Bananaaaaaa!

We wandered around a little bit more.. so much wandering! 

We did a spot of graffiti spotting and admiring.. with the odd.. "you call that graffiti?" thrown in there for good measure. We came across Nude Espresso which was great timing for a break! Emma enjoyed an ice latte and I had a flat white.. kiwi styles!

We didn't stay long.. it was time to get back out there and check out more graffiti and generally looking around.. which is where we stumbled across more bananas! We had seen some on top of a phone box earlier in the day but then we see bananas in 2 new areas.. it was almost as fun as spotting the space invaders in Amsterdam & Paris. I wished I could take some of the bananas home! So awesome!

We reached our end destination and so it was time to tube it back to the hotel. 

We got to the hotel, freshened up and relaxed a little before heading out for some well needed and desired fish n chips!

I started my meal off with a watermelon martini.. which is dangerous stuff.. so easy to drink! and refreshing too! Delicious! 

Our meals came and we tucked right in! It was pure deliciousness! I couldn't get enough! I washed it down with a beer.. perfect combo if you ask me! Emma of course had room for some pudding and devoured what the Brits call an 'Eton Mess'. We ate at a pub called 'The Punch Tavern'. Awesome little place.

The walk home was needed.. for the food factor not the foot factor! A part of me felt like I was in the krypton factor! On the way to dinner I felt one of my blisters under my foot burst. That is one interesting feeling to say the least. So the pain was slightly worse to walk on.. but the show must go on! Once back in the hotel we watched tv.. don't know what exactly but it was relaxing and we needed to relax, our eyes had been in a candy store all day! Day 2 - Done! Tomorrow we leave.

YUK! Ice Cream!

I pulled myself together after the Eye experience and we got stuck right into the walk along the water.. or should I say brown liquid? Seriously brown that stuff is. I am not sure I have ever seen water that brown that wasn't just a little muddy puddle! 

We walked along.. did a spot of people watching and Wenlock watching too.. and sometimes we combined them! You'll get a full Wenlock post.. don't you worry! & it will have all of the ones that we took a photo of.. we saw a few more but didn't photo op them all. They are pretty ace tho.

Speaking of ace, we saw this awesome little ice cream van.. which had a very poor choice of number plate.. YUK..then 3 numbers but I didn't pay attention to those coz I was too busy chuckling at the yuk for a ice cream van.. person the person doing the paperwork that day was lactose intolerant and decided to stick it to the ice cream man? We will never know.. but I will always have a memory of the yuk ice cream van!

We continued walking walking walking until we came across the Millennium Bridge..

We walked half way across it, then walked back so that we could stay on the same side of the brown liquid. Passed by Shakespeare's Globe..

Then snapped a funky shot of The Shard before venturing a little further and heading over the Tower Bridge.

On the other side of the Tower Bridge, we stopped to eat some sammies & vege crisps that we had snagged along the way. It was a nice break.. well needed for my blistering tootsie rolls! We had a lovely little shaded spot, which was very welcomed from the hot hot sun! O summer you are kicking my ass and I love it!

Soon enough though it was time to get up and go again.. walking on the other side of the brown liquid now.. for a little while at least until we came across a little market and even managed to get a good shot of The Gherkin!

In The Eye Of London!

I didn't have the best nights sleep but I knew I had to get up and get on with things so up I got and off we headed out into another beautiful blue skied sunshiny day! I didn't dare complain that I was too hot, coz I did not want the weather gods to turn on me and give me rain! I just lapped up the summer feeling.. afterall it might be the only bit of summer I get for the year! LOL

Our planned route, a few changes were made on the spur of the moment but it's the general idea.

We headed off at a nice pace.. not too slow and not rushing past, just taking in the surroundings as if we didn't have anything else to do. I was highly amused the day before with all the 'look left' & 'look right' painted on the roads at all the crossings.. and today I get the added bonus of 'look both ways' and 'no cycling'. Suffice to say, I walked around saying "No cycling" at everyone! hahahaha

We were on our way to some place that was meant to have really nice breakfast stuff but once we arrived it was all very much sweet stuffs, there was a Starbucks down the road so we just called in there, had a couple of coffees, a sausage butty.. yes they do actually have something called that! Emma got it for me purely for the amusement factor, I'm sure! We used the free wifi while breakfasting and then headed off out into the world. We had an appointment at The London Eye.

We went and picked up our pre-booked tickets for our pre-booked time and then were ushered in to experience a 4D movie. Here we are with our spunky glasses on!

