World Cup Madness - USA vs England!

I'm going to admit up front that I know absolutely nothing about soccer (or I guess I should start referring to it as football...) but people get so into it over here it is hard not to get all wrapped up in the excitement! - Plus with no baseball here I need a sport to entertain myself for the summer :) For the big game we headed to a Canadian bar with a group of Americans to go cheer on the good 'ol US of A - we sported as many American flags as we could fit on our bodies and took all the harassment as we walked through the streets of London. Great time though, and a tie made the after game that much more fun, because the English fans couldn't get too aggressive with us and visa-versa. Great time for sure!

Club Openings, Blues Bars, and of course - More Markets!

Perfect weekend - we'll just say it started on Thursday...and is still going actually :)

Anyway, Thursday I met with a guy to get the job hunt rolling, I'm super excited to start looking for work and really ready to start working again, if nothing else to gain some financial independence back! So Thursday night we went out for a pint with some friends, actually discovered the bar has Blue Moon! Seriously?! Blue Moon in London? Awesome! London is quickly gaining more and more credibility.

Friday was amazing - gorgeous hot sunshine, a visit to Greenwich Park, lunch with the bf sitting in the grass at Canary Wharf, and a club opening that night. The club - Salon D'Ete was really cool. It has a fun colonial summer theme and we dressed accordingly. The place almost has a tropical safari vibe to it, waitresses dressed in character, and to top it off a live band and cabaret/burlesque show!

Saturday we did the usual yoga and Borough Market thing, but that afternoon we went up to Denmark Street to look at guitars and hang out. After some playing (I still watch at this point) we went to the brand new CHIPOTLE that just opened! Yes, you heard right, Chipotle is now in London! Okay, so on top of the Blue Moon, and Chipotle, London pretty much has everything you could ever need/want! After a delicious dinner we went to the bookstore and started doing a little planning for our upcoming trip to Greece this fall. Sailing around a few of the islands for a weeks - can't wait, it looks so amazing and I am so excited to go sailing! Then we hit up a great blues bar - Aint Nothin But the Blues for some awesome live music to finish off the night. And to top it off, we got to see some Brazilians dancing in the street on our walk home - life is good!

Sunday was completely amazing weather again! We walked up to Columbia Flower Market after a nice brunch on the balcony. Grabbed a Pimms and hung out in the sun with some Americans we met (we attracted Americans like crazy this weekend). Then we headed back down Brick Lane, ate some Japanese Pancakes at the food hall, hit up another guitar store, checked out some vintage clothing shops and went by Spitalfields Market. Grabbed a smoothie and laid in the park for a while, really great...

I am so crazy about London, the more I am here, the more I want to be here, I can honestly say I am no longer homesick at all! Now...I just have to find that job...well, you know what I will be doing all week! :)

Heels vs. Flats

So anyone who knows me at all knows how much I love shoes...not just any shoes, but skyscraper heels. So you can imagine my dilemma when I moved to a city where girls only wear flats. I am not exaggerating, even in the evening when everyone is going out to the clubs etc, they are all wearing flats! Obviously it does make quite a bit of since considering that you walk so far to get anywhere, and there are some cute flat shoes out there, but I just cannot determine if I am ready to give up on my closet full of heels!

Oh, the decisions we have to make in life...if only they were easy... :)

Some funny stories, London style...

So I am WAY behind here...haven't posted since the Brazil posts, but we have had so many fun nights out since I figured I would give a quick rundown of them - because seriously, London has more to do than you could ever imagine. I would think only an extremely boring person could ever actually get bored here - with parties that last all night and the entire next day, amazing hidden pubs with great scenery and even better beer, great markets to feed a hangover, and a great mix of people that I have never seen in any city I've ever lived or even visited.

I actually have had the chance to spend a lot of my weekends since Brazil on my own (well, at least minus the bf due to his busy schedule and his getting certified to sail) which is always the best test to see if you actually like a place. And I have come to the conclusion that I couldn't even imagine having to move back to a 'small' city anytime soon, I always had fun in Denver, but there is just nothing to do compared to London! I'm sure there are other cities that offer much of the same, but I can honestly say that over the last few weeks I have been falling in love with London more and more...

Things I've done in the last few weeks that probably don't happen in most places: (okay, some would, but the ones that could would take a very special combination of people...ie: me and the bf types)

-I've learned how aggressive the drunken British are - I was actually just walking home from the gym one Friday afternoon and a guy was hitting on me, I told him I was heading home to my bf and he was like, okay, then when we went to say good bye he leaned in, I just thought he was going to do the double cheek kiss...but he actually kissed my neck! Lol! God, it was so funny, and a little disturbing! But really, who can get angry at such a colorful culture, I mean, where else in the world do people have a pint at 11 am on a Monday?! This is just one reason London is so great!

