What You See When You Walk: London

I'm far too stubborn to regularly take public transit in a new place. I silence my inner realist, and favor the voice that says "two miles isn't that far -- and think of all the stuff you'll see on the way!" Though my feet may  disagree, I nearly always side with the voice that tells me to walk between this museum and that park because, honestly, I know could be missing out on all the interesting character crevices and special spots that really make certain cities so awesome and alluring. So, if I haven't lost you by talking about the voices in my head and abusing alliteration (sorry, last one!), then let's look at London!

There is a lot to see in London.

Unlike other places I’ve been, London seems to have a never-ending list of interesting things to see and do for visitors.

I had a total of 4 full days in the city, with a few scattered half days. The first portion of my visit was with my sister Kelly, who had spent 6 months living and working in London. We arrived via train from Leeds and had a short walk to our hostel- we got very lucky with it being so near to King's Cross Station. With bags stowed, we took off for Camden Market. Including a brief stop to peek into The British Library, it took us around 45 minutes to get up to Camden Town. The walk was quiet... until it wasn't. Camden was bustling. Thankfully, by the time we arrived to the area, it was late-afternoon, and between the lunch crowd and the dinner rush.

Camden Market is really visually stimulating.

Lots of colors, textures, and shapes- and one of the very first things that struck me was a short hallway lined with vendor tables - and beautiful ornate archways. As we walked through, it went from feeling like a bazaar to feeling like a food court (I am not complaining!).The food decision was a hard one. While struggling to pick something (hellooo choice-paralysis!), we heard someone yell, "Hey! Are you vegetarians?!" He had my attention. Though technically omnivorous, I veer towards the veg options whenever possible, so I gladly accepted a sample of Louisiana Chili Shack's vegan chili. The sample turned into a purchase because the gent behind the booth (and that genius pitch) was so engaging, that even though we took a lap to look elsewhere, nothing can compare to delicious food paired with quality interactions.Stuffed and ready to think about moseying back towards King's Cross/St. Pancras, I had just one more thing I wanted to see before departing: the street art. There are a lot of pieces throughout Camden Town, but we chose to aim for Hawley Mews and hope that there were some other pieces en route. Finally, back to the hostel for check-in.

Being by Kings Cross was convenient, but when I returned I plopped myself just outside the craziness of Oxford Circus. The rain had given me a little break while I was outside London, and then returned - but only after I had left the hostel for the day and was getting off the train at Paddington Station. Little Venice was a really nice area. It would be a lovely place to run if I lived there..... or liked running. After maybe 30 minutes of meander/exploring, being maybe a mile from the station, the sky opened up and dumped buckets of rain. Soaked through, I could either turn back to the hostel to change, or trudge on to my next destination.

I was originally going to walk to Notting Hill from Little Venice, but chose the train just so I could avoid being rained on for a little while. By the time I alighted at Ladbroke Grove Station, the rain had passed and the sun was attempting to peek through - lucky lady.There was no planned route - I just picked a direction and started walking. This method worked out pretty well - I passed a street with rainbow colored houses, had to be very quiet as I walked down Portobello Road (there was a movie being filmed), and I didn't know it at the time, took my favorite photo from the whole trip on St. Luke's Mews.I'll admit that Notting Hill had some really photo-worthy homes, but otherwise there wasn't as much to do or learn. I did, however, leave Notting Hill fully dry!