Days 21 to 31 — London, UK

Sorry it’s been so long since our last post! When we last spoke, I said we had reached the end of Chapter 3… but I was wrong. We had reached the end of our family holiday, but not our stint in the UK.

On our first night in London, after Louise and Marley drove off for the airport and we’d dropped our bags, we headed to St Katherine Docks for dinner. To get there, we walked along the river and 15 minutes later found ourselves gazing at London Bridge. It was surreal to realise we had finally arrived, even if we were about to be leaving again.

Day 22

On Sunday morning, we made our way to Shoreditch to check out the Brick Lane Market. Shoreditch, for those of you who haven’t been, kind of reminds me a little bit of Fortitude Valley, West End and New Farm. Brick Lane Market is definitely a spot to check out if you’re interested in special, hand crafted shirts, artwork and jewellery. Along with this there are plenty of stalls selling second hand clothing and hot food. We, however, were looking for a produce market to buy our groceries.

Instead, we made our way back to Wapping to do a shop at Waitrose and then head home to make lunch and relax in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon. That evening, one of Ben’s friends from his 2014 university exchange to Maastricht in the Netherlands came to visit.

Day 23

Monday was a fairly hot day. After having spent two nights struggling with the heat, our energy to do much other than relax in the apartment was dwindling. We decided to spend the morning having a look around Borough Market. There we bought some amazing sauccison and cheese before heading home to enjoy it with some salad for lunch. In the afternoon, we went to an area called Mile End where we hired out some bikes and rode through Mile End Park and Victoria Park before finding a shady spot under a tree to do some yoga.

Day 24 and 25

Tuesday and Wednesday were rather non eventful days in the way of getting out and about. However, they were rather productive. I spent most of the time doing house-keeping things like finalising the redesign of my website and submitting my tax return. Ben did some work on his curriculum for his next online course. On Wednesday evening we met up with more of Ben’s friends, Laurence and Fred, who live in London that he met in Maastricht, for a few drinks and dinner at a Greek Restaurant.

Day 26

Thursday was spent exploring Clapham and Battersea by bike. We had finally found a suburb where we felt we could live. Clapham is well connected by the underground system and while it is outside of the city center, it seems to be humming with activity. In the middle is Clapham Common which is a large park perfect for holding picnics and exercising in. I also discovered an Acro Yoga group on facebook who get together in Sundays here, I’m excited to get back into it!

Day 27

On Friday we spent most of the day indoors. After 5 solid days of walking more than 20,000 steps in the hot weather, between 35ºC and 38ºC, we were ready to spend a day out of the sun. At 6pm that day we were blessed with some heavy rainfall which lasted about an hour but really cooled things down. I actually heard people cheering out in the streets! After that, we decided to go for a walk along the canals to get some movement in for the day.

Day 28

Saturday came around and we walked over to Canary Wharf to welcome Mitch from the U.S.A, another of Ben’s friends from Maastricht. Mitch is also moving to London. For lunch we made our way over to Clapham again before parting ways for a few hours until dinner.

29 to 31

Sunday to Tuesday were very busy days spent mostly speaking to real estate agents in Clapham and viewing potential appartments. Come Tuesday evening, we were completely worn out by the experience. Luckily, we had found a place we liked to place an offer on. Tuesday evening is where Chapter 3 officially ends…at 7pm we met Mum, Dad, Andrew, Jess and Ma (mum’s mum) for dinner at a Japanese BBQ Restaurant. The food was delicious! At 11:30pm a few tears were shed (by mum and I) as we said our final farewell to my parents.

To everyone who has been keeping up to date with these blogs, thanks for taking the time to read! Sorry for the lack of photos in this one, but there is a short video (: Check it out below:

p.s. to Mum and Dad, thank you for everything you did for our family during our time in the UK. We couldn’t have asked for better parents. Love you both and will miss you both!