As the year is coming to an end I realised I never posted anything about the amazing event I went to this summer in London, England. Maybe it was due to the fact that my health wasn't all that great back then or just the lack of motivation to sit down and write about this event. Though I'm still going to tell you about this amazing trip before it is really to late.
On Friday morning me and my husband traveled to Eindhoven in the Nethelands to meet up with our travel buddy Liv. It was really early that morning but this didn't stop me from being overly excited for this trip and seeing all the airplanes at the airport. There is something magical about them and they always make me smile when I see them at the airport. We would meet her at 6 a clock in the morning so we left the house around 4:30 just to be on time and luckily we did so, cause we had some troubles along the way when we went to the airport.
Quickly we found her waiting in front of the check-in desks, I did all the paperwork for this trip and was prepared like a pro. Alright maybe a bit to prepared and organised but at least I had everything with me and double checked everything once again. Bags where checked in so we headed over to customs and the security check. Which we passed smoothly, yay our trip could finally begin!
Our plane would leave around 8 a clock and one hour later we would arrive in England at one minute past 8 local time. We where real time travellers that time, this was such a funny feeling. But being in England at such an early time could only mean one thing, we have plenty of time to explore the city!!! It was my first time in England so I didn't know what to expect from it.
When we landed we needed to take a bus to the city center, this was also a first one. I guess this trip was based around experiencing things for the first time. Like figuring out how public transport works, finding our way to our hostel and being in a country where I needed to adjust to their funny accent before I could understand them properly. Not that I don't understand English at all but when they where talking in some kind of dialect I couldn't follow it that well.
Our first stop of the day when we arrived at the big King's Cross station in London was visiting the Harry Potter store. I'm not a huge fan of Harry Potter as in I don't collect all the items, or have read the whole book series but I do love all the merchandise, movies and the story in general! So I would say I'm an enthousiast? I had my eye on one thing and if I would find it in the store I would buy it. It was a little pin from Hufflepuff, cause I'm a proud Hufflepuff member. Sadly they didn't had it in store anymore so I was a bit bumped about it. Though being there in the store was truly magical. And it made me want to watch the movies again or read the series one day. Not sure that will happend though. I love collecting books and visiting bookstores but I hardly read them.
After our first stop we found our hostel quit quickly and checked our bags in before checking out our room cause we where sharing the room with 2 other friends and the mom from one of them. So instead of checking in we went outside again to explore the area a bit and found a food court with amazing food stalls and even some vegan ones! Nothing beats a food court with vegan food options, we had the perfect location to stay over that weekend.
The other girls would arrive in the early afternoon so we stayed in the area waiting for them. The first one to arrive was Petra, she was already staying on Londen for a couple of days together with her boyfriend but wanted to stay with us for the weekend. Ayumi and her mom arrived shortly after Petra and our group was complete! Our first day together as a lolita crew could begin.
Both Petra and I had a store on our list we wanted to visit on the first day so after we checked in and where a bit settled in our room we went out again. On our mission to find both stores. I really wanted to visit the Sew Over It store in Clapham, I'm a big sewing fanatic and they had some patterns I really wanted to buy. But I told myself I could only buy one pattern cause it would go from my event spending budget. I ended up with one pattern and the biggest smile on my face. I couldn't believe it that I actually visited the store. It is one of my favourite sewing pattern brands so being there was magical, and I'm so glad that everyone joined me.
As for Petra, she wanted to visit the cutest store in London I think. It was a kawaii, fairy kei store with the cutest items from Japan. This store was so adorable and they had so many items I wanted to buy. They had items from Listen Flavour which is an amazing casual brand with adorable illustrations on their clothes and of course big plushies, cute stationary and other cute things. If this wasn't the day before the event I would have definitely bought something but I wanted to safe as much money as I could.
On the way we spotted a cupcake shop with vegan cupcakes, how is this even possible? Here in Belgium you are lucky to find one restaurant in your own town that can make something for you or when you live in a bigger city like Antwerp or Ghent you have a couple of options but a special cupcake store that sells vegan cupcakes in whole London is like heaven to me. Everyone ended up buying one or more cupcakes to try out. I bought 3 in total to share with my husband. We planned on having them as dessert when we went out for dinner but we ate to much at the restaurant that we saved the cupcakes for breakfast on Saturday. Nothing is more appropriate than having sugary sweet cupcakes first thing in the morning while getting ready for a big lolita event.
My first day in London was a blast and I couldn't wait for the days of the event. I was amazed by the beautiful buildings, the food and overal politeness from the people we met at the stores and restaurants. It was nice to be in a country where you understand the language and I enjoyed every single moment of it. One day is really short to really explore the city and see all the things that London has to offer so London is definitely a city I would love to visit again one day but next time around Christmas. This has been a dream of mine for many years, to go Christmas shopping in London and enjoy all the fairy lights as well as the Christmas displays from the stores. So maybe one day this dream will become a reality.
Our day ended way sooner that we all hoped for but since it would the an early start the next day we tried to go to bed pretty early. Though I think it was around midnight when we where finished with talking, looking at all the pretty dresses and planning out our schedule for Saturday morning.
But more about that in my next post!
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Oh, I never realised that Lola's Cupcakes were vegan. I've seen them all over London, but just assumed that they were regular cupcakes. Might give them a try next time I'm around. But yes, London is way too big and too rich in things to do to even scratch the surface in one day. I've been there several times, mostly for visa to Japan kind of things, but even though recently I had the chance to get to know it a bit better, there are still so many places I've never been to or seen. You need a really long holiday to do it all in one go and unfortunately, that is pricey.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenYou should try them next time you visit London. Not all of their cupcakes are vegan but they surely are super delicious! The high price for a long holiday is indeed what is holding us back too. So going there multiple times for a short weekend could do the trick too.
VerwijderenI'm lucky in that with my new job I get to go to London at least once or twice a year and be free as to what I do there (we take groups to London, but as they're all adults, they don't need supervising, it's just that staff have to go with them for it to qualify for a trip paid for by the college I work at). So that's at least 4 days, usually mid-week as well, to explore more, but that's never really enough. But if you can sort out those weekend trips early enough in advance to get the cheapest transport and accommodation, then I think it's the best way to visit any capital city (because capital cities everywhere are expensive).
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