You've been nighttiming, baby.

Let's talk about London nightlife: 

we aren't in Kansas (or Georgetown, Texas) anymore.

When it comes to studying abroad, there is one thing that most, if not all, American college students look forward to: being legally able to consume alcohol! For a lot of students, chances to study abroad happen before their 21st birthday, so being in a foreign country where the legal drinking age is 18 can be a very novel and outrageously fun experience for those who aren't morally opposed to a nice glass of wine or a cold pint... Or two. The unfortunate part comes when you return to the States and find yourself still under 21. Luckily for me, I'll be celebrating my 21st birthday right here in the UK (or Paris...) come November 30th!

Keeping our wine perfectly chilled at Latymers.

So with this newfound sense of independence and plenty of legally accessible alcohol, naturally one of the first things that college students want to do when they're abroad is go out for a night on the town. As for London, the nightlife scene can definitely be compared to that of any other major city, however there are several distinct differences between weekend evenings out in the United States and evenings out in the United Kingdom. For one thing, people tend to start their evenings much earlier in London. As American college students, my peers and I figured initially that a popular sports pub close to our flat would be fun and loud on a Friday night at 11:00 p.m. We ended up having a much quieter round of drinks than we originally intended when we discovered that we had arrived after the pub's real rush hours, which are usually earlier around 6-10 p.m. Whoops.

Words to live by.

This past weekend, I was able to have some unique London nightlife experiences that were radically different from each other: late night dinner at The Wolseley on Friday and London's version of Oktoberfest in Kennington Park on Saturday (to quote one UK Oktoberfest guest, "We're just as good at partying as those in Munich..." I wouldn't know for sure since I haven't been to Munich, but I will say this crowd was definitely having a blast).

The Wolseley was absolutely grand. 

I don't always wake up feeling like blowing £80 on myself in one very short evening, but when I do, I make sure to do it in style. (Here's a handy currency converter to help you understand my UK spending habits... I hope it brings you more joy than it's brought me). I can probably blame this impulsive decision to splurge on a great evening out on the fact that I had spent the better part of Friday (8 hours, to be exact) writing two papers that were supposed to be about 3 pages each and turned out to be almost 6 pages each... Insane, right? I promise that this wasn't just me being ridiculous and overwriting - it happened to other students, too! Needless to say, by the evening I was absolutely brain dead and all I wanted to do was something fun and spontaneous. I did a little research, found some nice places open for dinner late, and made reservations for 10:30 p.m. at The Wolseley since it seemed to be a pretty well-recommended place.

My Instagrammed summary of the evening!
Evidently you aren't really allowed to take pictures inside
The Wolseley, so we got lucky to get a couple of snapshots!

The Wolseley is located next to the Ritz in Piccadilly, and it's really a treat to dine there simply because of its beautiful interior. Evidently the Wolseley is brilliant for breakfast, so I definitely need to try that soon, especially because I had a wonderful experience with dinner. Lauryn and I had fun getting all dressed up and having an excuse to wear our high heels, which have definitely been lonely here in London (cobblestone and thin heels don't really agree with each other!). We arrived half an hour early, so we got to relax in the bar and have a couple of drinks before dinner. While we were there, we eventually made friends with one of the bartenders, who was kind enough to make us a yummy Jack Daniels Manhattan free of charge! When our table was ready, the maitre'd escorted us to our seats while carrying our drinks on a silver tray and proceeded to help each of us into our seats; needless to say, we adored the service.

I am absolutely delighted in this picture.
Hooray for fine dining!

The food was absolutely delicious! Lauryn ordered the fish of the day, which was cod, while I tried the boiled salt beef, and yes, we did have wine with our meal. It was so wonderful that we were still there after midnight! I think you could say that the real adventure didn't begin until after we left and had to figure out how to get from Piccadilly to West Kensington without the benefit of the Tube, which closes by midnight. Let me illustrate this distance for you:

Point A is The Wolseley and Point B is the general area we should be in.
Please take note of both the Thames and the location of Fulham, were we ended up.

