#the koops

Allright everyone, as promised I have written you a saga revolving around the wonderful week I spent with my family exploring London. First things first, I have been looking forward to this week for over a month, not all 21 year olds get to say they genuinely love hanging out with their family, so I'm pretty damn lucky. Plus at a certain point you just miss home a little, ya know? I usually get to see my parents halfway through the semester on some break, but not this time, so after three months I was definitely ready for a taste of home. And the best part is that the goodbye was helped by the fact that I'm going home in less than a month! That's crazy! But look at me talking about the end before I've been gotten to the beginning, that's not fair. Let's back track a bit. 

So I cut Morocco’s post short because I knew this one would be long. Let's pick up right where I stopped, shall we? I arrived in London around 7:30, managed to get through customs and home relatively quickly, so by 9 I was quickly throwing on some clean clothes and running to see my parents who conveniently rented an apartment (through airbnb) 5 minutes away. The reunion was like most go, lots of hugs, smiles and squeals (from all parties involved). I got a quick tour of the apartment an we set out for a late dinner. We went around the corner to a small Italian place with decent enough food. We discussed the following days plans, when Daryl was arriving and all about my week in Spain. After some delicious tiramisu, we continued catching up back at the apartment, and finally when I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore I returned home to finally pass out. 

Friday: I woke up early to start our first day together! With Daryl arriving between 3 and 4 we wanted to do something fun in the morning and make sure we were back in time to meet him at the apartment. This could only mean one thing, food! If you were unaware our family is a bunch of foodies. We love food. All types (except my dad and I hate curry...) so naturally we ventured to Borough Market to get some tasty treats. While there we ran into my cousin Charlotte, who is studying in London as well and whose family was conveniently visiting at the same time (we knew this ahead of time). So our group of 3 tripled to 9, which was great because we all got to taste so much more food that way. We picked up some fresh food for the apartment, including ingredients for my dad's amazing rack of lamb, planning to make it for dinner on Sunday. After everyone was sufficiently stuffed we went back to the apartment to wait for Daryl. 

When he arrived more hugs smiles and squeals occurred, you've got to realize people, getting the four of us in the same state let alone room is incredibly difficult, so we get pretty excited when we get time together. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and getting ready for dinner which was with the entire extended family.  When it came time for dinner we took an über (a funky taxi-like service that Daryl uses in San Francisco) to the restaurant only to find out that we had gone to the restaurant reserved for the next night..... Classic Koop shenanigans. So now we're already 10 minutes late and 20 minutes away from the actual restaurant. Daryl gets another über, we pile back in and head to the actual restaurant. Sidenote the car was pretty tense, travel stresses people out, but all I could think of was my girl El Nel saying "honey it happens!! They're your family, they'll wait!" Which is exactly what she would have said was completely true. 

We arrived and ended up having a lovely dinner with Charlotte, her family, my grandfather and his girlfriend Dianne. Daryl spent the majority of the meal explaining what he does for a living (which is complicated and would take another very long post to just attempt explaining) and I have to say I was so damn proud of him. My brother is brilliant people. If you don't know him, you really should. Actually it's funny because Dianne had never met Daryl, and when she asked about him at the beginning of dinner my response was "this is my brother, he is everything I'm not and a hell of a lot better than I am." And it's the truth-- he's the one person I wish I could be more like. By the end of the meal I looked at Dianne and said "like I said, everything I'm not and a hell of a lot better" and just smiled. It was something I'll remember for a long time. By the time we got home it was late and everyone was exhausted, so I walked home and crashed. 

Saturday: We woke up to decent weather! Which was not what we expected, so we decided to take advantage and go to the Tower of London! For those who don't know, the Tower of London, known formally as Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, is a historic castle in London that was built during the 1000's, so basically it's really old (there are pictures to come).  The coolest part is that it houses the crown jewels, which were stunning. They are set up in a line, with moving walkways on either side to ensure that people don't stand there and stare for house (which is probably what I would have done...). Then afterwards they have the Queen's crown (I think) on display for people to stop and look at--when you have a crown that has jewels so big they have their own names you know it's a big deal. Anyway, after the Tower of London, we tried to find lunch, which for the record we pretty much failed at.  Turns out last weekend marked one of London's bank holiday's which basically means everything is closed. We finally stumbled upon a pub and stopped for some pub food and beer.  We then head back to the apartment to hang out before the second big family dinner.  This time we made it to the correct restaurant (hooray!) and had another delicious meal with the extended family.  Dinner ended late and we all decided to go to bed afterwards. 

