance and let me tell you, it was hard not to sing along! We had off on Monday for the bank holiday in honor of Her Majesty’s funeral, but that’ll come with next week’s post 🙂

I’ve missed everyone at home (especially because it was the halfway to St. Paddy’s day bar crawl!!!) so please make plans to come visit soon! I’m very thankful that I have this opportunity to move abroad and it’s been incredibly fun so far. Can’t wait for more adventures!