We actually did get great directions for taking the night bus from our bartender friend who lives in the West Kensington area like us... Unfortunately, it was dreadfully cold outside, and we thought it would be a good idea to simply hop on the first bus that came along. In our defense, taking buses around here is already a little more confusing than taking the Tube, and night buses are just altogether hopeless. I mean, I still can't understand them as well as I would like to. I knew we were more than a little off course once I noticed through the darkness that we were on a bridge crossing a large body of water. Yes, it was the Thames, and no, we do not live anywhere near the other side of the river. At that point, I decided it would be a better idea to get off this crazy night bus and brave the chilly London night. Lauryn and I ended up at a little bus stop with two other dodgy-looking individuals near Fulham, at which point we charged a cab that stopped near us - yes, in our high heels, with our numb fingers and toes, we quite literally charged at a cab. Inside the cab, we found a disgruntled young woman who clearly didn't enjoy two giggling American girls squeezing into the open seats while she paid the driver... Again, whoops. What can I say? It was cold outside so we wanted in! But we really were polite and friendly about it; I think she wasn't having a very good night. We made it to our flat within a few minutes, and we thanked the driver profusely. It was overall a very good evening, and so much fun!

Saturday night at Oktoberfest was a completely different experience.

Almost our whole Southwestern group went to Oktoberfest that night, and after a pretty decent commute to get to Kennington Park, we had to wait in an enormous queue for at least a little over an hour to get in. I will say though, there's nothing like several bottles of cheap Lambrini and drunk, boisterous Europeans running around to keep you entertained while you wait. We even got to witness an ambulance with its blue lights flashing drive through the park grass, through the middle of the huge queue, and around to the back of the massive white tent - presumably to rescue some unfortunate partier from the effects of too much alcohol. There was even a very tall man with some accent I couldn't identify who came running out of the tent yelling like a mad man and was so excited that he nearly jumped into a large, nearby dumpster (really though - he pulled his upper body completely into the dumpster before someone else kind of yanked him back out).

The gang! Minus Katie, who is our delightful and magnanimous photographer.
Thanks, Katie!

I'm adapting to tent culture quite nicely.

Once we finally got into the tent, we ordered our extra-large pints which came in those lovely mugs that make Oktoberfest so much fun, and headed over to jump around on top of tables like everyone else. It's hard not to get excited about dancing on tables when there is live music and live, crazy drunken people imploring you to sway back and forth and sing along with them.

This picture seems to be self-explanatory... I was having a good time.

Check out these costumed fellas...
James, Lauryn, and I managed to get pictures with them!
Yes, that is a man in drag on the left rocking the blonde wig.

James is creeping while we dance on a table.

But, you may ask, don't people fall off these precarious, shaky tables if they are so intoxicated? Why yes, as a matter of fact they actually do! We had several people, one woman in particular, falling on us repeatedly, and of course there was a sort of domino-effect with all of us falling backward and beer flying everywhere. Sounds like a pretty great time, huh? It was! A word to the wise though, if a lederhosen-clad man asks you for a kiss on the cheek in return for a fun picture, they really aren't trying to get a kiss on the cheek - it's a trick! I would have to say that another highlight of the evening was definitely the security guards running frantically through the ten to the table next to us, where two men had just begun a pretty intense fist-fight. We, of course, were thrilled to be witnesses to an actual fight so close to us! Despite all the craziness going on under the tent, we managed to make it out unscathed and quite happy! It was definitely a successful evening, and I am oh so happy that I was able to enjoy Oktoberfest in the company of such delightful, fun-loving people.

That's a little more than a brief summary of my wonderful weekend. I do hope that you all are having fun and enjoying your weekends wherever you are!

Here are a couple of Benjamin Franklinisms on drinking to send you on your way:

“In wine there is wisdom, 

in beer there is Freedom, 

in water there is bacteria.” 

and

“Beer is proof that God loves us 

and wants us to be happy.” 

- Benjamin Franklin

So on that delightful note, Cheers! 

Or, more appropriately, Prost!

xoxo,

Les

"When sky dives into the Thames / Greenwich and I will sleep again / And wake again as friends"

Since my last post, quite a bit has happened! There is just so much to do and see here in London, I can hardly keep up with telling you about it all!

