As some of you may know I traveled to London for 5 days earlier this summer as a belated graduation trip. Traveling is one of my passions, if I could visit a new city or country every single day I would! There are times when the urge to get on a plane and just go somewhere is so strong that I start to feel panicky and let down at the fact that it would be impossible to drop everything and go. Maybe one day I will be bold enough to drop it all and travel the world but until then I will enjoy the amazing trips I am so blessed to go on and never stop imagining my trip around the world.
(Warning: This blog post is fairly long!)
London, England marks the 5th country I have visited and by far this city is one of my top cities if not my all time favorite. I have wanted to visit London for so long and to finally be able to pop off the tube onto Oxford St. (right in front of Topshop, I almost cried) was a dream come true.
Of course my family and I loving an adventure decided to take the Heathrow Express into central London and find our way to our hotel in Mayfair, bags and all. We stayed at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair which was amazing because it was so close to many of the amazing sites in London. It was walking distance to Regent St., Oxford Circus, Carnaby St., Piccadilly Circus, and Buckingham Palace. It was weird for me to be able to look out my window directly into the Hermes store and the Moschino store when I walked out of the hotel, I absolutely loved it!
The day we arrived we started to explore the Mayfair area and found the cutest lunch spot called Hush where we had coffee before they started serving and then an amazing meal complete with a delicious strawberry spritzer for me! Of course it had to begin pouring complete with hail the second we left the hotel. But we then found our way to Buckingham Palace to be proper tourists. Basically we just walked a good portion of the city so we continued down to the river to find Big Ben and the London Eye as well as many other cool places we wouldn't have seen otherwise.
On our second day we journeyed to St. Paul's Cathedral as it is a must see while in the city for the first time. Normally I tire of cathedrals fairly easily, I love seeing them but I'm not one to stare at every single feature for copious amounts of time, but once we decided to climb to the very top I was hooked. Let me just say, I am SO glad we hiked all those hundreds of steps. The view from the outside of the top of the cathedral was amazing, it was a beautiful day as there was a heat wave in London at the time and to be able to stand on the edge of this amazing building and see all of London was breathtaking. After a break for Pimm's cocktails by the river and seeing Tower Bridge (commonly confused with London Bridge) we made our way on the tube to Harrods where we had the best afternoon tea. Harrods itself was amazing, the egyptian themed escalator was so cool and seeing so many designers in person made me want to faint. But we had no time for shopping as it was time to head back to the hotel before going to see Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall. The show was absolutely amazing and the concert hall was so beautiful. Such a nice way to end the day!
Of course when in London one must watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace which is how we started our third day. Although I enjoyed seeing the procession, it was very long and very crowded in the area so after most of the guards were in position I was ready to move on. The tradition is one I value but I can only stand in one place for so long. I wish we had more event like this in the US because it really is so unique and special to see. By this time my breakfast had worn off so we decided to try for lunch at the The Shard which is the tallest building in London and features many restaurants which look out over London. I heard about this building and after seeing it from St. Paul's and standing below it I had to go in. Unfortunately we didn't make a lunch reservation but decided to ask the security guard if it was possible to get in, he recommended Aqua Shard as the best restaurant and told us to ask if anyone had cancelled. We were "screened" by three more security personal/staff before making it to the 31st floor of The Shard which I found odd but apparently we passed their judgements! Just going up that high was amazing and that's not even half way up! AquaShard is easily the coolest restaurant I have ever been in…I could make a blog post on their bathrooms alone. The food was incredible, the all glass room was stunning, and the view was simply breathtaking. So much better than waiting in line for the London eye! (Tip: Go to Aqua Shard and spend the money and time you would on tickets on amazing food and an even better view!) After a quick stop into Convent Garden we attended a concert in a small neighborhood of London at a pub called The Lexington where we saw The Drowners. If you like The 1975, you will probably like the Drowners; they are so good! I loved this show because it really gave me a feel of the music scene in London and what living there would actually be like. My dad even loved it more than Beck and he was one of the oldest people there!
On our fourth and final day in the city we spent the morning riding bikes through Hyde Park. There are stations to rent bikes all over London, it was the best way to see all of Hyde Park in a short amount of time because it's just so big! The park was stunning, flowers were blooming everywhere and locals were enjoying the sunshine. Next was Carnaby Street where we had fish and chips for lunch (a must!) and then onto Soho which was so eclectic and fun. The theme of shopping continued in Zara and Topshop but I was only allotted an hour to visit both. Hello speed shopping! That night we saw Les Miserables which is my favorite musical of all time and wandered through Piccadilly to our hotel.
Of course there were so many other minute details I haven't mentioned about where we went but this is a good bit of it! We did eat in China Town one night and I kid you not it was the most amazing food I have ever had, if you go to one China town in any city, make it London's!
I did manage to pop into shops along the way while my family did other things but I wasn't able to pick up all the items on my list. There are so many brands I love which we don't have in the US so it was nice to finally get my hands on some of them.
I love traveling because it opens your eyes to new cultures, ways of life, and aspects of society and where you live that you would not notice otherwise. London was exceptional in this aspect because it showed me how advanced London is compared to the US. Technology such as credit cards, city infrastructure, banks, transportation, and so many other things were much more accessible, user friendly, and overall more advanced that technology we have in the US. This was something new for me because otherwise I would have never known we were so behind on these kinds of things.
Even though this trip was short and we were only able to see London, it was one of my favorite trips and every single day since I have thought about going back. I plan to study abroad for a semester in London very soon! I love everything about London and if I could pack up and move there right this second I would.
(*I tried to include photos I haven't posted on Instagram of Twitter, so check there for more!)
I wish I could say "cheers" casually and get away with it.
☀
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