Harrod's in London

While I anxiously wait for Paul's arrival in London, I have yet to do any real exploring. I've been to London several times for sightseeing, and it seems not quite right to go picking out a favorite restaurant without him.

So, I've been laying low the last few weeks. Easy dinners at home (aka pasta, no real cooking yet!), casual dinners with friends and co-workers, to and from the office.

This weekend though, my friend from Istanbul came into town to visit me and another friend who used to live in Istanbul. A girl's weekend was the perfect excuse to get myself into gear and out of the house.

The very first thing we did on her first night in London was visit Harrod's. This was fine by me, as this was a site I hadn't yet visited! While I'm not much of a shopper and/or spender, I think it's still every girls fantasy land to walk through Harrods with the purses, shoes and tons of other designer goods.

I will say, I was very surprised though. Outside of the shopping, there was so much more to it. There was pastries, chocolates, steaks, chicken and all types of food. Anyone could get lost in there checking out all the amazing eats. My favorite was definitely the chocolate, as friends know I have quite a sweet tooth. This wasn't just your average whooper though; chocolates came in every shape, size, and flavor. While I came out empty handed this time due to extreme self control, I know I won't be so lucky every time.

So many choices! How's a girl to choose?

Mummies can be delicious

Who wouldn't want to eat a skull
in honor of Halloween?

And you thought I was eating healthy! But I only tricked you -
candy (marzipan) fruit

The last thing we checked out was Christmas World. I wasn't sure what we were going to look at when my friend asked if we could stop by.  I think Christmas World describes it just right though. There are plenty of decorations to put you into the holiday spirit, along with the trees, ornaments, wrapping paper, cards and more they sell there.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I wasn't sure what to expect on my first visit to Harrod's, but it exceeded all my expectations. There is a little bit for everyone to enjoy (if not a whole lot to enjoy!) in this iconic London shopping center. Plus, you're just steps away from even more fabulous shopping if you haven't already emptied your wallet.

News from the Tarts

I know where everyone is going with this - and no, it's not what you think (unless you already know and then yes, it is).

The big news from the Tarts is that we will no longer be the Tarts in Turkey, we will now be the Tarts in the UK. I have relocated to London this week and Paul will be following shortly with Belle.

It is a bittersweet move. I am so excited for the new opportunity in London, to be back at work, back in an office and take on new challenges. I'm excited for a new place to explore and to be back in English speaking territory. And best of all, I'm just a short(er) plane ride away from home.

But, despite the excitement over our move, I will miss Turkey. A lot. I can certainly say we have had an adventure of a lifetime and I will always be grateful for the time I got to spend in Turkey. Of course there are many I wishes still around Turkey - I wish I would have made it to Trabzone, I wish my Turkish would have been better, I wish we could have been here just a bit longer. But, I know we will be leaving Turkey with more than we came with. I'm leaving with a new sense of myself, wonderful friends, confidence to get around a crazy city like Istanbul on my own and lots of once in a lifetime experiences, not to mention all the carpets, pottery, art and other physical things we've managed to pick up along the way!

So off to a new adventure we go! I can't wait to share all that our new life has in store for us.

London - Part 2

Our trip to London continued. With only 48 hours in London, we got more done than I thought we would (enough for 2 posts!) Sure, it was summer so we had sunlight in our favor, but we must have been hurrying around the city at super speed to get things in, even though it didn't feel like it. Maybe it was the efficient public transportation or maybe we were feeling energetic, but we made the most of our time in London.  Of course in London, there's always something to see, so we have more on our to-do list for the next trip.

On our second day in the city, we decided to first check out the Tower of London which we had only passed by the day before. Luckily, we got there right as the rain started, so it gave us an excuse to stay inside the tower longer.  You definitely don't need a reason though - there is plenty to keep you busy for at least a half day, probably even the whole day. In 2.5 hours, we got a tour from the Yeomen Warders, who oversee the tower, saw the Crown jewels (including a 300 carat diamond) and visited the armory. After that, we saw the queue for the tower with the exhibition on torture devices and decided to skip the line and make a break for it while it was sunny.

The Bloody Tower. And see, it can be sunny in London!

Supersistion is that the tower will fall if there aren't at least 6 ravens onsite.
So, they cheated a bit and have 8 with their wings clipped.
We saw them enjoying a nice rabbit meal. Better than my fingers.

Our next stop was the British Museum. I love this museum because a) its free (but you should still make a donation) and b) there are so many neat things there! Things that everyone knows about and should take the time to see.

The Great Court

First was the Enlightenment Room, which is like a library of my dreams. They also have a desk here where they bring out certain artifacts during the day which people can look at more closely and even touch! We got to touch an old flint knife, some dolphin teeth that were used for bartering in the S. Pacific and some cloth that was on a mummy! Yes, for real.

The shelves house everything from books to pottery
to before mentioned dolphin teeth.

Next we paid a visit to this guy: the moai of Easter Island. There's somewhere around 900 of these little men out there, including still on Easter Island. They are meant to honor ancestors who were deity.

It's hard to see these guys without thinking
of that Ben Stiller museum movie, right?

From there, we moved down the hallway to the Egyptian artifact and the Rosetta Stone. You know that stone that helped them to decipher hieroglyphics? It was actually found being used as a stone inside a building, where it had been repurposed.

From the picture, it looks like an
ordinary rock in a glass case.

Final stop was the Greek artifacts and ruin. It was the perfect way to end for us because there is a lot of things relating to modern day Turkey here, like some figures from what is now Bodrum's wonder of the ancient world (The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus) and the reconstructed Nereid Monument which is in modern day Antalya. It still amazes me the influence and importance Turkey has - yet another reason for everyone to come see the original sites here in Turkey.

