London according to Miss Amy Knutson

Hello! I asked Amy to write something for the blog about her trip. Just reading this made me laugh and miss you so much more, Amy. Here is her entry...


In my short life, I have been fortunate enough to do one of my favorite things very frequently, travel. I have taken pictures with my favorite Disney characters, gotten food poisoning from bean curds in Ghana, toured former concentration camps in Buenos Aires, stayed in a Grecian mountain village with my Grandma, got rip-roaring drunk on a family cruise in Washington D.C. and got engaged in the mountains of Vail, Colorado, and while all of these vacations were great memories they couldn’t have been great without the people I was lucky to be with. London was no different because I was there with my sister.

I am sad to say that London and I didn’t start off on the greatest foot. I have taken my fair share of sleepless 8 hour plane rides before, but when your traveling companion sleeps almost the entire flight and you are struggling for ten minutes of shut eye, your ability to see the bright side of things severely diminishes. However, Joanna was gracious enough to meet us at the train station with her apartment keys, so I could take a much needed nap. Three hours later we wake up and get ready. Down the four flights of stairs and who should be standing outside our door but Kelly. I was so excited I almost cried. The next seven days were a whirlwind of lots of walking, bone-chilling cold, cobblestone sidewalks, museums, Strongbow and chips.

Our first full day Kelly took us around to the staple sights one has to see in London. Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Leicester Square, Big Ben, the London Eye and Millennium Bridge were all on our walking tour. Kaydi and I were having our first experience with the London weather, that while is usually at a balmy 34 degrees can feel like negative 34 with the dampness in the air. So by 1:00 pm we needed to get inside and get some food. We found a pub on the river, which for Kelly’s memory is called Doggert’s, that had a 5 pound lunch and Strongbow on tap. Somehow in our attempt to get warm with alcohol we somehow managed to get a little drunk. Neither Kelly nor I can figure out how it happened, but it is London so why not.

That night we checked out some bars, not pubs, around Trafalgar and Leicester Squares. London is usually super-expensive especially in Zone 1, but being the bargain hunters we are, we somehow got 4 drinks and 3 appetizers for 14 pounds. At Zoo bar there was a Harry Potter look alike whose rhythm was slightly off beat and in our state late in the evening, watching him try to dance entertained us for about an hour.

Thursday was my favorite day. We found the Peter Pan statue (to those who know me you know why this was such a big deal). We toured a Kensington Palace which was great because not only did many of the rooms look like they had during Queen Victoria’s childhood, but they had Princess Diana’s dresses!! Yeah Dresses!!! Moving on, that night we sat around the Victoria pub and did my favorite thing in London: drank Strongbow, chatted and ate chips. Seriously, I wish there were more pubs with that atmosphere in the US. Although, Legends is pretty fantastic.

Friday, the day of my debacle. After an amazing Italian dinner Jo, Kaydi and I went to a bar and met Sir David Frost’s son. Yes, that Sir David Frost from the amazing interviews he did with President Nixon. That guy. However, instead of believing that this young man was the son of an icon, I proceeded to make fun. I believe my answer to his, “I’m David Frost’s son” was “Yeah, my name is Amy Obama and my boyfriend is Robert Pattinson” Smooth, especially when I got home and found a family picture online that confirmed that was a smooth move. Haha, now I can laugh but at the time I was mortified.

However, my mortification was quickly eclipsed by Aladin, this amazing BYOB Indian place on Brick Lane Kaydi, Jo, Hal, Viv, Kelly and I trekked to on Saturday. So good, my mouth is watering right now. I have already scoped out the best Indian spots in MSP to visit very soon. Kelly mentioned the “Kelly from Coronation Street” incident which was bizarre. After that we proceeded to dance the night way until 3 o’clock in the morning. However, Jo and I got a little detoured on the night bus at which did not get us to Paddington until 4 am. Oops.

Sunday involved another dinner adventure in Thai food at the Churchill Arms, again it was amazing. Now I just have to convince Grant that there are Thai and Indian cuisine choices that he would like, a lot harder than it sounds. Monday finally rolled around, I was happy to come home to my own bed, but I wanted to bring Kelly with me. We have gone three solid months without seeing one another before, but it seems that much harder when there is an ocean between us. Monday night Kelly, Hal, Kaydi and I sat down for one more Strongbow (or three) before we left. I agree with Kelly the London pub scene is much better than the US bar scene. Maybe if Century just hung up some pictures of old British royalty and served chips we could all pretend. But until than I will miss London and my sister.

Cheers!
Amy