Londres!

Hey all!

Got back after visiting the lovely, buzzing city of London on Sunday and I've spent this whole week wishing I could go back! There's so much to do, so many interesting places to see - ahhh!

I had initially planned to visit during December, for my birthday, while all the Crimbo lights were still up, but everyone was super busy (there's no way I would have gone on my own, and besides, I needed someone who knows how to use the Tube). So when we got back from the Christmas holidays, I immediately began organising the trip with one of my best friends, Paprika, and we finally got the chance last weekend.
I kinda looked at the map and the places we wanted to go to, and was like, okay, I've got this down, I can probably wing the whole Tube thing when we get there. Luckily for me, (seeing as this was my first time ever on a train) Paprika had planned out the Tube routes we had to take to get to different areas, so we couldn't really go wrong.

Outside Urban Outfitters in Covent Garden

We arrived in London at about 10 in the morning - a Sunday morning - and stepped out onto Oxford street, only to find that pretty much ALL the shops were closed. What on earth is happening here? I thought, strolling up to the nearest store window and checking their opening times. Only then was it that I remembered - shops don't open till at least 11 on Sundays! Duh. So we spent a fun half hour or so walking up and down the streets, and found a Body Shop store which, by some miracle, was open! I went in and started sniffing their body butters etc, and smeared the satsuma one (my favourite!) all over my hands.

Then we went for a little stroll through Hyde Park, which was fun, and took some photos.
By the time we got back to Oxford street, Topshop (my fave shop, as we all know) was open, so we went straight in and trawled through their clothes rails, taking some hilarious pictures.

Urban Outfitters needs a whole blogpost on its own - suffice to say that we spent a good 2 hours in there, messing around, trying on clothes and being upset at the expensivity of the clothes.

Is this not just the most gorgeous playsuit ever???!

After that, we went into a couple more shops, and then departed for Soho - not for the sex-shops though, as I've heard Soho is notorious for. We jumped onto the Tube, which was packed, and I couldn't really find a rail to hang onto, so I thought, "oh, it's fine, I probably don't need to hold onto one anyway". And when the train set off, I narrowly avoided landing on my face. I'm pretty sure all the seasoned Tube-rs were like "rookie alert"! So that was embarrassing...

Learning escalator etiquette...always stand on the right

By about 2, we found a restaurant, called The Stockpot, which serves actually fantastic-sized portions for the price (I had kinda assumed that eating in London would be super-expensive). I had their spag-bol, while Paprika had salmon and spinach-y pasta.

I would definitely recommend the restaurant and hell yeah, I'll be back there next time I go to London!

We took the Tube again, this time to Picadilly station, and as one of us has a phobia of lifts (I won't divulge who...) we had to take the stairs. I did not realize just how many stairs there were! I literally had to stop like 5 times to catch my breath. I keep having flashbacks of that awful 5-10 minutes.

After that spot of exercise, we hit Covent Garden, and I found out that I had been there before, when we (me and some friends) sneaked out of the Royal Opera House on a school trip for lunch). The place was bustling with street-performers and musicians busking - the atmosphere was AWESOME!

Paprika and I also went into the Kurt Geiger store which is amaaazing!! All the mirrors really give you the feeling that you're in a very exclusive club.

Hanging out with Charlie...

I can honestly say this was one of the best days of my life, and I'm so happy I (finally) got to go to London!