We floated past Tower Bridge!

On Friday, we had the pleasure of going on a river cruise down the Thames from Westminster to Greenwich. The weather has recently been much warmer than we were expecting, but things finally started to cool down on Friday, and so we experienced the Thames in the gloomy light of a cool, wet London day. It was nice to float down the river and think about all the history that it has lived through and all the changes that it has seen London experience.

The Thames is liquid history. 

- John Burns

The Thames is a lovely shade of brownish green...

Enjoying a pint.

Cheers!

Anne and I having a moment.

The famous Cutty Sark, the fastest (and last surviving) tea clipper of it's time!

And more of the Cutty Sark...

We spent the rest of the afternoon going on a small tour of Greenwich, where we got to see the Old Royal Naval College. Evidently this is a pretty popular location for filming, as the Royal Naval College has appeared in movies such as Sherlock Holmes, Shanghai Knights, The King's Speech, National Treasure 2, The Mummy Returns, The Duchess, and Charlotte Gray, just to name a few.

Old Royal Naval College

We were able to walk around the grounds and also explored the famous Painted Hall, which is covered in gorgeous artwork depicting the glory of Britain's maritime tradition as well as past monarchs. This hall has also been used as the meeting place for the Venice secret society in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, as the fashion show venue in What a Girl Wants, and as the opulent Palace of Versailles in the movie Quills (Shh... Don't tell the French!). This hall was so beautiful, the art was incredibly intricate, and it was a really awesome thing to see.

They had large, mirrored tables set up in the
center of the room for easier viewing of the ceiling.

I think what strikes me most about London is that you go out and notice pretty normal city things: taxis, public transportation, pedestrians, fast food shops, corner stores. You also notice and are expecting to see the standard iconic things: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, red double-decker buses, Buckingham Palace, the Wellington Arch, the red telephone booths, black cabs, Hyde Park, the London Eye. When you go out for a walk or go on a tour of a different part of city, you see the typical sights, but then all of a sudden you're exploring a tiny corner of the city that is completely rich in history that you've never heard about, or you're walking through a grand building that is like a work of art. No matter how well-studied you might think you're becoming about London, this city always manages to surprise you and show you something you weren't expecting to see. There's a lot that's hidden in plain view here, and you soon realize that it's your job to go digging around and uncover London's secrets and treasures.

The gates at the Old Royal Naval College.

Greenwich is home to several interesting museums, including a museum for the Cutty Sark, the Queen's House, the Royal Observatory, and the National Maritime Museum, which we walked through  briefly to get a sneak peek at some of the cool exhibits it contains.

Figureheads at the National Maritime Museum.

Spectacular ship in a bottle by artist Yinka Shonibare that was on temporary display in Trafalgar Square
is now outside the National Maritime Museum.

We also got to see the gorgeous skyline view of London from Greenwich Park, which is next to the Royal Observatory, and it was quite a trek uphill to get there. Of course, Greenwich is famous for being the home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time. We all got to stand on the marked Prime Meridian line, which is remarkably less exciting than it sounds.

View from Greenwich Park.

Oooh, Prime Meridian!

I'm excited about it!

And naturally, I found it amusing to run downhill once we were leaving the Observatory. Evidently there is something about charging around with an umbrella that is highly entertaining. I feel no need to explain myself any further.

 

Lauryn and I went back on Tuesday afternoon for more Greenwich fun (really to just poke around the National Maritime Museum some more), and we had a very nice afternoon.

A painting inside the National Maritime Museum. 

Lord Nelson struck a pose with me outside the Trafalgar Tavern.

View of the Thames from the front gate of the Old Royal Naval College.

For more information about what Greenwich has to offer, visit this link. As a side note, my post title comes from an excerpt of a poem called "Shipping Good" by Lemn Sissay that is currently being displayed by the Greenwich DLR (Docklands Light Railway) Station. Feel free to leave any questions or comments you may have below! I'll post more about our adventures soon!

Have a spectacular day, wherever you may be!

xoxo,

Les