London, Part I: Rainy, Foggy, Misty, Windy

September 29, 2012
Hello my dear ones โ™ฅ,
Giveaway Note: I am working the whole weekend, but I’m checking all entries at the moment and will draw a winner by Monday! Thank you all for participating โ™ฅ

I just came back from London and have to say it was a pretty kickass time! I’ll split up my posts about my time in London in two parts; the people & pictures part and the shopping part which will follow after this one! ๐Ÿ˜€ 
So my cousin and I went to London on Monday and we were pretty lucky. Although our plane was delayed one hour and it rained cats and dogs when we arrived, the weather cleared and overall we had 90% sunshine and good weather ๐Ÿ˜€ We first began our journey at Oxford Street because the airport bus dropped us off Marble Arch Station. We, to be more precise I, shopped us from Oxford West to Oxford East which includes the length of 4 underground stations. I got everything I wanted and even a bit more but I’ll save that for the shopping post later.
Everybody should have a stereotype Big Ben picture in their pocket!

When we booked our hotel, my cousin and I made a big mistake and booked a hotel OUTSIDE of London, near Gatwick Airport. To make it even worse, we arrived at the complete other side at Luton Airport. Let me make the situation clear….
Well, FAIL. Our hotel really was right into nowhere. But it wasn’t that big a deal because the train connection was pretty good and with train + bus we „only“ needed about 40 minutes to Central London. But when we first checked on the maps you can imagine what a shock it was!! The hotel itself was good – thinking of the really cheap price we payed for 3 nights.
After we mastered that challenge (finding the hotel in the nowhere of England in the dark) everything went really smooth and easy. We visited a lot sightseeing spots, since it was our first time in London, and walked around the whole day. My leg and back still hurt (!!). For three days now. :3 We visited London Eye, Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace – and millions other tourist spots. We went to every place we ever heard the name of (King’s Cross, Notting Hill, Picadilly Circus etc etc) but really enjoyed our trip. It was the first time my cousin and I travelled alone  with each other and we’re so glad everything went so smooth and easy ^-^ Since pictures are more wise than words I’d say let the pictures do the talking! Shall we..?

My cousin’s secret for perfect not-destroyed-by-wind-hair: Lots and lots of hairspray. I underrated the English wind.

London Eye with fantastic clouds! We didn’t ride though since it costs about 25$ per person :/ I mean, it’s only a ferris wheel after all.
You can’t imagine how horrible it smelled inside. This picture took like <1 second to take ๐Ÿ˜€
At London Tower Bridge WHICH WAS IMPRESSIVE. And the skyline’s beautiful as hell <3

Our daily breakfast ๐Ÿ˜€ Had a supermarket at our train station. Bacon for breakfast is one of my favorites to be honest :<
..Big Ben and House of Parliament. Again. Because it’s so pretty!! THAT ARCHITECTURE.
Doin‘ a break right in front of Westminster Abbey – walked enough that day. 
Like the captain said: WINDY. 
Notting Hill; the stores looked a bit like the ones in Harajuku – all’s the same with lots of lace :>

When you read every book and saw every film in cinema together you just CAN’T miss platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross. YOU CAN’T!! 
Fountain in front of Buckingham Palace (The Queen wasn’t at home somebody whispered)
Couldn’t go to London without eating fish & chips at least once. It was incredibly hard to find for a reasonable price (Regular tourist price in Central London: 10 – 15$ !!!!  We payed 7$..) Wasn’t impressive but good if you like fries and fried fish ๐Ÿ˜€
Inside the Sherlock Holmes Museum! So glad we visited that, it’s small but really cute inside.

Being scared of Sherlock. And Mr Watson. And… the nice lady (?) in the back. 
Waiting at Picadilly Circus for the night to get over so we can board our flight very early in the morning (4 AM)

So I have to say we really had an amazing time in the UK! I only met friendly and very helpful people (which I am not used to since I live in Germany.) I even got discount everywhere although I forgot my student card at home. The weather was amazing, it rained from time to time but 90% we only had pure sunshine! Guess we were really lucky. Although I really liked it (gosh, the architecture of all the buildings is just SO pretty!!) I wasn’t „blown“ away. I guess, after living in Tokyo for a year it’s gotten harder to impress me? xD It wasn’t that different from Germany after all. I have to say it reminded me a bit of a very old, very flat mixture of Berlin and Tokyo, LOL.

It was nice to be in the UK for the first time and I wouldn’t mind to travel around the next time! (Calling myself in mind that I have 16 cousins in Wales who I’ve never met. Well.) I’m happy the whole journey turned out that awesome ๐Ÿ˜€ If you have the chance to travel to London, go for it!! Awesome people living in an awesome place. The old buildings (I swear, it looks like 1800 EVERYWHERE, I was so surprised!!) are extremely charming. Not surprising the British are so noble living in such a surrounding all the time ๐Ÿ˜€

Next post will be about me going crazy shopping in London, so stay prepared for that ๐Ÿ˜€ Hope you enjoyed the pictures and thanks everybody for all your travel wishes!! If you have any questions, feel free, like always!

Much love & until next time,

Sam

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