London

I went to London for training with work. Each morning I would walk a little over 20 minutes from the Waldorf Astoria near Covant Garden to the diamond district where our training room was located.

I’d take a new route every morning stop at a different cafe for breakfast. The flat white is my new favorite drink – but forget buying one at Starbucks (they don’t know how to make it properly).

The coffee is sooo good! Part of the reason is because the people there love good coffee and they have expensive machinery and experienced baristas. The other reason is because the milk actually has flavor to it, unlike the ultra-pastuerized stuff that tastes more watered down in the U.S.

I enjoyed all my breakfasts except for the porridge, which is essentially oatmeal, and apparently Londoner’s don’t have cholesterol issues because I couldn’t find any place that had egg whites.

The people in London are exceedingly polite, and the crowd is the most international that I’ve seen in any city including D.C. or N.Y. I told Declan that if I’d traveled to London at age 25 I never would have returned home. The city felt like the home I’d never visited.

The size of the city is perfect, and unlike visiting NY, where I need a break after about 3 days of frenetic living, I never felt overwhelmed or rushed. You can walk or bike anywhere, and there is amazing history, architecture, and beautiful people of all types.