Sunday: okay sooo sunday we had plans with the extended family to go to the Tate Modern to see the Matisse Cut Out exhibit. So the exhibit is in pretty high demand and requires tickets to enter.  Those tickets are for a specific time, and our were for 11:30, so I rose early(ish), went to the apartment, had some breakfast and left to go see the exhibit.  Personally I wasn't that inspired, I have a complicated relationship with art, I'm much better with photography.  I've actually been trying to figure out why I have a rough time connecting with art, and I think part of it is because of how it's displayed in museums, I do much better when I'm left alone to wander on my own.  Plus I think I need to invest the time in the audio guides because I enjoy having background knowledge regarding what I'm looking at. Let's just say my relationship with art is in the works. Following the exhibit we set out to find some lunch.  After attempting to go to a restaurant above Borough Market called roast, we ended up at a small tapas place around the corner.  I actually got to suggest some dishes because of newly acquired knowledge of tapas after spending a decent amount of time in Spain, so that was cool.  We then tried to beat the rain by going to the British Museum so I could show my dad the famous Benin Bronzes, which are basically only “famous” in our family because I wrote a paper about them. Before we got to the museum we made a pit stop at a shoe store to get Daryl some shoes, apparently he hadn’t noticed the gaping hole in his boots before he came. At the end of a long day we went back to the apartment to cook dinner, specifically my dads delicious rack of lamb, and had a great time relaxing and doing things on our own schedule.

Monday: after debate regarding the weather the previous night we woke up Monday morning to sun! So we took advantage by heading over to the London Eye, apparently we weren’t the only ones.  Even though we got there shortly after it opened, it was packed with people! Luckily they only let so many people into the pods, and even my father, who gets claustrophobic and isn’t the biggest fan of heights really enjoyed it.  We got some fantastic views of the city, my mom got to ask 100 questions about different building I didn’t know, and everyone was happy.  Following the Eye, we had a lunch reservation at a restaurant called Cerviche. It’s actually a Pisco bar, which if you didn’t know, pisco is a type of brandy apparently made during winemaking (thanks Wikipedia), that specializes in I bet you can guess it… cerviche! To say the food was amazing is probably an understatement, and the pisco was yummy too!  I truly think it was the best meal we had all week (and we had some pretty amazing food).  I will have to find a way to get back there before I go home. After a lovely lunch we decided to walk around Regents Street, which was a huge mistake, remember the whole bank holiday thing?  Yeah so Monday was the second part of the bank holiday, which basically meant everyone and their mother was out and about.  We decided to ditch the area and ended up at Portobello Market out in Notting Hill? It was much less crowded and much nicer to walk around.  We stopped into some small shops, and enjoyed the afternoon.  Later, for dinner, we went to a Vietnamese place, it was crowded and pretty loud, not my favorite atmosphere if we’re being honest, but I had really wanted to try Vietnamese and the food was very tasty, different from what I’m used to, but good.

