Spendthrift Shoestring

Three Departure Boards

Belgrade. May 2008.

Frankfurt. September 2008. (Better Frankfurt departure board image here.)

London Stansted. May 2008.

Leaving London

We leave London in just a few hours. The last few days have seen a visit to Cornwall, last-minute hotel visits, and lots of goodbyes. My mood is more glum than joyful, though I'm looking forward to spending several weeks in San Francisco.

Walking around London the last few days, I've begun to feel that peculiar sensation that settles in when a city becomes something familiar as opposed to something full of specific, discrete sites. I kept having these organic realizations of how various neighborhoods fit into one another. And all I can think is how much more of London I want to see and experience.

Soon, hopefully.

London: Visiting Hotels

I've spent many weekdays over the last few weeks visiting and reviewing hotels in London for EuroCheapo. I've visited and reviewed hotels for the site in ten cities. In chronological order, they are: Dublin, Stockholm, Berlin, Munich, Athens, Krakow, Bratislava, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and now London.

Visiting hotels for the purpose of reviewing them is, frankly, a fascinating experience. In addition to figuring out which hotels in the city in question are any good, you learn about the shape of the labor force, various local customs and patterns, and how hotels fit into the tourist economy. You learn very quickly about management styles, and from a range of sources, too: managers, receptionists, and the cleaning staff. It's not always fun to visit and review hotels, but it's always undeniably interesting.

It turns out that reviewing hotels in London is—how shall I put this?—not exactly a walk in the park. I'll save my reflections on dynamics at hand for the EuroCheapo London city guide hotel scene roundup. For now, I'll just share an experience I had at a hotel (nameless for now, though you'll soon be able to read about it here) I visited earlier today. With its decent nightly rates, original style, and personable staff, it fits the bill for EuroCheapo hands down. But what was most remarkable about my experience there was the fact that I was offered a coffee at the close of my visit by the Greek Cypriot manager. He apologetically acknowledged that he was "crap" at making coffee, unless, he brightened up, I wanted a freddo. When in Nicosia, I thought. He made me a freddo and I drank it there in the hotel lounge, happier than I should have been, all the while remembering with great fondness how much caffeine-driven fun I had visiting hotels in Athens.

London: Walking Tours with Rachel and Ann

Is Liam the Future for Britain?
Stamped graffiti found this past weekend.

Friday and Saturday were devoted to walking tours. Friday's was led by Rachel, who met me in Kilburn and executed a circuitous loop to St. John's Wood, Little Venice, and Maida Vale, areas of London I hadn't yet seen. One completely unexpected highlight was Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate, a 1977 terraced estate by Neave Brown. That some examples of 1970s architecture manage to be simultaneously futuristic and dated has become a personal delight.   

View from street into the estate.

View to upper floors.

We found lunch at Adafina, a Sephardic deli, where I had a salt beef sandwich and tiny desserts, which included rugelach and a slice of baklava. Later we hit Little Venice, which I think should be called Little Amsterdam. What is it about urban canals?

Little Venice.

After skirting Maida Vale, we ended the day with Matt and Ann at Acorn House, a very green restaurant near King's Cross. It was an outstanding meal, one of if not the best I've had in London.

On Saturday, Ann led the tour. Matt and I met her at Hounslow East tube station and we bussed to Osterley; from there we walked to Osterley Park, where we spent some time in the park and the very grand house. Signs of an impending hayfever attack on the part of one of our party shortened our stay, but it was still incredibly beautiful as well as strange to contemplate the fact that the massive park is actually in London.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around central London. We had dinner at Abeno, where we ate okonomiyaki—we were just introduced to okonomiyaki earlier last week by Ben and Devon. Later, on our long walk following dinner, we sauntered down a perfect mews, at the end of which was a pub called The Duke, a cozy spot.

Doughty Mews.

Both days were full of the sort of unexpected surprises that wandering yields.

London: Finally, Deptford

Today I took a little tour to the east, first to see the Canary Wharf Tube station, and then on to Greenwich and Deptford. Greenwich was a bit twee for me, honestly, though the park was dreamy in the perfect heat. Overheard conversation: "Last year, we bought a cottage in Sussex, so lovely, but..." I wondered at the disasters that might have befallen the cottage purchaser, but she and her friends—all three with prams—passed out of earshot before I got the dirt.

Then I moved on to Deptford, a place I've been reading about in various places over the last few years. Deptford High Street completely floored me. It's a treasure-trove of ethnic shops, restaurants, and markets, with a supermarket here and a few one-pound stores there. The cross-section was bewilderingly rich, and frankly I haven't seen any street like it since arriving in London. It's an electric slice of multi-layered London without hipsters—at least for the time being.

And from there I moved on to more central 'hoods to visit hotels for EuroCheapo. What else? I lent my phone to a guy from Kazakhstan who needed to make a quick call. And then I came home and worked on some things.

London's Free Afternoon Dailies

Every weekday afternoon and evening in London, the free newspaper war is on. Copies of two free papers, London Lite and thelondonpaper, are passed out in enormous volume by uniformed representatives at innumerable crowded spots across London.

With their soft news coverage, the two are strictly commuter reading material, though their snappy celeb tidbits are well done. Yesterday's photos in London Lite of Pixie Geldof rolling a cigarette and of Alesha Dixon smiling her ass off in the back seat of a convertible Bentley are representative of the tenor of the publication's coverage of local celebrities.

The best feature of all is thelondonpaper's "24 hrs in pictures," which graces page two of the newspaper. Yesterday's photo of Boris Johnson and Wednesday's pic of Denise van Outen were both snapped earlier on their publication days. The same-day shots make the feature feel extremely current. In turn, the feature imbues countless commutes with a sense of random immediacy.

