Ann and I have picked up and moved twice now, first to Minneapolis, and now of course to London. If you have made moves like this, you know that often times you leave family, friends, and familiarity behind. For Ann and I, we love the adventure of discovering new places, meeting new people, and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone, and the great thing is that we always have each other. We have discovered with each of our moves though, especially as we get a bit older, it gets more difficult to meet people that you want to call friends. We found this to be the case in Minneapolis, and maybe even more so in London. If you would ask either of us, I would say good friends is the thing that we miss most here. I have started this entry with this because the last week and a half we were reunited with our incredible friends Patrick and Susie. They too had moved to Minneapolis shortly before us for Susie to attend law school, and it just happened that Patrick and I started at Target the same day. Well, a man-crush formed then as we reminisced about these last 2 weekends, and the rest is history. When we shared the news about London, I think that it was harder to tell Patrick and Susie than it was our parents!!! They were the first people to book their trip over here to see us, which seemed like forever ago, and it finally arrived last weekend.
We had such a blast last weekend on their London leg of the trip. Due to their overnight travel and exhausted state, we took it pretty easy on Friday night. We hit the Churchill Arms for a few pints and then a great dinner at the Ark in Notting Hill. It was so fun to be able to catch up and be in the comfort of great friends. Saturday, we awoke with a half day agenda of sightseeing(Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, The Horse Grounds, Downing Street, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, and lunch at Borough Market) and then a fantastic pub crawl for the remainder of the day and night. The day lived up to absolutely every expectation. It was their first time to London, so it was fun to see them register what we live and breathe every day, and just see the amazement on their faces of the architecture, insane history, unique pubs, and cellar temperature beer;) Saturday was filled with a lot of laughs, especially Ann and Susie getting into an abortion argument which prompted Patrick to get up and go and randomly sit down with a table of English University students. The highlight of the night had to be Oliver(random old Irish guy in last pub) that was obsessed with Susie and Ann. It started because he had asked Patrick to play the Doors on the Jukebox and from there we invited him to sit down with us. At one point, we actually even got shooshed from the bartender. Who gets shooshed in a pub at midnight on a Saturday?
Sunday, we toured Camden Town in the rain and then caught a canal taxi from Camden to Little Venice. We could have walked faster than the boat moved, but it was still a fun experience. We went for a very traditional Indian meal on Sunday night. There are some incredible Indian restaurants in London, and we have grown to love Indian food. Monday, Patrick and Susie took a day trip out to Cambridge and then the 4 of us actually had a dinner in at our flat on Monday night. Tuesday started Patrick and Susie's 2nd leg of the trip, Ireland. They flew to Cork on Tuesday morning where they were renting a car to drive up through Dingle and Killarney. As planned, Ann and I were flying on Thursday night to meet up with them in Dublin for their final weekend abroad.
It was so comforting to be reunited with great friends and share our lives in London. The Knapp-King Reunion - Part 2 - Dublin to follow soon!!!
Cheers
Kevin
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