a weekend in London: short + sweet

4 – 6 October 2019

Ah yes, the blog post where I’m still partially unpacked yet here I am writing about my experiences. Yikes. But my tiredness just shows that this weekend trip was so much fun! I honestly thought that going to London for the weekend wouldn’t be that exciting, especially because I went once with a group when I was 16 and then another time when I was throwing up and found myself shedding weight because I could barely eat anything (memories!). But here’s a recap of almost 2 days in London in October…

My journey started with my 3 friends on the night train since we had class until 4:00. After enduring 2 hours of a tipsy, loud British family that would put noisy Americans to shame, our train arrived at London Euston. We were all craving some sweets, so we booked it into the city to go to our favorite Mancunian bubble tea shop, Bubbleology, before they closed in 30 minutes. And when I say we booked it, we quite literally ran and sweated our way through crowds of people, including a busy nightlife in Soho. With the bubble tea and frozen yogurt craving satisfied, we proceeded to navigate *~* the Tube *~*. I proudly plugged in our AirBnb’s address, directed our group to 105 London Road, except to find that the 105 London Road I typed in was only one of many of the exact same address. Nice. So we ended up having to take a 30 minute, £22 Uber to the actual 105 London Road. Note to self: always check the area code before typing in the address. Also, why is it that British Ubers literally drive with both feet on the pedals? I was struggling to hold down my liter of bubble tea I chugged because my head was being whipped against the headrest nonstop for half an hour. BUT we finally made it, and our new studio apartment was beautiful. We were our hosts’ first customers and they left us chocolate and a note, so cute.

The next morning, we went to Notting Hill, which is a very posh area. Some famous people also have houses there, like the writer George Orwell. It honestly made me feel like I was in LA because the houses were so pretty and they had palm tree plants(?). We got breakfast at this adorable indoor/outdoor cafe called Farm Girl Cafe (fitting for me, tbh). I won’t post a picture of my food because I would have too many for this trip, but it was amazing and super fresh. There was a little antique market selling everything from figurines, cigarette boxes, rings, real fur coats, antique maps, silver pots, and more. Claire and I ended up buying rings for £3 and Sarah found an old dental poster for her sister. The whole place was honestly an aesthetic and I’m not ashamed to say that we spent way too long taking pictures in front of the houses. Each one had a different style and really made you wonder who the owner was and what the insides looked like. But it was especially awkward as I was posing in front of this house with a red door (so posh and cute) that the owner literally walked past me and into the house. Cool. While we walked through the neighborhoods, we ran into this man with two golden retrievers without a leash. They had the old man white hair and as dog deprived as we were, we had to stop to pet them. And what a small world, because their owner was from Toronto, knew where Toledo was, and actually worked at Owen’s Illinois! So weird how you run into people in LONDON that know of TOLEDO??? Crazy.

After exploring the poshness of Notting Hill, we took The Tube to a tattoo parlor (v different vibes). One of the girls had booked a really sick tattoo with her favorite artist from Ohio that happened to be in London that weekend! While we waited for her to be done, we went to this cute lil cafe called Birdie BumBum’s. Honestly, so British lol. They had delicious sandwiches and I’ve begun to notice how England is pretty good at supporting vegans and vegetarians. It makes it so much easier for me to eat out and they had this really good faux BLT. Again, not going to bore you with more food pics. After lunch and a finished tat, we went back to Soho because it had so much popping partying potential as we had witnessed the night before. We found an amazing gelato dessert place and an Italian restuarant for dinner. We then attempted to explore the unique bars that London had to offer. One of them was called The Vault, which was literally a bar hidden behind a bookcase. But like, you actually had to find a different bar where the bookcase was. When we finally found the address, the hostess goes “Alright just go push on the books”. Just casual. Down some stairs we went into a basement filled with incense and lit only with candles??? I mean like, lowkey felt like I was in some witching hour 1800’s scene. Unfortunately, they were all booked for the night so we couldn’t get a seat but we did find a place called Club Soho. And although we did get hit on by a 40 year old Spanish man, watched a guy’s card get declined for a £140 bottle of liquor, and watched a couple eat face within minutes of meeting each other for the first time, the music and atmosphere was good. I even convinced a guy that my glass of water was pure vodka. Interesting group of people for sure. The night ended as we tunneled through the underground next to a woman dressed as Jesus.

Sunday started off with staying in bed too late because honestly, those beds were so comfy. But we eventually forced ourselves out and took ourselves to the heart of London where all the tourists swarm. Luckily, Sunday was the perfect day for this because it was oddly dead except for a few spots. After spending so much money on food the day before, we went to Sainsbury’s, bought sandwiches and fruit for £4, and proceeded to eat in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Except you can’t actually get into those gardens because it is surrounded by guards and a huge brick wall topped with barbed wire. So we went to this cute little side park instead to eat our brunch. It was the perfect day: the sun was shining, little kids were playing on the statues of a lion and gazelle, and a homeless man crazily laughed at us for being Americans. Nothing really fazes me anymore. After eating, we went to see Buckingham Palace which is where the fuzzy hat guards are. It was so beautiful out, sunny and 80F and had that lovely fall air smell. Manchester rains a lot so it was a good boost of Vitamin D. My favorite part of the trip was walking through Saint James Park and seeing all the different types of birds and ducks that live there. England has some interesting species and they weren’t afraid of people so we could really get up close and watch them. After the park and as we headed towards the London Eye, we passed Horse Guard Street which quite literally has guards on horses. It was kind of frustrating because tourists were taking pictures next to the horses (which were like, actual real horses) and touching them and stuff. They had to be really docile because I would personally get annoyed if strangers and little kids ran around and grabbed my face and neck. But they were honestly beautiful, the horses and the guards. After seeing Big Ben’s face (under rennovation still until 2021!) and the London Eye, we headed to Camden Market to go to the Cereal Killer Cafe. First of all, Camden Market felt like I was walking into Diagon Alley, it was really freaking cool. There was a giant blowup eggplant (???) in the middle of the walkway but all the stores and restaurants were very hipster and every single one was different. Notting Hill was for the older crowd but Camden Market was for the millenials and Gen Z’ers. A lot of things were 90s themed, especially the Cereal Killer Cafe. They had hundreds of cereal boxes on the walls, Spice Girls wallpaper, old TVs playing Johnny Bravo and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. You could order cereal milkshakes, cereal ice cream, and bowls of cereal. It was reallyyy cool. Next door was a vintage clothing store, again 90s themed. Then we found this Cyborg shop which I thought was a club but was really a store for rave accessories. It was all very fun and I would 100% go back. Our trip ended at Euston train station with another 2 hour train ride back to Manny. London, I wasn’t expecting you to be so much fun. See you soon!