Adesso, Inghilterra

Above: my wonderful hostesses... with the mostestes?

Below: my wonderful reaction to the Middle Eastern baked goods.

So I'm finally doing it. I'm going to talk about London. I've taken some time, reflected on it, talked about it with my therapist, and I think it's finally the right time to start sharing my experience with others. It's the last of the 12 steps to tourist recovery.

The day I got in, I split with my travel companions and headed off to Liz's apartment by Hyde Park. I was hungry, but Liz wasn't so much. To compromise, we went to high tea since it was around 4:00 anyway. For the record, I'm kind of upset no one has ever dragged me to high tea before. There's lots of tea, finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream (oh, I'll get there), and tiramisu with other delicious chocolate desserts. What's not to love?! And it was only 12 pounds. Like, British Pounds... not American weight units. You get what I mean. But on to the clotted cream (I promised). Apparently it's made by condensing normal creme, and we all know how much I love normal creme. It gives butter a run for it's money.

That night Liz and her friend Sam had to go see a show, which was sold out. We grabbed some awesome Middle Eastern pastries (see photos above) and split ways. The girls went to their show, and I went to the pub across the street to watch the soccer match that was on instead. It was awesome. Think about what you imagine a London pub to be like during a soccer match, and then put me in the middle of it with a Guinness and a smile. That's exactly what it was like. AND I made a friend! We talked all about soccer, and what I should do while I was in London, and other places we both should travel. When we were talking about the US, he said he'd been to two places: Miami and.... wait for it... CINCINNATI. I was very confused, until he explained that he had friends that lived there. I mean, who doesn't love Cincinnati? It's like the Atlanta of Ohio, plus they have the Bengals - a football team that you can only feel pity for. But not exactly a tourist destination.

All in all, I was very happy with my first night in Londontown. Very swinging. Oh, and just so you all know, I haven't shaved in almost a week. I'm not going to shave until I've finished talking about London. I was inspired by my mountain man experience in Cinque Terre. Plus it'll really light a fire under me to finish writing about my fall break. This much scruff isn't a good look on me.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Mountain-faced" Yazge