Cool Britannia

So I recently escaped to Londontown, the second city I ever called home and the place that I always dream of running back to (soon to happen I hope!) and I thought I would share some of my favourite things to do in the big smoke. To make a rough guide to London would be impossible and outdated the moment it is completed, in a truly vibrant and alive metropolitan city like this we all find our little corners, flavors and scents and make up our very own experience of this magically chaotic place. This is mine.

London you may be harsh and fast-paced and ridiculously expensive but you always keep me on my toes make me feel like I never know what might be waiting for me just around the corner. A love letter to the city where everything seems to be happening!

Life in the West

For Brunch:

Truc Vert: Eggs Benedict royal have become our Sunday ritual, really cozy cafe/delicatessen located in the heart of Mayfair 

For your afternoon tea:

Sketch: easily my favourite cafe in the whole wide world, delicious sandwiches and cakes and the coolest toilets I have ever seen! You can also enjoy a cocktail after hours but stay away from the restaurant at night, overpriced disappointing food!

Laduree: a good excuse to enjoy those delicious macaroons 

For Lunch and Dinner:

Aubaine: five lovely french restaurants scattered around West London, perfect for a relaxed dinner, the lobster spaghetti and the beef fillet are delicious! They also make their own bread!

Beach Blanket Babylon: I used to live just around the corner in lovely Notting Hill so I ended up going there for a quick drink on a regular basis, beautiful people and a lovely kitsch decor. I am sure the food must be decent too!

Bob Bob Ricard: Lovely retro aesthetics with baby pink details,delicious lobster burgers, and ample champagne along with a special "PRESS FOR CHAMPAGNE" button. Love it!

Randall & Aubin: Absolutely adore this Soho Brasserie, the oyster platter is a real treat!

Momo: for delicious Lebanese food and fresh mint tea

For movies:

Electric Cinema: Reserve an old velvet couch, lay back and enjoy some pumpkin hummus and a glass of good wine during the nights feature presentation


Curzon Cinema: Absolutely adore the one in Soho, excellent programming, you get the chance to enjoy a lot of indie gems and a beer before the movie whilst you browse through their DVD collection is a must!

For a real treat:

Hakkasan: an amazing culinary journey and spectacular exotic cocktails 

NOBU: simply the best sushi in the universe

Yauatcha:  amazing dumplings, crispy duck salad and cocktails!

Gordon Ramsay: enough said!

Asia De Cuba: for the decor by the one and only Mr Stark 

To shop till you drop:

Selfridges: It simply has it all! And the best store windows ever!

Browns: Love love love their selection of the beautifulest clothes around!

Dover Street Market: get lost in the asymmetrical world of Comme des Garcons, amazing brands and items!

Fortnum & Mason: for some delicious luxury grocery shopping

Top Shop: The best high street has to offer

Bond Street for all the boutiques!

I can never resist visiting 

Foyles to catch up on my reading and HMV for the amazingly cheap DVDs and to get up to date to what the kids are into today in terms of music!

The Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill after a Saturday stroll through Portobello Market

I have also established another London ritual champagne with Stan the moment I set my foot in the City at the Champagne Bar at St Pancras can't think of a better welcome 

Life in the East 

To shop:

Beyond Retro: Vintage gems to be cherished

Absolute Vintage: another treasure chest for the lovers of vintage clothes

Columbia Road Flower Market: all those beautiful flowers can make anybody's day! The perfect Sunday activity!

Spitafields Market: mainly for the delicious food but for also for everything else your heart desires every Sunday!

To eat and drink and dance:

The Old Blue Last: for hipster fun, gigs and Vice parteys  


Hawksmoor: for the deliciously cheap burgers, the perfect drinks and the great atmosphere!

The Big Chill Bar: For the music! 

Cafe 1001: for the unexpected concert fun, the good music and the Sunday BBQs

Favela Chic: for the mojitos and the fun (though the one in gay Paris is way more fun!)

Jamie Oliver's Fifteen: strongly recommend the lunch menus! A delicious bargain! 

and last but not least the open 24 hours 7 days a week Brick Lane Bakery, for the best beigels in town!

Other essentials

Efes Pool Club & Bar: where all the indie kids stumble drunkenly at the end of the night to smoke some fags, play some pool and enjoy a can of beer for 1,50! Open until 6 in the morning!


White Heat: put on your dancing shoes and have some fun.

Tate Modern: One of my favourite museums! Love the late night visits on Fridays and Saturdays!

