DAY 4 – LONDON

Hey you guys! I’ve been a bad blogger lately, there’s no arguing that.. I really try to find a good balance between work, school, the russ celebration, social life, my personal life and the blog! But lately I’ve lost a bit of focus, as I have much else to think about and do. I hope for better times ahead now! Here is at least the last post from the London trip, which I should have posted a while ago. Enjoy!
This was our last day in London, unfortunately, so we decided to make the most of it.  The plan was to experience more of the city, do a little shopping and visit some more tourist attractions! First we went to Piccadilly Circus for some shopping.

My outfit for the day.

The biggest H&M store I’ve been in, it consisted of 3 floors and I loved it!! Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one loving it there.. The place was way too crowded!

After some walking and then some more walking, we ended up in Oxford Street! Here we’re first stopping by NIKE.

Lunch at Starbucks (2. floor at New Look). I think Starbucks is the best at their coffee, food is not their speciality..
Our plan was to visit Madame Tussaud, but since we had to wait three hours to get inside, and out of the blazing sun, we decided to pre-order tickets to the London Eye instead! Last time we were in London together, almost the same thing happened. We hadn’t pre booked any tickets to Madame Tussaud, and the queue took forever. We thought we might have better luck this time, but no..haha. London Eye was a good alternative anyway!
On our way

The weather was perfect! (Though it was a bit overcast when we got on top of the London Eye.. Typical!)

A great view of the city..

After the tour we thought we could find a place to eat. But then we walked by this:

My sister love stuff like this.. Me on the other hand,- not that big fan of it, I have to admit. So she ran in and had a fun trip in the Death Trap:

Haha, looks kind of fun though..

After some more walking in the city, we went back to the hotel. We had to get up at 5 in the morning, so we could use some sleep. But first we went for a drink in the hotel bar!

I miss London already! The weather was perfect during our stay and we had a wonderful time. But the time went too fast, that’s for sure. But that’s just one of many excuses to go back! I want to see more and definitely shop more!!

Now I’m off to the mall for dress hunting, with my friend Nina. My sisters confirmation is scheduled on Saturday, and I definitely need a new dress, so hopefully I’ll find one today!

What have you guys been up to lately? :-) How’s your day? I’ll see you soon! Kisses Elise

DAY 3 – LONDON

After a good breakfast, me and my sister had coffee outside in the sun at the hotel café. The plans for the day was to ride the boat across to Canary Wharf to, among other things, check out the shopping centers!

We loved it there! It was a very modern district. Look how beautiful it looks.

Just about everyone were dressed up in so-called “business” clothes, they looked all very neat and professional. It appears it’s not very common to see tourists around there. Think I’ve never been to a place like this before.

There were four shopping malls in a row down the streets! The shopping centers consisted mostly of design shops, but there were also stores like ZARA, TopShop, NEXT and Oasis. (And lots of cafés, restaurants and gift shops of course.)

Fat free frozen yogurt from Yoo Moo.

Having lunch outside, in the park

Later we took the boat back to the hotel, to change for a fun night out at Hollywood Bowl!

First we dined at Pizza Hut.

Hollywood bowl was not far from the hotel, so this was something we decided to check out. It consisted of bowling lances, a bar, a café and an up to date games arcade area. It was a leisure activity for a great time out. We had a couple of drinks, my little sister beat me in both bowling and racing games, and I spent more than 20 British pounds in cash machines! Haha. But it was a very fun evening.

We spent day 4 in Piccadilly Circus and Oxford (yet again!). We also checked out a couple of tourist attractions. You see, my sister was acting like a stereotype tourist on this trip.. I’ll tell you all about day 4 later, this will do for now!

DAY 2 – LONDON

So the second day in London was all about shopping! Which means I don’t have too many pictures from that day, unfortunately. It didn’t cross our minds to take pictures, as we we’re too busy looking at all the pretty stuff in the stores.

