Hello everyone!
I was contemplating for quite a bit whether I should publish this post today, since this is the 4th post about London in a row, but I thought that I should just post it today, when I still kind of remember the details from the trip, and get it over with :D
I promise my next post is going to be something other than London :D I am going to post my tips and tricks for going to London sometime in the future, just not quite yet :)
This is part two of our trip, so if you haven't seen part one, click here!
Day 4, Tuesday
Tuesday was quite a busy day, actually. Everything was quite close and in the same area, so we wanted to cram it all in one day, which may have been a mistake, but whatever :D
First we went to Borough Market, which was not nearly impressive as Camden, but it was really cool and the food was quite amazing, as well. We didn't take a photo of what we ate once again, because we were too hungry and too much impressed :D However, we did find a Taste Croatia stand and had to say hi. There are two young and very friendly people working there, so if you want to see what Croatia is all about, especially food-wise, give them a visit :)
 |
| Taste Croatia stand in Borough Market |
After that we went to see London Bridge, which, I have to say, was nothing special. I was quite disappointed about that. We also saw St James' Church, St Paul's Cathedral and Monument. All of them were quite amazing, but we didn't go in any of these. Next was Leadenhall market (are you starting to sense my obsession with markets yet? No? Well, you'll have to wait then). That looked impressive, but had nothing impressive in it :D We also went to TKMaxx (my first time, yes), and I was amazed at how low the prices were, but all the makeup was used and pretty disgusting, so I was a bit disappointed at that, too.
We also saw Gherkin, which was absolutely amazing and looked especially great at night!
It got dark quite early, but that is when I believe all the magic happens in London. Everything looked at least ten times more beautiful, including Tower Bridge.
Don't mind the blur at the bottom :D But how amazing is that?
The next few photos are from the day before, but I decided to insert them here, just to show you how amazing everything looks at night.
Have I made my point yet?
Anyways, we also saw Millenium Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe and Tate Modern.
I am sure there was more on this day, but that's all I have written down :D
Day 5, Wednesday
Day five was quite more relaxed than the day before. First we went to see the changing of the guard and this time we were standing in the right place and kept wondering if they can see anything under those silly hats.
After that we went to Hyde Park, during daytime this time around and it was amazing. The only thing I was kind of surprised at is Speaker's Corner. I actually expected some kind of a stage or a small stand for the 'speaker' to stand on, and for that very reason we spent circling around what actually is Speaker's Corner, trying to find it. Good thing we rented bikes. A very nice girl was soooo kind to lend us her card, so we can rent a bike. I don't think I would trust strangers like that. That was really kind, and I hope everything was fine :)
Also, in all the parks across London there are squirrels, which are super friendly and super cute :) but we didn't bring anything to feed them :(
Aaand we had some waffles and English tea (which my boyfriend hated :D) at the Speaker's corner, with a bunch of pigeons waiting to get a piece for themselves :D
After Hyde Park, we went to Soho. We didn't exactly plan anything special for Soho, we just wanted to walk around and explore, but I did squeal when I saw the jumbo ads on Piccadilly, but can you really blame me? :D
The only thing we did plan for Soho was Chinatown, since we both adore Chinese couisine.
There we found an all-you-can-eat restaurant, where we ate for £8.90. Here is what our plates looked like (my bf's looked like that three times, not that I was counting :D:D)
However, I have to say that I was disappointed. Those were not Chinese flavours. They were European, quite mild and not what I expected them to be, so I wasn't that impressed. My boyfriend, on the other hand, was absolutely impressed (he did go back to get more 3 times :D ).
After walking around for a couple of hours, it was time to meet some of my friends. We met at the London Bridge station and it was our first meeting after 10 years of knowing each other through the internet, which I thought was super weird, but absolutely awesome and we've had an amazing time!
We've had a couple of pints and then it was time to go to sleep.
Day 6, Thursday
First we went to Covent Garden, which is another amazing market (are you starting to get a sense now?), where we saw a bunch of amazing street performers (including across Soho later in the day). One of these was a woman who juggled knives, now get this... upside-down!
She was pretty amazing. We saw a bunch of cool crafts, restaurants, shops and decided we could eat something cool, so we got the most amazing hot dogs ever! They were huge and the sides we got were cheese, fried onions and sauer kraut with mustard and tartar sauce. I made a mess of my jacket, but it was worth it :D
Then we went to Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square (I, again, squealed a bit when I saw the lions :D) And there I took a photo with Joda, I just had to :D
The rest of Thursday was all about shopping. We went to Regent Street and Oxford Street, found the most amazing Primark ever (and the first one, really :D ), I finally did some beauty shopping and we walked around for hours, and occasionally sat down to rest or drink some Starbucks (we did that every day and I don't regret it one bit, since we don't have it here :D).
