An away day

N and I felt the need to getaway this weekend. Sometimes we just have to get away.

We took the bus (not Neil's favourite mode of transport) to London Embankment and started to wander. It felt like such a long time since we'd been to certain places in London. Like our favourite Thai restaurant Busaba, or walking through Covent Garden. It surprised me how easily I remembered the route from one place to the next. We walked from The Strand through backstreets to Covent Garden, through the most annoying pedestrians to Neal Street and Neal's Yard. From there it was like my feet knew the route to Soho better than my eyes.

There were a few downsides to the day:

1. It was humid, but not unbearable especially when it rained slightly to cool us off.

2. The worst part of the day was arriving at Busaba for the world's best calamari (or at least it is the best on my search so far), only to discover they weren't serving any due to a fryer problem... oh, and they'd run out of jasmine tea!

3. There was also a lack of decent looking cake and coffee places on our route, and since Google was being outdated we never found somewhere to just sit and relax.

4. Finally, the aquarium seemed overrun with noisy and impatient foreign children which forced Neil to learn how to say "Look, it's Nemo!" in at least 5 different languages.*

There were also good parts to the day:

1. Being away from obligations and all the things we "should be doing".

2. Finding decent cocktails for only £4 each at a bar near the bus stop.

3. Some of the tropical freshwater aquariums were very inspiring.

4. Eating Phad Thai (me) and a tasty green curry (N) in the window seat at Busaba.

5. Discovering a Mexican restaurant (Wahaca) to try next time we're in London.

6. And yes - I'm cheesy enough to say it - the best part was spending a day just enjoying sunny London with N... but next time we're stopping for cake.

*Spanish: "¡La mirada, es Nemo!"; Italian: "Lo sguardo, è Nemo!"; Portuguese: "O olhar, é Nemo!"; Russian: "Слушайте, это - Прямой репортаж!"; and Japanese: "見てください、Nemoです！".