National Portrait Gallery: they usually have amazing exhibitions, and are currently hosting the super popular portraits by Lucian Freud (expect a review after my visit at the end of April!)

V&A: for their exhibitions

The Old Vic: for some culture! Kevin Spacey is the Artistic Director of this lovely theater!

Ronnie Scott's: for all that jazz! 

All those lovely baby pink details at Bob Bob Ricard

Cool Britannia

Toilets at Sketch

Sketch

Sommerset House: where you can ice skate during winter and enjoy exhibitions and art fairs all year round! 

Athens: I was born and raised in your summer haze!

So being from Greeceland at the moment is interesting to say the least. In our modern times of fast travel and mingled nationalities one of the first questions to ask when you meet someone is "where are you from?", and the reply "I am a Greek girl living in Brussels" usually elicits reactions such as "AAWW you poor people", "How is it over there at the moment?", "Do you still have family there? Is your family ok?" Or a forced long discussion over the future of the euro, the eminent collapse of capitalism and the demonization of Goldman Sachs, the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money! :) So I decided to give you another taste of Greeceland, and specifically Athens, the city where I was born and raised and the city that will always break my heart. This is the 8th year that I have been living abroad and every time I visit Athens it keeps getting harder and harder to say goodbye. Athens is a massive metropolitan city full of traffic, air pollution, garbage and hideous Soviet style apartment buildings yet it's beauty is beyond words! The center of Athens has a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain magic if you will. There are a million little hidden treasures around every corner, whether it is a cool little Berlin style bar (after all Athens is the new Berlin for those of you that haven't noticed yet!), a family run restaurant where tomatoes are delicious and you basically eat your grandmothers food for a meager price, or the gorgeous graffiti that has started covering and transforming all those Soviet style buildings into works of art. Our streets are alive and so are our people, something revolutionary is bubbling away from the politics and the violence and some of the most interesting and avant-garde works of art have started coming from our little country. In times of crisis art blossoms and let us not forget that chaos breeds creation. So this is a love letter to Athens and a little tour of my favourite things to see and do in our blessed little piece of land.

For drinks and midnight fun:

HOXTON Bar and Gallery
Voutadon 42, Gazi, Athens
If I ever opened a bar it would look like this, an industrial space with big worn out Chesterfield sofas, library lamps, a rotating art exhibition, rock&roll music, a bunch of old clocks and great Bloody Marys during happy hour!



SIX D.O.G.S.
6-8 Avramiotou, Monastiraki, Athens
For the coolest hidden garden in all of Athens, home-made little treats, late night dancing, concerts and really delicious dinners on special occasions





BOOZE COOPERATIVA 
Kolokotroni 57, Athens
Located in a beautiful neoclassical building BOOZE is the perfect place to enjoy a smoke (the owner has a strict smoking policy! Smoking is to be encouraged and enjoyed in this bar), a game of chess, lovely lady DJs, art exhibitions, video projections, performances and the occassional random party on the second floor after the witching hour!

BIOS
Peireos 84, Athens
For pretty much everything! The best view of Athens and the Acropolis during the summer when the terrace is open, gigs, exhibitions, screenings, workshops, performances, the quirky decor! 






NIXON

Agisilaou 61 B , Keramikos, Athens

For great cocktails, a bite to eat and film screenings

POP
Kleitiou 10B
A tiny favourite little bar with great indie music and amazing cocktails, try the Zombie, sweet but lethal!

TΩΡΑ Κ44
Konstantinoupoleos 44, Gazi, Athens
Easily the coolest interior in any bar in Athens! Great cocktails and parties ansd a lot of local bands have gigs there.

TAF- The art foundation
Nomarxou 5, Monastiraki, Athens
A hidden gem, one of the most interesting spaces for exhibiting art. Behind a tiny wooden door lies a yard surrounded by a decrepid two story building that dates back to 1870 and serves as a gallery for experimental art! ENJOY!


So just a tour of my favourite bars has taken longer than expected so restaurants, galleries and fun things to do will follow, I leave you with a quote from a really accurate article on Athens that was recently published in the New York Times

"Athens is an anarchic, overcaffeinated mess of a city, filled with oleander and concrete, jasmine and car exhaust: part Milan and part Karachi, a strange combination of European sophistication and third world chaos." AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE IT!

New York Times Article: In Athens art blossoms amid debt crisis

Me in front of work by the French artist Matthieu Laurette at the Kunsthalle Athena.



Our city is praying (right next to Omonia square where the heroin junkies hang out). My favourite graffiti at the moment.