Travel Break in London

After 2 months of constantly moving around, it was nice to be back in London. Not staying in a dorm room with strangers. Not having to eat a restaurant meal on my own. Not having to be constantly on guard with my possessions. Having English all around me - newspapers, magazines, and books that I could read!!!

My original plan was to stay in London for a couple of days, and then move quickly on to Mexico. As you know, I sort of gave up on my Middle Eastern route due to Syrian visa complications back in Turkey. I couldn't really give it up though; I wanted to hit at least one country in the Middle East (UAE didn't count).
I've heard great things about Iran from other travelers. My best friend back in elementary and middle school was Iranian (too bad I lost touch with her...). She offered to take me there one summer, but my parents politely declined. Since then, I've never lost interest in the country. How cool would it be to go to Iran?!?!?!
So, I did some research. Went to the embassy and confirmed that Japanese citizens could get a visa on arrival for 15 days (phoning wasn't very productive). And found that I could use my UAL miles to get there. Wow, easy!
Since I was using my miles, the route was very flexible. I could simply do a round trip from London to Tehran, or start/end in some other European city. Great! You'd figure I had enough of Europe, but there were still some cities that I wanted to visit. Like Berlin and Prague. In the end, I chose to fly out of Vienna and return to London because they had direct flights to/from Tehran. I'll fly to Berlin (easy to get a discount flight on that route) and make my way down to Vienna, from where I'll fly to Tehran. All set!!!
Only thing that remained was to buy a head scarf.

When I wasn't planning my forthcoming travel route, I had a food-filled time in London:
1. Made cupcakes. My friend had this recipe for New York's Magnolia cupcakes. I baked several batches, with improvements along the way. Got the cake part right, but the frosting could still be a little harder (any advice???).

2. Created gourmet, time-consuming meals. Like this paella. Basically, I go shop for the ingredients (gotta love the Whole Foods), and help prepare. My friend's the real chef :)

3. Ate Asian. Since I missed Asian food, I made sure almost every meal I ate out with my friends was Asian. Mostly Chinese. Dim sum as soon as I landed, followed by ducks and lobster noodles on other days. I also had my first natto in several months. Lovely.

4. Watched American TV shows. My friend and I were up until 9am watching the entire season 1 of Gossip Girl. But don't worry. We didn't waste away the entire day; made sure to set the alarm clock at noon to do...who knows what. Maybe downloaded more shows!
You know you love me. XOXO. Gossip Girl.
....I'm dying to see season 2!!!