Tuesday: So Tuesday we did some more artsy stuff, but this was more up my alley.  We went to the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibit called Bailey’s Stardust.  It's a portrait collection by David Bailey, a famous photographer who’s had quite a long career.  He started in the mid 1950s and quickly rose to prominence, being contracted by Vogue as their fashion photographer.  He was good friends with Mick Jagger and was responsible for many of their album covers. Most of his shoots were of his good friends, many of whom you’d recognize easily (Jack Nicholas, Susan Sarandon, Michael Caine, just to name a few).  Basically it was awesome, his work is so interesting and his portraits are phenomenal.  I was riveted, my favorite was a portrait of Marianne Faithful from 1964, where the photograph is taken at such an angle that the composition is just striking.  Anyway I won’t continue on my rant of amazing photography.  After we left the gallery we walked around the block to Trafalgar Square to see the big blue rooster statue that’s on display, that was a quick pit stop, and then we walked to a restaurant called 10 Greek Street (incase you ever want to go, fun fact, it’s located at 10 greek street).  Lucky for us, a part had not shown up for the reservation (who knew you needed a reservation for lunch) and we were seated immediately.  The food was delicious, they made this mushroom and leek soup that was heavenly, so much so that when we commented to the waiter that we intended to try and copy it he promptly brought us the recipe from the kitchen!  It was a very kind gesture and I really hope we try it sometime. After lunch we continued around the area, and Daryl took us to a café that apparently had a good review for his favorite type of coffee.  The café was called Foxcroft and Ginger and like most coffee shops that aren’t starbucks, it had a very hipster, laid back vibe.  We all got flat whites, which is a preparation style of coffee that uses expresso and milk in a 1:2 ratio.  Its stronger than I’m used to but it was very yummy.  Afterwards we head back to the apartment to hang out before dinner. 

Dinner was at a French restaurant called Whit, and since it was another bank holiday, we were literally one of two parties in the entire restaurant.  The meal was delicious and the service was very attentive (it’s not like they had anything else to do).  Oh we all ordered dessert because a bunch of stuff sounded amazing, what we didn't realize was that each dessert was basically a medley of desserts associated with the description, so we struggled to eat the immense amount of treats, but they were delicious. Like most other nights, when we got back we hung out for a little before everyone had to go crash.

Wednesday: Wednesday it was time to get out of London for a little.  We woke up early to catch a train to Hampton Court Palace, one of the palaces, which just happens to be a short hour outside the city.  The palace is a quick walk from the train station, and has some amazing gardens.  We spent the morning roaming the halls learning about the British monarchy.  We brought our lunch so when we got hungry we picnicked in the gardens and enjoyed the beautiful day.  We had a mini family photoshoot because we no longer have enough pictures of just the four of us, so that was kind of funny setting timers and running to get the shot.  We ventured to the palaces maze and somehow found our way to the middle and after wandering through the gardens for the afternoon we hopped back on a train, came back to London and prepped for an early dinner. 

Why an early dinner you may be wondering, because at 7:30 we had tickets to see the Book of Mormon, a show I’ve been dying to see!  We’ve had the tickets for months and everyone was pretty excited to see it.  We started off having dinner at a one star Michelin rated Dim Sum restaurant with the worst service ever but some really great food.  Following dinner we head off to see the show, which was absolutely hysterical!  I’m telling you, if you have the chance to go see that show, definitely do it.  We were laughing the entire time! And random fun facts, the two leads were played by actors who graduated from both Michigan (#GOBLUE) and NYU! Anyway after the show we came back to the apartment to have tea and chocolate, and eventually crashed for the night.

Thursday: another early morning—are you noticing a pattern here? Thursday we decided to explore yet another market! I found Greenwich Market online and thought would be a fun destination because it’s known as a very “antique-y’ market, which my parents really enjoy.  Greenwich was about a 40 minute trip from the apartment, if you haven’t noticed we really spent the week exploring all different areas of London, it’s an incredibly expansive city. Although it was a bit gloomy, the market is covered and very quaint.  We walked around the area, checked out the shops that surround the marketplace, my mom even ended up finding glasses she bought for the house!  Oh and of course I found some really cute shoes… what can I say, it’s a gift. We stayed in the area for lunch, attempting to get sushi from one of the highest rated restaurants in the city (by tripadvisor) only to be told that the sushi chef was in the hospital and no in! So we swapped around the order and ended up having some tasty Japanese food.

 When we returned to the city it was pretty late in the afternoon.  It had unfortunately dawned on me that I needed to get some work done for school stuff, so I went back to my flat to get some things done, while my family went to the super market to pick up food to make dinner with.  We had decided to do dinner at the apartment and give us a bit a break from going out constantly.  We made Caesar Salad and Grilled chicken, as always, it was absolutely delicious, and the perfect taste of home. When we were done, my dad and I took a quick walk around the corner back to the little Italian place on the corner of their block and picked up dessert.  We returned to have tea and tiramisu, chatting about the day and what we’ve got going on as a family.  I returned home around midnight to get some rest before our last full day together.

