Foggy London nights

I've returned from London newly inspired. Style-wise, health-wise, art-wise and life-wise. I can honestly say I'm glad to be back in Leipzig, although London certainly remains my favorite city. Still though, it's just always nice to come "home", and as of right now, Leipzig is just that (for 8 weeks and one day, to be precise!)

Unfortunately, I don't have all my photos because of the silly mistake of clicking "erase images from memory card" when I uploaded them onto Kate's computer. Which means all the photos are on Kate's computer, and none are on mine. =( Despite the lack of photographic evidence for you, London was incredible, as usual. There's nothing about that city, as of yet, that I don't like.

The weekend started out with a Halloween party in Kentish Town given by Uni friends of my hostess/good friend Kate. It's all kind of a blur of cider, vampires, and Oasis (which is as it should have been, I think.)

On Saturday we took a cruise down the Thames on the Clipper. The Thames Clipper is part of the London transportation system and at 7£ return to Greenwich it was fairly cheap but also really nice. Greenwich, a district of South East London, is best known for giving it's name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and also Greenwich Mean time. At night you can see a laser on the 0° line being beamed into the sky. It's very cool there, with a narrow cobblestone road leading you off the Clipper's dock and very traditional English-looking buildings which house pubs, restaurants, pharmacies, shops and of course, Starbucks. There is a massive flea market there on the weekends that I'd love to check out some day.

While there, Kate and I discussed Halloween plans over a mug of warm mulled wine in a pub called the Gipsy Moth.

We didn't end up doing anything particularly "Halloweeny, " instead we went costume-free to a pub tended by a friend of Kate's called Constantine. There were very few patrons, but the cider flowed freely (literally, free drinks!) and the decor was great- the interior was designed by none other than the incomparable Vivienne Westwood (innovative designer, basically invented the "punk" look still worn today of tartan plaids, buckles, safety pins, spikes, etc.)

After that we went to an East London pub called Dave's, a last bastion of "real" East London pubs. I felt like I'd been transported into an episode of East Enders. Brilliant! The clientele included a crowd heavy on 50-60 somethings, as well as a younger, chavvier sort. The off-key drunken singing was absolutely priceless.

On Sunday we were craving a cultural outing, so Kate and I took in Ai Weiwei's installation of 150 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern. Very interesting. More interesting if you watch the accompanying video which better explains the concepts of the work.

Later on Sunday we dressed up for Halloween. I've been dying to paint my face like a Dia de los Muertos skull since seeing this image somewhere on the web:

Despite not having exactly the kind of paints I would have liked, I think my version came out pretty decent. I was pretty lame about the whole thing and just copied this design to the letter, but I was in a hurry. ;)

Kate put together a hippy costume... it was adorable, as are most things Kate does. We stopped at a few pubs in Camden, two of which we'd been to the last time I was there. Camden wasn't too hopping, which I chalk up to it being a Sunday. We had a great time anyway, ending up at a pub called the Elephants Head or something of that nature where they were playing reggae (despite a decidedly un-reggae crowd) and later some 60's Motown jams, which I can always get down to.

In trademark Kirsten style, I left the pub and basically go straight on a bus to the airport. No sleep, no shower, just straight up hardcore rockin' it. As I like to do. Of course, I did somehow manage to leave both my wallet and cell phone on the coach to Stansted. I think what happened was I fell asleep and they slipped out of my pocket. Really really strange though. Thankfully the wallet was my "going out" wallet and therefore contained only an ID, 7£ cash and two cards. Who knows, I may get it back still. Have to email National Express bus services to see if it was found.

All in all, a most successful trip to London. I absolutely can't wait to do it again. Thankfully, my travel is all booked for December 26th and Kate is letting myself and my friend Chris crash at her flat! It's going to be incredible to be in London around X-mas!