Sid Sees: My favourite London places.

I just spent seven weeks interning in London and although I've visited the city many times before, this time I managed to truly explore it. There wasn't that rush of having so many things to do because you're only visiting for five days or a week. This time, after work, I would go out, explore, enjoy, and relish. When I got back to Dubai I tried to round up what I thought were my favourite places. And after contemplating, I realized that all the things I like to do are around quirky, eccentric, offbeat, and small areas. Notting Hill is like that. So is St Christopher's Place. I'm tired of seeing the same shops and cafes wherever I go and this list contains some of the less explored but perhaps more beautiful and enjoyable places. London is truly a city to be savoured

London Top 10

· St Christopher's Place

Tucked away behind the never-ending hustle and bustle of Oxford Street, St Christopher's Place is a wonderful haven. You wouldn't really even stumble across it if you weren't looking for it. Just behind Selfridge's and FCUK on James Street, St. Christopher's Place holds a myriad of boutiques, cute shops, and most importantly: restaurants and cafes. There is a beautiful eco-friendly clothes boutique there right next to Mrs. Kibble's Olde Sweet Shoppe which is pink and white candy striped and sells the most amazing English sweets- especially the hard-boiled kind. The cafes and restaurants are around a little piazza and branch out to the left and right. It is most magical in the evenings when you can hear the sounds of chatter, knives and forks, and see the evening sky illuminating the dim lights of the eateries. The best thing about St. Christopher's Place is that the back streets where the boutiques are located and the square itself has a wonderful cobbled feel to it- reminiscent of faraway places in faraway times.

· Notting Hill

Two things come to mind when people hear "Notting Hill". First, the movie. Second, Saturday's Portobello Market. Everytime the Circle line Tube stopped at Notting Hill Gate all the tourists would excitedly say something in their respective languages and the only bits I managed to pick up were "Hugh Grant" and "Julia Roberts". Yes, Notting Hill is a beautiful movie, but Notting Hill itself is even more so. The best time to truly see the area for what it is is not on a Saturday morning. There's hardly any space to walk and it's not possible to take your time exploring- also, you'll miss out on beautiful little things that you might not spot otherwise. I've been to the Saturday Portobello Market twice but never managed to see all that I did when I visited on an early Friday afternoon. Portobello road has a completely different feel, and the walk from the tube station to the road itself is beautiful because you spot all these wonderfully colourful houses, from pinks to mint greens and even a wonderful cerulean blue one. The clothes, shoes, and home boutiques you see there are ones that you don't happen to see anywhere else- neither on the high street nor in Knightsbridge. It's amazingly quiet and leafy and everything has such a wonderfully creative feel about it. I came across some wonderful cafes serving eccentric off-beat menus, exotic sweets, and a wonderful organic fare which you could purchase to take home and cook as well.

· Motcomb Street

Since I was working literally one minute away from this wonderful little street, I happened to visit it almost every day for my lunch break. It seems quiet, like any other little street, but once you step onto it you discover the little world it contains. There are around four salons (just in that street alone!), a Waitrose, Stewart Parvin (the Queen's favourite designer, no less), a lovely Annick Goutal boutique, a chocolate shop called Rococo and eateries. I loved Ottolenghi where I would pick up wonderful salads and desserts (to ends of the calorie spectrum… but both equally delicious) and the Pantechnicon where I had lovely British strawberries and cream after a wonderful goat's cheese and capsicum terrine.

· Curzon Mayfair

Anyone who knows me knows it has been one of my goals to visit an independent movie house. And now that I have, I keep on wanting to go back. I finally managed to visit Curzon Mayfair where I watched the amazing French movie whose title in English was "The Big Picture". It's right next to the Saudi Embassy right on, surprise, Curzon Street, and is next to a Noura, a Lebanese restaurant, and Mamounia- one that I guess is Moroccan- both are perfect for a pre or post movie meal. But the cinema is wonderful. There is only one screen, but what an amazing screen it is. The entire cinema hall itself is breathtaking. And the lobby reminds me of something I usually see in movies. It is definitely an experience.

· Covent Garden

Well, who hasn't heard of Covent Garden. Former fruit and vegetable market now turned into a wonderful location full of markets and quirky shops. Going here on the weekends, you're bound to see street entertainers and stalls selling wonderfully diverse yet equally interesting goodies such as soaps, sweets, t-shirts, paintings, and jewelry. The shops surrounding them are wonderful as well- and let's not forget the bakeries. Ella's Bakehouse, Laduree (a wonderfully far cry from its Knightsbridge sister), and Candy Cakes… all beautiful.

· Hyde Park

London's parks are known as the city's lungs. And there are many of them. But perhaps Hyde Park is the most romanticized. And rightfully so… it is in a wonderfully convenient location- accessible from Knightsbridge, Kensington, Mayfair, Bayswater, and Oxford Street, it's perfect for a quiet getaway. My favourite things to do were go paddling, sit in the rose garden for hours and read a book, and have a picnic amongst squirrels trying to get some of your food (always carry some walnuts or almonds with yourself- they'll love you.)

· Borough Market

I discovered this on my last day in London when my boss took me there for lunch. It is a food market (read: foodie heaven) on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and there was everything from fish, vegetables, Earl Grey tea flavoured chocolate, and wonderful juice bars, to the breathtaking Southwark Cathedral right beside it. Right outside Borough Market is also Konditor and Cook- a bakery where I had one of my most favourite slices of cake ever: a lemon chiffon one with the lightest, most wonderful coat of lemon buttercream.

· Piccadilly Circus

Why do I like Piccadilly Circus? Well, because I love everything around it. It's kind of like a crossroads to me. You go one way and you're on Regent Street heading back to one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. You head to another and you're in Chinatown. Go in a third direction and you'll find yourself in the theater district where you can get to watch all kinds of shows, and go in another direction and you'll end up on Piccadilly street itself, where three wonderful places have their address: The Wolseley, wonderful dining rooms with the best chocolate and raspberry cake I've had; Fortnum and Mason, which reminds me of all the department stores in all those Regency era novels I read; and Hatchard's, a bookstore dating back to the 1700s where all the literati that we now study in ever y high school and university English class once visited.

· Gower Street

At the crossroads of UCL, SOAS, and Birbeck, Gower Street is the university street straight down from Euston Square Station. My choice by the way has nothing (ok, well, something) to do with the amazing world cinema DVD collection in FOPP on that street. Walking from Gower Street you get to visit the totally free and totally awesome Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and spend some time in Waterstone's which has a wonderful selection of old, outdated, and rare books amongst their other usual selection. Gower Street will also take you onto Torrington Place and eventually Russell Square- all full of universities. Heading the other direction, you go onto Tottenham Court Road and eventually Oxford Street- all within twenty minutes of walking.

· Marylebone High Street

The shops here MAY be the ones you see in other places but they may also not be. If you (like me) enjoy travel books, interesting cooking supplies, wonderful body care products, and feminine soft furnishings thrown in with some good food this street is for you. Daunt Books is the original Edwardian travel bookshop with an amazing selection of literature. It does not only stock guidebooks and all of that but also has fiction, biographies, and historical accounts of all these foreign locations. AND their books are organized according to area. Ground floor is Europe, down is Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Upstairs on the first is England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. And the set-up is wonderful. Oak paneling, warm colors… and what's even better is that they have regular book signings and talks by authors. I had the pleasure of attending Martin Sixsmith's talk on his new book about Russia. Their shopping bag is a biodegradable, environmentally friendly bag which can be reused time and time again- after visiting the store I saw countless of people around London with those books and for some reason I felt like we all belonged to the same little group of people- I'm odd, yes I know.