This was found in what is now called the
Lycian Way in Turkey

We wrapped up the night at a pub with a bit of football watching (it was the Eurocup finals of course) and then off on our red eye flight back to Istanbul. Which was immediately followed up a nap. Words to the wise: red eye flights that are only 3 hours long only seem like a good idea.

2012 Trip #9 - London

As you can see from all my trip posts and lack of anything else, it has been a busy month for the Tarts in Turkey. In the last 6 weeks, we have had 3 sets of visitors and 5 different trips. It has kept us busy and the blog a bit lonely of posts.

Last week, I was in London for work.  After the fantastically hot weather in Turkey, I was a very happy girl to have a break from the heat. It also reminded me how nice it is to be able to communicate with someone in their language instead of hand gestures.  That is certainly something you take for granted if you have never lived overseas.

Paul joined me for the weekend - it was his first time to the UK and I was excited to share with him one of my favorite cities in Europe. With this also came a bit of expectation to be the expert. What's a certain building, how do you get here, what should we do today? You want to show someone whats best in the city and gloss over some of the less enjoyable parts.

Paul had one demand for sightseeing - the big hop on hop off tourbuses. While it is easy to get around via tube in London, on a sunny day, this is a fun and easy way to get exactly where you want to go. The weather was in our favor and we got an overview of the famous sites in London: Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Globe Theatre and more.

Hi - don't mind  us, we're just some friendly tourists!

While we did a lot of hopping on and off that day, we didn't go into too many things.

We saw the tail end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Who knew they had a band? (Don't answer that, I'm pretty sure lots of you out there knew that).

Oh, hey there Queen! She just celebrated 60 years as Queen

The Beefeaters

We checked out my all-time favorite church, Westminster Abbey. It's amazing and creepy to walk around and on top of all those tombs. Plus, I love Poet's Corner with the best writers are lying beneath your feet. Like I said, creepy, but amazing.

 

No pictures inside, but luckily you can take pictures outside
which was useful during the 30 minute wait to get inside.

We got off at the London Tower for great views of the Tower Bridge and then hopped on a river cruise.

The Tower Bridge NOT the London Bridge.
The London Bridge is a lovely concrete thing down river.

Paul's only other request was to visit Greenwich. As in Greenwich Standard Time. I had never thought of this before, but said hey, that sounds like fun! So we grabbed the river boat for a ride up the Thames to Greenwich. There isn't actually all that much there. Some neighborhoods, a park which will be used for the horse, errr equestrian, events for the Olympics, and the observatory. Here at the observatory is where you can see the Meridian Line, the (imaginary) line that divides the world into the Eastern and Western hemisphere.

Yes, it was as unexciting as it seemed
(sorry Paul).

We took a cruise back to Westminster to enjoy the beautiful views along the Thames and get me a snack so that I could stop being what I have coined as hangry (hungry + angry = hangry) and quit acting like an annoyed diva. Ironically, I did in fact eat a snickers.

London Eye - favorite (unedited) picture of the trip.
It takes 45 minutes to go around and it doesn't actually stop.

Big Ben and Parliament - there are two parts to Parliament:
House of the Lords and House of the Commons.

To end the day, we visited a pub in Notting Hill for a pint of ale for Paul and a pint of cider for me. You gotta love a city where you can get cider on tap.

More to come soon on Day TWO of our London visit.

Jet Setting

I have been slacking in the blogging over the last few weeks – my apologies.

BUT, the reasons being that I was:

a) Visiting the States getting in my fill of family, friends, American food (think Sonic happy hour, Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits and bacon daily) and margaritas. Yes, margaritas make the list
b) Busy being a tour guide to my old college roommate Katie! She spent her last spring break ever with me traipising around Istanbul
c) Working from my company's London office for a week, catching up with my colleagues, doing a little bit of sight seeing and TONS of reading the Hunger Games which they got me addicted to.

I have really enjoyed the last three weeks, but alas, back to reality – and blogging.

Over the last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time on planes which has been unusual for me as of late. I used to travel a lot when I lived in Dallas. I wouldn’t necessarily have called myself a “road warrior,” but I often was travelling at least 3 times a month to all kinds of places – California, Canada, Philly or glamorous South Texas.

Even after all that time on the road, I still have to say that flying in Turkey is different than anywhere else I have travelled before.  The planes are mostly the same, you have little legroom, loud passengers, entertainment system (which I will say is nicer than a lot of planes) and even bagged nuts; the experience though?

1. Ataturk Airport. Never until flying through this airport have I had to go through security twice. Once when you first enter the airport before you even can get your boarding pass, and another time before you go to the gate.  Not necessarily complaining and I can see more airports doing this in the future, but just more times of being stuck behind those slow pokes in line who can’t figure out how to remove their liquids (have I mentioned that I am not a patient traveller?) 
2. Boarding. I do not think that any type of boarding is efficient, and yes, that includes Southwest, but this is especially inefficient. As soon as they announce that they are ready to start boarding, the whole waiting lounge goes up to the gate to board.  Who cares about boarding groups? Elderly and children? Pshaw.  Everyone for themselves to get on board and claim the overhead space. 
3. Arrival. Once we make a safe landing, you hear people clapping. Not the whole plane, and not always loudly, but people are definitely clapping. I think this perhaps intrigues me the most. Is it a way to say thanks? Are they saying job well done? If that is the case, it scares me a bit. I would like to hope that we should always land safely and while it deserves thanks to the pilots for their service, not necessarily a congrats of a job well done.

 Despite some of the hassles of international travel, I wouldn’t change it in for the world. As Paul said this week, a year ago, who would have thought we would nonchalantly be discussing heading to Italy for the weekend for a quick getaway, or could take a 3 hour flight to almost anywhere in Europe? What a wonderful life.

 My London stay - the heart of Picadilly. I love Turkey, but London has my heart too.