It was an interesting experience, bubbles and foam.. wind.. now this is how they should do movies! Screw that pissy 3D, give me 4D! I wanna feel the movie! LOL

The short movie ended.. so sad! & then we went and stood in the line to go up up up. we actually got on 30mins before our pre-booked time so I can't help but wonder.. what the frak is the point of pre-booking anything.. I swear we could have walked in normally without having pre-booked anything and got the same spot. I guess it is better to be safe than sorry?

I had a couple of freak out moments, but like the awesome that I am.. I handed it by just sitting the frak down! Towards the top as you are going over.. it makes little movements and for someone afraid of heights, it just made me feel insecure and wobble slightly but all in all it was quite the experience. I don't really feel the need to do it again.. or well I could be persuaded to check it out at sunset.. if it is anything like the Eiffel Tower at sunset.. then it would be pretty stellar.

Late Night Snack!

Pierre Hermé macarons.

1. Eden - Peach, Apricot & Saffron

2. Mogador - Milk Chocolate & Passionfruit

3. Metisse - Orange & Carrot with Ceylon Cinnamon

4. Jardin du Paradis - Aniseed & Saffron

5. Medelice - Lemon & Flaky Hazelnut Praline

6. Plenitude - Chocolate & Caramel

7. Infiniment Caramel - Salted- Butter Caramel

No PB m&m's! What The?!

We refuelled on Nando's, now the chicken wasn't nearly as nice as the chook I had in Lisbon but it was still pretty darn good and it ticked all the boxes! With our nice full bellies and still aching feet we headed off and stumbled across a giant wonderful m&m store! 

Haven't you always wanted a mug that says you're a dick?!

There were so many things that I would want to buy, but really I didn't have the room, nor the need. I did really love the plushies though. They didn't have any peanut butter m&m's in their wall of colour which saddened me again! They had a small amount of the crispy ones but really.. they aren't that great. 

We left, it was finally getting dark out so we started to make our way back to the hotel. It was a pretty decent walk and I was tempted many times to jump in one of those bike taxi things coz my feet were killing me.. among other things, but me being the tough cookie that I am toughed that shit out and after a while we made in back home where I could just collapse.. on a very uncomfortable bed. Where we actually tucked into the macarons we had been carrying around all day! [click to see post]

While we were out wandering around.. you know just going from a to b, without taking anything in, coz that is apparently what we do.. I couldn't help but (not) notice some of the lovely buildings that they have in London. Also, we did (not) notice that they had placed some plaques on the walls of some buildings with little tidbits of information.. like this one..

My first day in London was quite wonderful. The weather was great. The people were friendly. We didn't see any athletes just wandering around.. or even any celebs! Heck I didn't even get to see the cast of Jersey Shore again.. talk about gutted! Bahahahahaha 

I couldn't have asked for a better first day.. actually yes I could have, I would have preferred to not have massive blisters on my beautiful foots! That shit hurts man.

Nando's Is In Da House!

Now with a little spring in her step, Emma led us off to check out the NZ War Memorial. 

Apparently all it takes is one macaron to perk the little Swede up! Also, it perks her up enough to give people directions in a foreign land! While we were heading toward the memorial, a couple of brits approached us and asked where something was.. me being me had no idea, Emma being Emma, she had some idea and her trusty phone to help guide the way.. after a little look she sent the young couple on their way and all was good in the woods.. errr I mean world!

We spent a few moments checking out the memorial.. the heat was pretty hot! It had been a while since I was this warm.. and my feet were really starting to hurt now, you see as it turns out.. putting new insoles in ones shoes is basically the same as breaking in new damn shoes. The shoes that I wore on EuroTrip2011 were now giving me grief! I even bloody hiked in these shoes in Cinque Terre! Gosh!

We headed off for some more walking.. I could feel the blisters really starting to form.. but what can ya do but keep calm and carry on! and so that is what I did. A slower pace than usual but I kept going and that's the main thing.. right?

We came across Buckingham Palace, which gets quite packed at what I thought was a quieter time. I witnessed a first class case of two non English speakers speaking English to one another and having a misunderstanding.. it didn't come to blows, but one dude looked pretty pissed off about the off the cuff remark that was said as more of a funny than of criticism.. but I guess you get that on the big jobs. 

After leaving Buckingham, we continued on.. in a little bit of shade which was nice!

We also checked out Westminster, Big Ben and the London Eye... and you know other little things that were in the area.. as you do, right?