Friday: Friday we did things a little differently, instead of getting and getting out relatively early we decided to make a big breakfast/brunch for everyone.  This consisted of fresh fruit, eggs, bacon and French toast.  I was literally in heaven. When we (lets be real, when I) finished stuffing my face, we decided to head to one more museum and check out the Tate Britain.  They were showing an exhibit called “Source” which revolved all around media, digital artwork and how it’s displayed.  The exhibit turned out to be a singular room with all these different pictures and pieces of art hanging on one wall, and a projected screen on the opposite wall showing different images.  In the middle there were couches and headsets that allowed people to listen to certain sounds that were set to accompany specific images.  It was such an interesting concept for an exhibit, I’m not sure I loved it, but it was definitely different from anything I’ve ever seen.  Also, a painting my mother happens to love was being shown there, so we went to find that too.

I’ll be honest I got bored pretty quickly after the media exhibit but I ended up finding another photography exhibit, but this was one was pretty depressing.  I can’t remember the photographers name, but he documented industrial cities in the UK during the 1980s, when their production was significantly decreasing and a lot of people were out of work.  It was interesting to see it after seeing Bailey’s Stardust, their pictures conveyed such different emotions.  There’s just something about photography I really connect with, the ability to capture a moment, a real moment, something that happened right in front of your eyes, and somehow managing to encapsulate it forever? That’s amazing.  Plus if you’re really good, the emotion that existed in that split moment will accompany the image too, and anyone that looks at it, they’ll know exactly what you felt when you took it, or how the person in the photo felt.  Maybe I’m romanticizing the whole thing, but that’s basically my fascination with it.

When we left the museum it was raining, so we decided to take a bus to our next destination, which was lunch.  Well I shouldn’t really say lunch, we actually went to a restaurant called Sketch for afternoon tea!  It was a suggestion from Hannah as an eclectic and different experience with tasty food and boy was she right!  There are multiple rooms you can sit in, all with different designs.  We sat in a parlor type room with huge couches and big comfy chairs to sit in, and a lot of pictures of people with goat heads… it was kind of bizarre but actually very comfortable and cool.  We ordered tea for two and an order of Mac n Cheese, which turned out to be enough food, and three different pots of tea.  It was a very British thing to do.  Oh and sidenote, they have the weirdest bathroom situation going on there.  I took pictures don't worry, but literally their bathrooms are these pods, I hate to say it but they were kind of glorified port-o-potties.  It was rather odd, but kind of funny too. Anyway after tea we stopped next door at the East India Tea Company for my parents to get people gifts and finally returned to the apartment around 6:30. As you can imagine, we decided to do a later dinner, and settled for a 9:30 reservation at a placed call name.  Dinner was delicious, actually the drinks kind of stole the show, they were really great.  As you can imagine it was pretty damn late when we were finally done, and everyone had to be up early because Daryl were leaving the next morning to go to Edinburgh for the weekend, while my parents were heading home! Everyone went to bed with the intention of waking up early and having one last meal together.

Saturday:  I woke up at the crack of dawn, again, to get my stuff together and head over the my parents apartment to have some breakfast.  We spent the next hour just hanging out together as a family, enjoying the company, since we knew the week was coming to a close.  Around 9:15 we began the process of hugging and saying goodbye and such.  It was truly an amazing week, and you guys just got the short version! To say I really needed the time with my family would be a massive understatement.  They’re basically the people keep me sane and for that I will be forever grateful.

So this brings the saga of the Koop’s to a close, but don't worry, I did mention that Daryl and I continued our adventure in Edinburgh for the weekend and that’s the next blog post I’ve got coming for ya! Check out the pictures from the week, they’re a mixture of mine and Daryl’s.  Hint: if they look really really amazing they’re probably Daryl’s. The kid brought really nice SLR and has a great eye, how was I supposed to compete with that?! Sending love to anyone who took the time to read this entire thing, man you guys are troopers.

Cheers!

Jamie