Fares and Markets

It's christmas time. And what comes with that? Markets!!

One of my au pair children had a christmas fare at her school last Thursday after school. She is in secondary school which means it goes beyond cute little sketches and cookies. They had popcorn, cupcake and fudge stands (a great christmas present I think) but also really interesting stuff for older people like cosmetics, clothes, shoes and one with fandom/book jewellery.

The Christmas markets in Kingston itself is rather small, just a few stands with mittens, christmas-y food and mulled wine, Surprisingly, there is always German beer somewhere. But lets be honest, German beer is just the best, even if I'm not much of a drinker.

There is at least one other market I want to check out when I have the time which is the one in Central London at the Southbank right next to the London Eye. It looks really lovely and even has a roller skates tent. Maybe next week I will visit.

Saturday

On Saturday we finally did a typical tourist activity again: visiting Westminster Abbey. As one of our four person group didn't buy an online ticket we had to stand in line but it didn't take long before we were in. I had a bit of a problem to be honest because I bought  student ticket but was only able to show my expired student card from secondary school. Mostly because I didn't think they would actually check it - they don't do it in cinemas! I got in anyways, even though I was warned to not use it again - oops...
WA is a lovely church that's even bigger than it looks from the outside. When you watch out, you see the graves of well-known personalities like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Sir Isaac Newton. The more prominent graves are the memorials for deceased Kings and Queens. It's where coronations and royal weedings take place and the famous Westminster Abbey Choir sings everyday apparently. It is definitely worth a visit.
Tip: buy the ticket online, it's cheaper and you can get in faster.

Sunday

On Sunday the British Street Food Festival took place in London right next to the O2 Arena. It was only 5 pound which is really cheap - even  though kinda ridiculous when you think about it; you pay just so you can buy food. At least a beer was included in the prize. And it was nice. There was a tent with live music and a gigantic deckchair. Outside there were food trucks for Italian pasta, pizza, meatballs, sushi, ribs, seafood...
They even had smaller portions just for trying which were cheaper and made it possible to try different things. Of course, the reason for that was that you got a chip in the beginning that you could use as a vote for your favorite dish. I have no idea who won it the end as we left early, but out of the two things I had (fried lasagna rolls vs ribs) I liked the lasagna better. It's just a new idea that not everyone had tried before.

The problem with the whole event is that no amongst of bonfires and heating mantles can fully warm you up. We wanted to sit down in a Costa before going back into Central London; however all the places were occupied which means we did manage to get warm on the inside thanks to coffe and hot chocolate but we were still colder than wanted because we had to sit outside on a bench. And it was getting darker and darker so we went back into the tub and drove into the city. There we limited our visit to a walk through the Oxford street before going home.
London during Christmas time is really magical. All the fairy lights and the fact that it gets dark rather quickly makes everything look so much more interesting than it is already. Of course it is entirely different from a small town or even village with snow and poeple running around with five layers of clothes, but it's a good kind of different. I really enjoy it and look forward to Christmas itself.