We arrived at Downing St to discover at our horror that they weren't letting people in! Only people with special badges seemed to be allowed to go past the black gates of mean! I looked on in sadness and then.. you know.. moved on! What's the point in dwelling right? Plenty more to see!

In saying that, there really was plenty to see.. while we were walking down the street, we saw this hardcore biker, not really getting out of the way of the cops who had their sirens on. The cops were quite agitated by the lack of movement from people in the cars, but really what can they do? It was pretty tight in there.. anyways we see the top of this big burly biker and he had a car in front of him so we didn't see his bike.. that was until we did get to see his bike and all we could do was freaken chuckle! Hardcore!

We made our way to Trafalgar Square and had a gander before deciding it was time to get some real grub into us! There happened to be a Nando's not to far so we partook in that.. Emma had been hanging for some Nando's since she realised there was Nando's in London!

I Forgot My Cape!

After leaving the hotel, it wasn't long until we stumbled upon our first bit of awesome! A red phone box! They are everywhere all over London, and I find myself wondering.. does anybody actually use them? You know to make calls.. not get changed into their superhero outfit!

We continued on our merry way after I couldn't get changed and it wasn't long at all before we were at Hyde Park, taking in all the beauty. It was seriously a stunning day. Blue blue skies, sunshine, heat! It was actually summer! Finally summer decided to show up for us after the poo weather we had been having. We wandered around checking things out.. looking here there and everywhere, and of course I got sidetracked by the feathered animals in the water.. where I even saw a mummy and daddy feeding their baby! Too adorable.. also, that little shit wouldn't shut up! Cried the entire time we were there, but mummy and daddy were very good at supplying.. prolly coz they wanted the few seconds relief!

As we made our way through Hyde Park and out the other side, we came across the Royal Albert Hall, Emma was trying to take a nice photo when I went all Hanky Hanna on her ass and popped up in the photo! I don't have it down anywhere near as good as Hank.. but I got her good this time!

Just a little bit further and we reached our goal! The TARDIS! 

Not only did I forget my cape.. but apparently they bloody changed the locks on the TARDIS coz my imaginary key did not work! As you can see I was not impressed by this discovery! I bet the daleks had something to so with it! 

 

After doing our photo op, we headed off to get a bite to eat, but that was quickly foiled coz the damn pub where I wanted my fish n chips didn't serve food between 4-5pm and it was like 4:04pm! dang nabbit! So we went back towards the TARDIS and had a frozen yoghurt. One of the girls by it was handing out flyers so we thought we would try one of the flavours on the flyer.. turns out they didn't have that flavour. REALLY people? Hand out a flyer saying try our flavours and then don't even have that flavour! Douchebaggery at it's finest! We got strawberry instead and I found it too sweet for my liking but it killed the hunger pains and cooled me down a little from the heat.. so it wasn't a complete loss. [click for instagram photo]

Next stop Harrods!

This is one seriously large store. Do not walk through the perfume area.. that is like a sneeze attack waiting to happen. Seriously stinky. Too many strong smells in an area that needs more ventilation. We looked around but it wasn't too long before I had had enough and wanted to leave. Not a place I wanna bother going back to that's for sure. We drowned our sorrows by heading off to buy some Pierre Hermé macarons. We ate one in the store, which was Vanilla and Basil. It wasn't too bad actually. I am not a fan of those little things but sometimes they surprise me.

It's Paddington!

Annnd we're off! The morning was a matter of last minute fluffing and packing, then heading off to the airport.. the airport is not exactly the most fun place to hang but it is needed to that you can go to far away lands! Emma and I amused ourselves by Olympic athlete spotting. We saw a few Swedes and Danes and it was just fun enough to keep things interesting. I however managed to sit on gum also. Which brings me to say this.. what sort of tosser are you that you leave your gum on a cushioned seat! I mean, really!? REALLY? One thing I don't enjoy about anything in life is.. queuing.. 

My face says it all right? Also, notice the backpack behind me.. well that was an Olympic athlete!

It wasn't long until we were on the plane, sitting right behind the 'Economy Extra' class, which looks an awful lot like just Economy.. I actually think the only real difference is they get a meal? I could be wrong.. but that's not likely! Bahahahahahaha Less than 2 hours later we land at Heathrow and proceed to catch the express train, which is a little pricy but it gets you to Paddington Station in 15min instead of an hour and with such a short trip we decided to splurge a little. Just so you understand, it cost 18gbp for the express train and 2.90gbp (off-peak) & 4gbp (peak) to go by tube.We did consider a cab, however they are rather cramped! I mean look.. it barely fits little Emma!

