London I Love You

Ok, so it's been a while hasn't it. I mean I only just uploaded photos and posted about my time in Ireland which was at the start of this month!!! And now its nearly August, which is not slack, its just that when you are travelling there constantly seems to be things that you want to do and sometimes there isn't enough hours in a day to experience a new place while writing about what you did the other day as well, so I apologise if you've been checking to see if I've uploaded anything these past weeks, but that is sort of why its been so long. 

Ok, London is next on where I went, I'm saying "went" because i am now in Paris and have been for 10 days!! What! I hear you say!?! Well yes, that was why I was feeling a little behind on the times when it comes to blogging. 

If you know me, you will know that I have had a thing with the UK and London for a long time, in the early stages of planning for this trip I actually said to myself that I couldn't go to the great British Isle, because I was afraid that I wouldn't leave. So getting on the ferry from Dublin was pretty exciting, as I was also seeing Iona again as well as Maria, who had been in Denmark for the past two weeks.

So I met Iona at Euston station, the sun was shining and I was the only one grinning and laughing on the way down onto the tube, you could tell I wasn't a local!

It was so nice to see Iona, it had been a month which in our book is quite a long time. 

I won't give you a step by step experience of my 9 days in London, because it will take a very long time, something that I never seem to have enough of. Just yesterday I was wishing for time turner so I had a couple of extra hours to blog and sleep.

Anyway...

London is great, we were generously allowed to stay in Iona's friends apartment which was in Tottenham, which pretty much was a dream come true. We had our own place to hang and chill, we pretty much lived off aloha vira water (is that how you spell it... I don't think so...), mint water, tea, water melon and fresh turkish bread from the local turkish grocer on the corner, oh and dried mulberries and dates, YUM! I miss it all already.

We saw a lot of the London sights, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The London Eye. We also rode Barkleys Bikes around, visited Hyde Park, Ate the best Pizza in Notting Hill, went to the Tate Modern, The V&A Museum, caught the tube and dagged around Oxford street, admiring fabrics in Liberty and eating frozen yogurt in Islington. It sounds pretty good, but you can make anything sound romantic with words...

But it was great, its the type of place that literally the minute I got there I knew that I wanted to live there sometime in my life. I was a little worried that all my expectations and preconceived ideas would wreck it and it wouldn't be nearly as good as I thought. I was a little worried that I would come away feeling slightly crestfallen and dejected that London was just a city in the UK. But let me assure you, I needn't have worried. London's great, i don't know why or how but it just is, being there makes you so happy, even though everyone on the tube rarely smiles and your ears pop because you are so far underground, it's just the best.

We went and saw the Lion King, which is actually the best, we were a little bit late in booking, but managed to get standing for only 15 pounds! which I thought was pretty good. 

I know a lot of you are probably angrily demanding at the computer screen right now, " why didn't you go to Les Mis?" And I will give you this as an answer my dear readers, so please hold your horses.

I am coming back to the Uk in late October and November so am planning on going then; the reason that I or I should say we didn't go when we were there is because the seats that were available weren't very good.

We also when to Brick lane and the Spitalfields market which was great as well as Broadway market which was so nice, fresh and local produce right next to the canal. We had icy lemonade and fresh locally made ice cream, so I really can't complain.

When Saturday came I was sad to leave, even though we were going to Paris, which is crazy. I think I'm probably the first person to be that sad on going to Paris, it was weird. I kept thinking, come on Katie, it's Paris, don't be weird. And I knew that when I got to Paris I would have fun and that it would be great but it was just that I was so sad to leave one of the best weeks of my life, hanging out living with Maria and Iona in our own apartment. Getting woken up at four in the morning my preachers trying to tell us that we needed to be saved. Eating lots of mint water and just being utterly content and happy.

So Thank you London, I can't wait to come back.

The Royal Albert Hall

Iona being immature (but very funny)

The Rail Map created with Lego

A beautiful sculpture at the V&A Museum

The Dinning area at the V&A

Iona being a Boss

Tired feet at the V&A

All from the V&A (above)

Iona's Postcard pile

Fridge Scrabble

Groovy fridge magnets

Ottolenghi in Islington

My Lunch

Broadway Market

Beloved Barkleys bikes

Chummies

Our Shopping basket.

Delish dinner. Yum

Our groovy Pineapple

My Iona pose, can you spot her pooped in the background?

Me being a dag as usual

Beautiful Iona

Maria being rude

Fooling around in M&M world

Imma be chocolate

m&m collection

There were all these kids walking past yelling "HONK! HONK!" It was very cute!

St Paul's Cathedral

My new fave store

Iona and I being fools

Flowers at Liberty

Gawking over fabrics in Liberty

Pictures of Wool and fabric for Kang xx

More flowers out the front of Liberty

Carnaby

These were taken in Hamleys toy store 

Such a poser, Iona

We thought this was pretty punny!

Yummy dinner in a lovely little vegetarian restaurant called 

Food For Thought.

Trafalgar Square

My new pink jelly shoes from American Apparel

Maria thinks they're the bomb

"He's actually a bit of a looker isn't he..." Iona about the statue

The Buildings of Parliament

Suffragette Statue

BIG BEN

More Tired feet

This is the closest we could get to Downing street, I was a little disappointed.

Buckingham Palace

All the TV crews set up ready to start broadcasting about the Royal Baby

My future car

They actually have tablets for tanning in Britain!

Iona skyping my sister, she looks very happy

The Shard

This is where Bridget Jones lived!!!

Borough Market

The Globe

My Faves from the TATE Modern

War Posters from Russia

My fave Picasso

I had an 'art attack!

The Shard again

Iona at St Pauls ( not quite feeding the birds)

Yummy Pizza in Notting Hill

Jamie Oliver's Kitchen shop in Notting Hill

Hyde Park (looking a little dry)

Ducklings!

The beloved Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens

Little Snack.

Ok that was a lot of photos but I hope you now feel well informed and more up to date. 

Heres my video of London.

Cheerio Chums, next instalment is Paris xx