It's been a little less than a month since I've come back from my trip to London, Paris, and Strasbourg. The amount of pictures I've taken is so overwhelming that it is only now that I've made the time and effort to organize them and finally write blogpost about my tip. This post, as the title connotes, will be about my trip in London. I can't guarantee I'll be any amazing trip advisor, but I'd like to share what I loved the most about my trip in London.
Let me talk a little before I let you scroll down to the stream of pictures!
Duration of Stay: Arrived on the 14th of December, and stayed until the 16th. Let me say, it was high-time Christmas season and it was HECTIC. It was my second time going, but the last time I went, London was a bit more beautiful because it was less crowded. Whew, don't recommend the near Christmas season!
Where I stayed: I realized that everything in London is expensive, and hotels are especially such. My entire trip, I used my brain calculating the currency exchange between pounds and dollars and every time I want to buy something, a die a little knowing how unfair the conversion is! (It takes a near two dollars to make one pound!) So, I didn't stay at a hotel but reserved out a small studio in Notting Hill, London from a rental-housing company called Concept London Apartments. The price was so much more affordable than any hotels in London. They have several different apartments all over London. I chose the Notting Hill apartment, right on the heart of Portobello Market.
Now, apologizes ahead of time, I have NO decent picture of the room. If you go on their website, you can definitely see better pictures but somehow, none of the pictures I took accurately shows what the room is like.
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| lobby. our room was straight, second door on the left! tiny hallway I say :) |
- Pros:
- Price
- Transportation: not difficult to get to other parts of London
- Situation: You can spend a whole day or two visiting the shops on Portobello Rd. There are just so many cool pretty things you'll see!
- Necessity: Has what you need. A good working bathroom, water... there are plates, forks, and dishwasher soap to do your dishes too! There's also a microwave and a hairdryer. That's pretty cool. The bathroom also gives a small size of shampoo and body wash and soap.
- Temperature: good temperature control, and a nice window to help ventilation if need be.
- Cons: You get what you pay for, right?
- Space: I can't say it was a big deal, but you definitely can't expect the spaciousness of a 3-star hotel. It's affordable and very compact so it might be a bit difficult. The bathroom is very small.
- Cleanliness: Though on the face of it, it seemed all very clean, I couldn't take my shoes off and walk around because the floor was slightly stick. The water pipes were also quite grimy, but I tried to get my mind off it as much as I could.
- Noise: We were situated on the first floor. We could hear most of the people coming in and out, and especially the room next door. There was also a family living in the apartment next to ours, and their dear child was crying so much it was quite hard to ignore it!
- Recommendation:
- For the studio room, it is BEST for one person, and at most, two people. Three, you might suffocate.
- I might try other apartments that are located in more luxurious parts of London, but again, the $$$ will go up I assume.
- If you can afford it, maybe a hotel is better. If you're on a big time budget but you don't want to get a room in a hostel... then this apartment is THE BEST.
Places Visited: I went to the obvious touristy places. We used mainly the tube, and near the end of our travel, we used the buses because they were better to see the streets and such. Even though they are quite slow because the traffic in London sucks, I still recommend it for tourists!
- Portobello Road/Market (below):
- Buckingham Palace (below): It was crazy this day. I actually thought something was going on because there was so many people. Eventually, I had to see what was going on through the screen of another person's iPad that rose high into the air, blocking a lot of people's views. But it was almost like live broadcasting through that iPad :) As for what was going on, it was only their Change of the Guards that they do a few times(?) throughout the day.
- Trafalgar Square
- You can't miss this place. It's kind of the heart of what I think of London. I would get to Trafalgar Square, and then from there, walk to either Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and Convent Garden.
- Here are pictures of not only the Square, but what's around as well:
- London Eye: this thing is seriously beautiful at night, and when it's raining and the streets are wet, the blue light illuminates everything under it! It's beautiful but sadly, I didn't get to ride it because it was quite pricey.
- Houses of Parliament/Big Ben (below): Most of the touristy places are viewable as you walk down from Trafalgar Square. On the way to see the London Eye, you could see the Houses of Parliament/ Big Ben.
- Convent Garden
- I highly recommend you take a walk around this place. It's so alive and full of music! There is a great vibe in this place with a lot to eat.
- I was almost run over. There were just so many people around and about, and though it helped make the atmosphere it was crazy!
- Westminister
Shopping:
- Boots
- Selfridges
- Liberty
- John Lewis
- I compare this store with Macys. A huge bargain department store with good tidbits here and there.
- I picked up the Liz Earle Cleanser here.
- SpaceNK
- Had a horrible experience at SpaceNK! The staff there were so rude and unenthusiastic to help! I literally ran out of the store because they made me feel so unwelcomed!
- I also went in to get Emma Hardie cleansers but of course, they were sold out...
- Kooples
- Goodness, one thing I realized was that there are A LOT of Kooples store in both the UK and Paris!
- Primark
- the best shopping experience I had. I call this the Forever21 of UK, even though they have their own Forever21 there. Clothes are affordable and so cute! I picked up a good amount of clothes here :)
Food: So, I understand London is not known for eating. I knew it, but sadly, I rediscovered this truth in this trip. Goodness, I couldn't help but crave some good diverse foods from the States. Not only are most places so expensive, they shouldn't be worth the price they are! :( I stopped by places British Youtubers/Bloggers often recommend on their channels and Instagram, but most were fails. I did, however, discover the BEST MILLE FEUILLE BAKERY ever...
- Patisserie Valerie, there's a lot-- but I went to the one around Trafalgar Square and Convent Garden
- Try their Mille Feuille it was better than the ones I tried in Paris. The other pastries I've tried from their store was bleh, but their mille feuille was addictive.
- Wahaca, near Convent Garden
- Mexican food
- Best Virgin Mojito
- Kitchen Pantry, on Portobello Road
- don't recommend
- too salty!
- bad service
- but pretty place, I have to admit...
And, finally here are random streets of London. For sure, you must visit Carnaby Street. It was one of the cutest and prettiest streets I saw!
Cute shops:
I hope you enjoyed that! I tried to organize this post as well as I could, but there was seriously so much going on and so many pictures I had to choose from! Tell me what you think, and if you've been to London, what you loved the most!
The next lifestyle post will be about my stay in Paris, and for that I have A LOT to say! Stay tuned :)
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