Anyways, we got off the train at Paddington, stopped by the little Paddington bear statue and also there just happened to be a Krispy Kreme so we snapped up a couple of donuts. I just had to try the raspberry ripple sundae donut.. coz it sounded too crazy. It was crazy sweet.. and it was nice to just have a donut again.

[click here for another Paddington Bear statue instagram photo]

After our little sugar hit, we toddled off to our hotel where we had to sit in the lobby for far too long for them to get the room ready properly coz apparently they have to re-clean the entire room when they need to remove down pillows and duvets. Which is another thing.. they didn't get what down was. Amusing at it was to watch them get flustered.. I just wanted to dump my shit and go instead of being forgotten about and then lied to about it. Not a place I will ever go back to again, nor recommend. It was nice enough but the beds were bloody horrible. We freshened up a little and then headed out into the beautiful day to start our trek.. this is our planned route...

mello yello, Lilla Torg, Malmö

Yesterday Emma and I headed off to Malmö for dinner at mello yello, coz you know we have been together 9 years now. A casual environment coz we don't do snooty. The meal started off well.. the staff were attentive. While hearing us speak English to one another, the waitress proceeded to speak English to us, even tho Emma ordered in Swedish. I thought that was nice.

Emma started with a pear cider, that was more like pear soft-drink and I had a beer. Emma ordered a cannelloni and I had the tuna. The meal was so far so good. I did quite enjoy both meals and when it was over Emma of course wanted a dessert. I had looked at the dessert menu when first arriving and nothing screamed eat me.. it all just screamed meh but Emma wanted chocolate cake, you would think she would be just as un-trusting as me when it comes to the word cake in Sweden, but alas no she took the gamble and ordered what they call chocolate cake. What we got was a triangle of ganache, with some soft thin crumble under layer and some hard white chocolate swirled through.. to you know pretty it up! Then to really pretty up the plate the put a large line of what appeared to be canned cream (which totally took me back to Lisbon, where they sold what looked like a supermarket apple cake with a mountain of canned cream on top, and of course canned rice pudding, the canned rice pudding cracked me up the most.. coz rice pudding has to be one of the easiest desserts to make to start with.) The final touches to the pretty factor of the plate was a dusting of cocoa powder, some strawberries and a raspberry WITH the bonus of a fly. Yes that's right folk, they served a fly. Clear as day too.. how the frak did they miss it? [click to see Emma's instagram photo]

I took the dessert back, showed them the fly. NO apology, but she did say "we will get you a new one" which in most places would mean that you get a whole new dish right? Well in this particular place, a new one meant just a new berry minus the fly. The 'new' plate was served. We sat there in disbelief for a while. We were then ignored by the staff as much as they possibly could. The waitress even came to clear away our empty glasses and didn't even ask if we would like anything else. We asked for the bill. We still had to pay full price for the fly dessert. We did as Swedes do, we paid, no tip, we left. No fuss. I wanted to make a fuss but I knew that would not bode well for my darling.

I learnt early on in Sweden, customer service is the pits here. The customer is wrong. Do not argue. They have no idea about cake. They do nice sponges with more cream than sponge but they don't know cake. When I see cake on a menu I do not believe it is cake. 

I can honestly say I will never go back to that establishment. They treated us like we had placed the fly on the berry ourselves, when it was clear that that little fucker was glued to it well before it even made it out of the berry container... perhaps even more it made it into the berry container. Which means one thing.. there was no washing of the berries.

Testy Weather Gods!

Saturday we decided to head into Malmö for a spot of shoe shopping.. it looked like a nice day out, so off we toddled to enjoy the city. Upon arriving it started to rain. and rain it did the entire time we were there. Seriously weather gods you are one bunch of testy mofos! We still had a great time.. as we usually do coz let's face it, Em and I are awesome!

I couldn't find the type of shoes that I was actually after, I suspect that is because they don't actually exist. But I did pick up a pair of awesome shoes regardless. I have never really been a fan of white shoes, but it seems that on this particular day I could not get away from liking white shoes and I actually bought a pair! They are well spunk! I mean look at these glorious beauties!

We had a pretty lazy Saturday arvo, enjoyed some homemade pizza.. which was pretty darn delicious! I do have the mad skillz! Nemo was happy to have us home again.

Sunday rolled around and the weather perked right up! Seriously beautiful day so after a little Wii session with Pinko, we headed off for a bike ride in the sun to Maccas to have a sundae and fries! My favourite combo! 

