London Eye and Borough Market

When traveling in foreign countries, it's neat to see the popular tourist destination, but in my opinion it's way more fun to go off the beaten path a little and find some not as well known attractions. Today's adventures were a balance of standard tourism and fun exploring, as we hit up both the London Eye and the Borough Market!

This morning, we had tickets for the London Eye at 10 AM, so we left our flat around 8:30 and made the trip by foot. Stupid Gabriela neglected to take a photo of the Eye itself, but it's just a ginormous ferris wheel with massive "capsules."

Each ride lasts about 30 minutes, and offers beautiful views of the entire city.

Definitely not for those with a fear of heights!

The House of Parliament from the bottom, midway and top:

Me and the pops!

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It was still pretty early by the time we got down, so we grabbed some tea and a snack at a cafe and slowly meandered over to Borough Market, our next stop on the agenda. It was a long (and chilly, for this sandal-wearing girl!) walk, so the first thing our minds when we reached the market area was lunch! We found a cute little bistro and wine bar called Bedales.

I got a delicious salad with greens, tomatoes, half an avocado and a small mountain of prawns, all topped with creamy dressing and served with super soft French bread.

My only qualm was the amount of dressing- I scraped a decent amount off of each bite, but it was still pretty doused!

My dad, meanwhile, got a vegetable sandwich with mozzarella cheese, which he also raved about.

Once our tummies were satisfied, it was time to explore the market! Oh....my...gosh. There were no words.

It reminded me a lot of the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market in San Francisco. Stall after stall of food vendors, delicious smells wafting everywhere, tons of free samples....WHY does New York City not have one of these?!

My dad and I were instantly intrigued by a beer market, where I found a completely life-changing beverage...

Why yes, yes indeed. That would be a Titanic Brewery "Iceberg" beer. There were three varieties, and I wanted to buy them all, but then I would have had to carry them home. We settled on just one, and it's currently chilling in the fridge for later consumption!

Not impressed by ship-named beer, my dad bought himself a cider. Suit yourself, dad, but the Titanic will be better.

We also had a few samples, including cheese, fig bars, olive oil and bread topped with amazing sea-salted butter.

Initially I was wondering where all the dessert was, but once we crossed the street to a different section of the market, I realized we'd just been looking in the wrong place! We stopped by a fudge place and bought a few treats, including treacle fudge, chocolate tangerine fudge, chocolate covered honeycomb and a chili-chocolate fudge that had a definite kick to it.

Gone in .1 seconds. I choked a bit on a piece of fudge from eating it so quickly, but hey, it's all good ;)

We also picked up a few miniature Lebanese treats, including a pistachio pastry, a pistachio "nest," baklava and tiny phyllo fingers.

Now, we're just back at the apartment hanging out for a bit. My feet are so sore from all the walking we've been doing- it's nice to just sit on the couch!

Does your city have a farmer's market? What about something even better, like the Borough Market? The Union Square Farmer's Market is really neat, but it wasn't a patch on this place.