Early morning before breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel was amazing! There was so much to choose from, I don’t think I have eaten that much in a long time.. Haha. After breakfast, we waited for the hotel’s shuffle bus to take us to the nearest tube station, Canada Water. According to our schedule, our first stop was Oxford Circus! Next would be Piccadilly Circus, then Westfield shopping center.

But we actually didn’t make it to Piccadilly Circus nor Westfield. We spent more than nine hours walking around Oxford Street. We only had about two coffee breaks at Starbucks, I think.

We had alot of fun and we ended up exhausted, but with a lot of shopping bags to take with us back home. We should have arrived Oxford Street earlier though, because by the time we got there, it was so crowded. So crowded in fact that some of the stores were almost impossible to get into, let alone do some shopping in, because of all the lines and all the people.

As I said, we were really tired after all the walking, the crowded areas and impressions that day. But we decided to go for a walk in the evening to see the city, before we went back to the hotel.

The first thing that met the eye when we came out of the underground – Big Ben!

Back at the hotel room, looking at what we’d bought. I’ll show you a closer look of my purchases for later!

My favorite stores in Oxford Street was New look with three floors (+Starbucks on the second floor!), Topshop, River Island, Next and the shopping center Selfridges. We didn’t dine out this day though, we ate at Subway and Starbucks. But I don’t mind, I love them both!

Our plans for the next day was, among other things, to see what was on the other side of the river from our hotel. We heard rumors that it was a very nice place with modern districts, and several shopping malls. Moreover, the boat left just outside the hotel and took certain only three minutes!

1ST DAY IN LONDON

We left  at 04.00 a.m, and here we are at the airport 06.30. Tired, but ready for London!

We had to travel by train from Stansted Airport to Liverpool Street. This was 08.30 a.m and the train ride was about 45 minutes.

But the first day didn’t go quite as planned. When we arrived to Liverpool Street, we thought the easiest way to get to our hotel was by cab. When we told the cab driver about the destination we wanted to go to, he simply shouted “No! You know it’s a marathon!”, and drove away. As we were left hanging, we thought “what marathon?” But we were about to find out… You see, because of the marathon, many of the roads were closed off, including the ones leading to our hotel, of course. No buses and no underground trains went there. When I talked to this information guy, he just smiled and told us to walk to whereever we wanted to go. The estimated time to walk the distance is only about one and a half hours, he said. I was like “are you serious?”, of course we tourists know our way around London and would have no trouble whatsoever getting to our destination at all! And to walk around with luggage of 15 kg… No, walking was not even to be considered an option. We would have to wait, ’till four o’clock. I can’t remember time ever passing as slowly as it did that day..

Liverpool Street station. We were actually convinced that we saw Lady Gaga, but she disappeared in the crowd when I took this picture.. Haha. Must’ve been a crazy lookalike, I dunno. Anyway, we didn’t enjoy Liverpool Street. The people there were so not polite and gave everything but friendly glances at us. I don’t know why, but we didn’t feel welcome there, that’s for sure.

We didn’t know this area, so we walked and walked and walked… We were so hungry, and found a place to eat at least.

We actually found a nice area with some stores and markets. But it was very crowded, and we were tired of walking around in the heat with all our bags that we never got to drop off at the hotel, so we soon went back to the station again to wait..

Finally we could get a cab, at 16.30! The drive normally takes about 15 minutes, this one took 50 because of the traffic the marathon caused. So it normally cost £18, now the taximeter showed £55. Luckily we had a very nice taxi driver, as he only charged £30, because of the circumstances.

Finally, we arrived in the hotel room!

The hotel was alright, it was at the riverside and had a nice view across to Canary Wharf. The service was impeccable! But we could definitely have chosen a more central hotel.

As I said, when we arrived at the hotel, the converter I had bought didn’t work. And my phone broke during the first night. So it turned out to be a lot more stressful day than we’d imagined. Haha.. Nothing looked like it would go our way that day. But we laughed it off, enjoyed the evening at the hotel and took a long nice bath. Ready for the next day that involved a lot of shopping!!