Then we swung back past the supermarket and got a few supplies before parking up on the balcony and enjoying some more sun with a boozy beverage! 

Which is where we also discovered that Nemo will eat any fruit at all.. this time in the form of a lime, his face did tell the story of tartness but that did not stop him from tucking in! He is one crazy little fella! Our dog is simply awesome!

We watched some of the Wimbledon final between Murray and Fedsy, it is always a pleasure to watch the grace of Fedsy on the court. It was also helped along when I got to catch a glimpse of Matt Smith! He wasn't wearing a bow tie tho.. sad!

It really was a very lovely weekend all around! I love Emma having long weekends.. that extra day makes it feel so much more relaxing! Soon tho, Emma will be home for 3 weeks! Only 4 days of work left and then it is relax central! By relax I mean, do fun stuff with the occasional sleep in! In 2 weeks today we will be in London! Woooop! I am quite excited!

Today is another beautiful day.. 17 degrees at 5am.. can't complain! Has summer actually arrived? I hope it lasts! #lifeisgood

Ystad!

On Friday, Emma, Nemo and I took off for the day to Ystad! It wasn't the nicest of days as we set off, but we knew we had to make the most of the day.. and who doesn't love a little family day out.. rain or shine! I fell asleep on the train.. it was 2 hours! I was tired! Gosh! When I awoke, we had arrived to a lovely little town and some sunshine! It didn't take long before I took off my cardy! Just lovely! Walking around.. just taking in the cobble stoned streets, little alley ways.. it is hard to believe some times that this is what places looked like.. and walking on cobblestone.. not so fun! Sorta dangerous!

Here's a few snaps from in and around the town..

I love this door... I want to have this as the entrance to my place!
Also.. I want to live on Monkey Alley! How awesome is that name?

Nemo got his tourist on and posed with a strange horse statue.

We came across this one building that had the most hilarious,
yet awesome moustached dudes carved into it.

Nemo was very excited to be in a new place, so of course he was pulling and trying to piss on everything! Such a delightful little gem he is! It didn't take long before we stumbled across a little 2 year old female Nemo! She got VERY excited the second she saw him.. he was interested all of 20seconds before he had had enough. It is what he does, he likes to say hello and then he likes to leave. She was a little darling.. I mean look at her!

We headed off on quite a trek, through some rather meh surroundings. Not much of a pretty walk to get to the pretty beach but we made it, it was also a much longer walk than I thought.. these things happen but once we arrived at the beach it was beautiful. Sadly, we had Nemo and he was not allowed on the actual beach so we had to opt for just walking on the walkway and look down upon the beach. Nemo didn't cry as much as he did when we took him to the water in Malmö, but then he couldn't see that it was directly there unless he jumped up on the rail. Which he did..

There were soooo many of these little places, it was ace.
Rows and rows and so many sections!
If I was to have one of these little sheds for when I was at the beach..
I would totally make mine a TARDIS!

Long tongue is long.
Tired Nemo is tired.

We stopped for a break at the little cafe type place.
Nemo enjoyed some water and Em and I shared a fanta.. which wasn't cold.
Seriously, who sells warm fanta at the beach? Uncool!

We made our way back from the beach to the train station and awaited the long journey home.. we pulled up a pew and waited.. Nemo got to have another drinkage.. it was hot, so I don't blame him. Doesn't he look adorable drinking out of his little travel bowl?

He just loves to try and drink the water as we pour from the bottle to the bowl tho, which isn't so nice when he has to share the water with his mummas!

The ride home was loooong.. but it was made a little more entertaining by the fact that Emma made a little friend! This rather little lad just thought Emma was the beezkneez! I kinda have to agree! I think he would have kidnapped Emma, if he was given the chance, and the ability to pick her up that is! Emma, also made an older friend.. some creepy old dude who kept looking at her like they were having some kind of convo. He was sitting next to me and every time Emma looked in his direction he gave her some kind of look.. I did not see this look coz I did not dare turn my head around enough to see him.. a wise decision, I thinketh!

Once home, we showered, had some noodles for dinner and kicked back with a beer.. or well I kicked back with a beer.. what beer? but a beer from Ystad! It was quite nice! It went down a treat and completed the Ystad themed day!

At the moment, Emma has this thing where she is buying lots of local beers for me to try.. I can't complain.. I currently have about half a dozen different local swedish beers in the fridge readying themselves for my lips and tastebuds! Lucky beer and lucky me!