london week five

Hello hello! I’m finally moved into my flat and it’s been a whirlwind! I’m going to take you back to October 10th, which was when my last post from week four ended. Bear with me as I’m adjusting and getting back to posting on a weekly basis again.

week five highlights

I moved into my Airbnb in Paddington, which turned out to be close to a nightmare. I’ll spare you the long story, but essentially the walls were paper thin and there was construction from 8 am to 5 pm every day, including Saturday. Let me tell you, I am so glad to now be out of there! It was eleven days of very minimal sleep. Now to the fun parts!

On Tuesday, we went to Editor’s Tap after work where they had two-for-one cocktails, so of course I had to have two espresso martinis! The Airbnb was close to Kensington Gardens, so I went for a walked to the Italian Gardens on Wednesday. On Thursday, we went to Fam Bar on Oxford Street and found out that it was the start of London Cocktail Week (“LCW”). You buy a wristband for £15 and then you get £7 discounted cocktails at over 350 bars in London. One of my friends and I bought a wristband and had these great whisky coffee cocktails at Fam Bar. The bar was connected to Burlock Rum Bar, so once Fam Bar closed at 11 pm, we moved the party over where we danced until 2 am!! It was almost a little too much fun because Friday was a bit of a struggle.

Saturday, I was up early because we were taking a trip to Cammas Hall Farm to go pumpkin picking! I roped some friends from work into making the trek up to the farm, which was about two hours from central London. We took a train, bus, and then had to walk for 20 mins on a very skinny, mildly unsafe country road. There was no shoulder and no sidewalk! The farm was very cute and the weather was perfect. They had “haunted walkways”, pumpkins, and mulled wine – what more could you need! We got rained on a bit and ended up sitting on a sidewalk finishing our beers, but it was well worth the trip to get some fall activities in. After pumpkins, we continued celebrating LCW at The Gibson, which had cocktails in crazy glasses. We went for food at The Slaughtered Lamb (the halloumi sticks and the wings were fantastic) and then ended the night at The Piano Works in Farringdon. They had dueling pianos and a whole band. It was so much fun singing and dancing!

On Sunday, I went to Battersea Power Station, which had just opened a few days before. It used to be a functioning power station many moons ago, but it was shut down and renovated (for £9 billion!!!!) to be reopened as shops, office space, and apartments. I went mini golfing at Birdies Crazy Golf, which was cute and very fun. I got tapas at Brindisa for dinner and ended at Vagabond wine bar, which was the coolest wine bar I’ve been to – you walk around and select which bottle of wine you’d like a glass from and it automatically dispenses! I’ll definitely be back to Battersea to check some of the shopping out, because not all of the stores were open yet and I’ll have to stop at Vagabond again.