-The next night while the bf was studying, I took my Brazilian tanned legs out with some girls for some dancing at a nearby bar/pub...well, of course, me being me, had on skyscraper heels and a teeny-tiny skirt...girls around here typically wear black tights with everything and flats, or skinny jeans and converse sneakers...so I won't lie, I stood out like a sore thumb! Anyway, my friendly self managed to get groped by an adorable Brazilian (I know, my Brazilian tan must have put out the Brazilian vibe), a crazy (not kidding here) Portuguese man stuck his hand up my skirt, and I had an Italian, and two different Irish men ask for my number...ah, being a foreigner, so much fun :) Funny thing is, I was happy when I finally crawled into bed with my cute sleeping boyfriend at 5am...who knew I would enjoy monogamy :)

-The following weekend, while the bf was gone sailing for the weekend, I went to an authentic Italian dinner with 8 authentic Italians...after some great food, some whiskey and cokes, a lot of wine, and some weed later we decided to hit up Fabric - very cool, absolutely HUGE nightclub here in London. I managed to dance the night away, when we finally decided to head home, we walked out the door to daylight...yes, on further investigation it was already 8 in the morning and the club was still packed!

-Monday night I was so happy when my bf came home, as much fun as time apart is, we have so much fun getting into trouble together that it is always fun to see him. We hit the town despite the fact that it was a work night (well, ya know, for him, not me :)) Managed to drink at some great new pubs we found, on in particular, 'George and the Dragon' was super cool! I will ignore the fact that my bf got hit on by 3 attractive gay men, and I was hit on by no one for the time being...can't win them all I guess :) But after a few lemon tops and vodka shots on top of all the previous pints, we were feeling a little crazy...so we made a quick trip by the local church courtyard for some unholy activities :) - Hey, he had been gone for a 3 day weekend, no judging! Lol! A nice walk down Brick Lane to get home and you have yourself the perfect Monday night...

-Last Friday night was another adventure, as usual. It started out as a harmless Friday night out for a few drinks...which turned into a lot more drinks, then meeting up with some great new friends to do some dancing and clubbing with. Well, as the club was closing down around 3, we were trying to decide if we should head home or hit up another place that was still open, when, while standing in the coat check line we met this very cute Sweedish girl. We were talking to her and she wanted to meet this guy, so my bf went up to the guy and was trying to talk him into coming out for another drink with all of us while I entertained her. Well, turns out she was nice to us because we (as always are way to happy and laugh all the time) but anyway, she assumed we were on meth! Seriously??? Anyway, turns out she is nuts...completely. Well, by this time she has attached herself to us, she keeps stroking my hair, and bitching and everyone is kind of like, don't piss her off! We decided we really just wanted to run off, but she was glued to us. She managed to pick up some crack head on the way to the bar luckily, and once we got them in line we slowly moved to the back, then my boyfriend took off sprinting! Haha! OMG! I didn't know if I should run or laugh, it was just way too funny, so in utter fear I would be trapped alone with the crazy meth addict Sweede, and the crack head, I took off running as well! We looked completely crazy, but after a few blocks we determined we had shaken her, hopefully forever :) Good news was, because of this detour, we were still up for the bagel shops to open (4 or 5ish?) So we got our fresh out of the oven bagel with lox for the walk home, yet another plus for London...Now, I must admit, my Saturday morning yoga class was hell the next day, inversions and a hangover don't mix...but nothing a prime rib sandwich from Borough Market can't fix :)

-Saturday night we went to a birthday party at this very cool, members only (the girl who's birthday it was is a member - obviously I'm not a member of anything but the unemployed :)) club. It is called Hospital Club, very artistic, and very trendy. The night was slightly more mellow than the previous, had a few 'British Summers' - if you have never had one try it, amazing, gin, cucumber, and some other delicious add ins...

Okay, I'll leave it at that for now - should fill you in on all the exciting news for now! I'll blog about the more boring (and important things) like finding a job later! xoxo

Rio Round 2 - Thanks to a Volcano in Iceland...

After our adventure from Ilha Grande, we were so late we figured that we wouldn't have much time to enjoy Rio as we were to leave the next evening...all before we learned that volcanic ash had shut down Heathrow and there were no flights to London! Yay! We actually gained another 5 days there - and I couldn't think of a better place to be 'stranded'...

So we made the most of our stay, more of Ipanema beach/swimming/tanning time, hit up Sugar Loaf Mountain (The Christo was closed due to all the flooding from our previous stay there) and got a great view of Rio! Absolutely stunning from up there! We made it to Lapa - a very cool part of Rio as well for some nightlife - the clubs there are total meat markets though, I was just in a tank top and capris and flips flops and got groped by more men than I could even count!