London: Exploring & Dining

It's been too long since my most recent London chronicle. I've been busy with visiting friends, my short trips, and my current assignment, an update of EuroCheapo's London city guide.

I am continuing to explore London, of course, and doing lots of walking. The southern end of Islington has been a focus over the last week, and I've also been moving eastward into Shoreditch and Bethnal Green and westward into Mayfair, Fitzrovia, and Bloomsbury. There are still so many neighborhoods I haven't seen yet, especially in South London, and I'll be continuing my explorations by foot over the next several weeks.

On the dining front, one recent highlight was dinner at Bistroteque with Matt, Molly, and Alex. Bistroteque is in a sparse, beautiful warehouse space—Alex likened it to an abattoir, though, she clarified, not in a stomach-turning way—and boasts a good menu. I found the starters to be especially satisfying, if microscopically portioned. The restaurant feels like a secret, which always instills a cozy feeling.

Another highlight, and a splurge to boot, was lunch last weekend at the Wolseley, an over-the-top pavilion of posh English food. Matt had an eggs benedict that he claimed to be the best of his life, as well as cause to rethink the dish altogether. My meal was also fine, though not quite so mindblowing.

And lastly, having sampled many of the gastropubs in our part of Clerkenwell—and finding most of them to be quite good—I've settled on my favorite of the bunch, a place called The Coach & Horses. Just thinking about it makes me wonder if I should finally leave the apartment for a late lunch. 

London: This and That

I got back last night from the Channel Islands, where I spent two and a half days with Linda wandering around, island-hopping, swimming in chilly water, hiking, and attaining just a blush of sunburn. It was truly wonderful. I'll write a breakdown of costs and a trip overview soon.

But before I get down to that, here are a few gems—objects and experiences both—from the last several days.

1. "Back to Nature," the Guardian's camping supplement, which came with the paper's weekend edition. Editor Sue George begins her introductory note with an ode to camping, which refers to the cozy sensation of being inside a tent in the rain. The supplement includes a primer on tents, camping sites that can be reached by public transportation, and a long list of camping sites in the UK and France.

2. Another Guardian feature, "London for free," a list of ten things to do in London for free, adapted from a cheap activities guide in this week's Time Out.

3. Georgian food at Mimino on Kensington High Street, which I enjoyed with my new friend Unai. Armed with a list of delicacies copied from Marisa's emailed suggestions, we feasted on satsivi, lobio, and cheese-stuffed bread, and drank Borjomi and bright green lemonade, which, the waitress pointed out to us, wasn't really lemonade at all. So tasty.

4. My trip to Green Lanes, which, in its concentration of businesses and energy, reminded me a little bit of the commercial part of San Francisco's Richmond District. In between gazing through travel agency windows at cheap getaways to Ercan (just £58 roundtrip!) I took a few photos.

Commercial district entrance.

Green Lanes street scene.

London: Windhoek Lager, Canada Water

It took me the longest time to get the show on the road yesterday. When I finally did, it was already around 3 p.m. I wracked my head to try to figure out what to do with my afternoon and decided to head out in search of Namibian beer. I've read about the high quality of Namibian beer for a while but haven't come across any examples of it. Clearly, it was time to track the substance down and perform my own evaluation. I set off for St. Marcus Fine Foods, a South African—I suppose I should say southern African—market in Roehampton.

I returned with a shrink-wrapped six-pack of Windhoek Lager, which turns out to be a very competent and tasty beer, more solid than interesting. At £1.50 a pop, the beer wasn't cheap. Still, in the name of cultural exploration, it was worth the outlay.

Today I headed out early for Rotherhithe. From the Canada Water Tube station I walked up to Rotherhithe Road all the way to the Greenland Dock. It was a nice loop of a walk. The streets were almost deserted and the pathways along the Thames were beautiful. At a certain point the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf popped up dramatically on the horizon. Aside from the occasional planes flying into and out of London City Airport nearby, it was almost eerily quiet.

London: Whirlwind

The last several days have been a whirlwind. On Friday I met up with Egle, an old friend from high school now living in London with her beautiful baby and husband. We met in Bethnal Green and had coffee at the V&A Museum of Childhood and had such a lovely time. After that I took the Tube to Hampstead to see Rachel. She gave me a quick—and, it must be said, relatively fast-paced—tour of Hampstead Heath, which included a look at the men's swimming pond. Nice to sweat a bit. Then Matt joined us for dinner at the Lord Palmerston, a fantastic gastropub, where we sat in the increasingly cold back garden for hours. I drank ciders and ate loads of fish.

The weekend was full though gently paced. On Saturday we had lunch at nearby Kipferl, an Austrian delicatessen. It was very tasty and very nostalgic for me, especially the Gürkensalat. Our sausage and salad lunch ran £6 per person. Not dirt cheap, but good for the 'hood. Then we took the Tube to Camden Market and walked over to Primrose Hill and back, and from Camden Market we walked along the canal to King's Cross. There we parted and I walked up Pentonville Road to Goswell Road and along Goswell to Old Street. Dinner was at The Well, another fantastic gastropub. Afterwards, I headed out to Leytonstone where I met Gwyn. He gave me a tour of his beautiful house and then we drove out to Stansted to pick Marisa up.

(Say what you will about Stansted, but there is something triumphant about the place. It's not pretty but it does the high-volume trick. I laughed out loud thinking about the Stansted misadventure Vivien and I had back in August 2005.)

Sunday was a gently perfect day, which centered around an extravagant lunch at Roast. The meal reminded me a little bit of New York's Craft.

Yesterday I took the Eurostar to Brussels, where I spent a really great day with the Porcupine crew. I found Brussels much more captivating than I ever have previously, and will write something about the city later today or tomorrow.