My biggest wish was to see The Phantom of the Opera live, so we were searching around all the theatres and asking if they had it. Finally, we found one theatre where they did and try and guess how much the ticket was. It was £72. £72!!!!! I mean if that's not crazy, I don't know what is. Needless to say we didn't go, and we didn't look for it anymore. I was a bit sad, but I was not going to give so much money, no matter how amazing it was.
On the way back to the station, I saw a little sign where it said they had Gyoza for £3. I've never tried it, and we weren't really hungry, but it sure looked amazing, so we had to get in. We got twelve of them and a sauce for £3. Bargain! And it was freakin' delicious.
As you may tell, I'm quite a foodie and I love trying new stuff, so London markets, and little shops like this one, were heaven for me. They were also hell, however, since I could never decide what to eat :D
That was the perfect ending to Thursday.
Day 7, Friday
Day seven was supposed to be for Brick Lane and Greenwich (and I still have no idea how you pronounce it with an i or an e), however, when we heard about Stratford and the amazing Olympic park and the even more amazing shopping centre, we had to give up on Brick Lane, since we had to pack in the evening, and we just wouldn't make it.
Greenwich was amazing! It's probably my favourite park in the entire London, and I wish it was summer when we were there, because that green grass just kept calling us to lay down :)
When we walked out of Greenwich Park, we saw a restaurant called Greenwich Tavern and wanted to see the menu, because my boyfriend wanted us to try fish and chips before we go back home (no, we didn't try it up to that point, because everything looked more appealing than fried fish and fries). The prices were a bit crazy (£13.95 for fish and chips), but we used our TasteCard and got a great deal (I will talk about the TasteCard in my tips and tricks post, so stay tuned). We ended up ordering one plate of fish and chips, which came with tartar sauce and peas and a pan fried salmon with asparagus, baby potatoes, hollandaise sauce and these weird vegetables I couldn't remeber the name of. Something that starts with soph... something, I think. A little help here, please?
While I was impressed with the salmon, and wanted the whole plate for myself (we were sharing :D), my bf actually preferred fish and chips, which were a bit too salty for my taste, but quite good. However, we made a great deal in that restaurant, so we ended up walking out happy and full.
After that we went to Stratford. Since you enter the shopping centre as you walk out of the tube, we did end up staying there for a couple of hours first. I didn't know where to go first :D It was pretty amazing, and I think it was the first time for me seeing a Benefit stand, including some other famous makeup brands I only read and listen about. (My boyfriend did end up getting bored and sick and tired so he went to walk around, leaving me with all the makeup :D which I totally understood.) That's where I bought all the Benefit stuff from my Makeup Haul.
Now, since that was the first store I went into, I didn't walk around as much, so when we started walking around the shopping centre, we realized how huge it actually was. It's humongous! I was actually amazed.
It's all of that and more. However, when we left the building on the first floor (or the ground floor), you know what we saw? More shops outside!
I swear, it's ridiculous! I am going to go back to London and book a room in the Holiday Inn, which is right in the middle of all of this and spend 2 days just shopping :D Anyways, as you can see, it was already dark when we got out, so we went to see the Olympic park and in the 15-20 minutes that we were outside, we literally froze (not literally, but you know what I mean :D). The wind there is crazy! But it was worth it..
After that we went into just a couple more shops (now the ones my boyfriend wanted to see), and then we went to ShakeShack, to get a burger, since the internet is raving about those.
Pretty amazing, I have to say. Just what I like in my burger. And the fries... Oh my god! I think it's safe to say that these were the best fries I've ever had!
At the end of the day we went to Sainsbury's to buy some stuff to bring back home, and then we went back to our appartment to pack and drink a few beers.
We left back for Croatia the next day at 6 a.m.
It seriously was an amazing trip and I wish I could have stayed longer and seen all the stuff we didn't have time to see, but would really like to. My boyfriend was not as eager to go to London as I was, but he said he didn't want to leave at the end of our trip, and I didn't either. If you've never been, or even if you have, and you get a chance to go... just go! Even if you don't like sight seeing.. just go to all the markets I went to (plus Brick Lane, I'm so sorry I didn't get to go there) and you won't be sorry :)
I know a lot of you may not be interested in this post at all, but I mainly wrote it for myself and to always remember some little details and amazing stuff we did and saw. I promise to get back next time with a beauty post :)
Thank you for reading!
See you soon xx
Labels: favorites, travel