And we also got to do one more thing we really wanted - see the inside of a favela - Rocinha to be exact. We met a guy who worked at a bar we frequented who happened to live there, so one night after a few caipivodkas and beers we convinced him to let us tag along on his ride home - at about 2am. You actually stand on the road and just wait for these crazy vans driving by to swerve over and yell the name of the place, then you give them a few reais and you are off speeding crazily towards your destination. You actually have to go through a police checkpoint to get in (to try and stop drug smuggling) and then you are there. They are built on really steep hills, and everyone rides street bikes and carries some sort of weapon...we are talking huge M16's and things of that nature...crazy. Guys just sit at tables with tons of drugs laid out, you have a weed table, and next to it will be a coke table - just nuts! We thought we were perfectly safe, later many people told us we were insane for going in here, especially hanging out there until about 4:30 in the morning...but we were just fine, nothing crazy happened, just had some pizza and beers with the people we went with and after a chat with one of the dealers we were on our way without incident.

The next night we just laid on the beach and enjoyed our purchase and laughed for about 2 hours straight - perfect way to spend our last night in Rio :)

On Wednesday we called our airline (we had been doing this every morning since Saturday) and found out we were confirmed on a flight back to London that night! We spent the day with a friend of a friend that lived down there in Rio, he and his girlfriend showed us around some of the beaches, we had a few Skols, some Coconuts, and one final Acai berry smoothie with a banana...

Ilha Grande = Beautiful Beaches

Ilha Grande was amazing! It is a huge island (or should I say 'grande'?) that you can see from the mainland. The coolest thing about it is there are no cars! Only a couple emergency vehicles, but everyone walks or rides bikes there. If you are extremely lazy there are even guys who will cart all your luggage to your pousada for you! It is definitely different to the extreme from crazy busy Rio and Sao Paulo!

We of course managed to find this great little pousada with an AMAZING woman that ran it, she could cook like you would not believe! She would cook every night for us, delicious!!! We only had two nights there, but the first day we hiked from the main town to a couple different beaches. The first beach has a few buildings and is very beautiful. We actually ended up saying there for a few hours. My boyfriend met a couple of Brazilian nomad type musicians and although they couldn't speak much english, they all played guitar together and sang for most of the two hours. Then we finished our hike at Lopez Mendes - one of the top ranked beaches in South America apparently! The sand feels like powdered sugar and is absolutely amazing. The beach is huge, and there are no buildings or boats to be seen! So the second day we were short on time, we took a boat to a nearby drop off and went back to Lopez Mendes - we just couldn't get enough!

So we had to leave Friday afternoon to get back to Rio to hang out with the wedding party group...so we booked the 'Speed Connection'...well, first they put us in some crappy fishing boat like the one we paid 10 reis to ride over (I think the trip was like 60 reis a person) so we asked them why we were going in a slow boat and they assured us it would be just as quick...well we no more than were 5 minutes into our journey when the engine started smoking like crazy!!! A few guys just stood around staring at the engine smoking and drinking beer - kind of funny actually. The next thing we know a few small power boats pull up and all the locals start hopping off and going with them...so the few foreigners that were still on the boat sat and waited until an ever slower, crappier boat showed up to take us on. Well, we finally make it and get on our bus that was part of the 'Speed Connection' package and was to take us to our hostel. We stopped about twice on the 2.5 hour ride, then all of a sudden in Rio the bus pulls over and the driver is acting like he is having chest pains! They tell us all to get off and we have to find our own way because the driver is having a heart attack and the medics are coming to get him! We all get off worried, get our stuff, and then the driver and his buddy hop back on the bus and drive off! We were completely scammed! The good news is they dropped us at the bus station, so we managed to find a taxi (the craziest driver I have ever had for the record) and made it back to Rio...

Party in Paraty!

Okay, so Paraty was less of a party than anywhere else we went, but it was amazingly relaxing and fun!

We got in at about sundown and while we were standing at the bus station trying to figure out where we should stay for the night a car pulled up and dropped off a flyer with an ad for a hostel down on a beach that was connected to town by a bridge...they said they would pay for a cab there so we took a chance and it paid off big! Great place, just across an empty street from a great beach!!! It is called Sereia do Mar if you ever get down there. Very affordable and amazing staff, and in the evenings they would have bonfires on the beach...oh, AND everyone in Paraty knows them for their great pizza! A definite plus! Anyway, they had a beautiful courtyard as well and it is a beautiful quick walk to the downtown area with restaurant and self serve ice cream shops! :)

We had a great relaxing beach day, as well as a day of sailing around between islands, snorkeled, tanned, saw some amazing beaches, had the boat's photographer follow us everywhere with his camera, lol! It is so beautiful there, very quiet, islands all over, you just see them on the horizon, some tiny ones, and some pretty big with beautiful beaches...wow, thinking about it I am ready to go back right now! :)

We honestly couldn't decide if we should head on to Ilha Grande, or just stay put since it wasso great...but in the end we decided to continue on!