Travel diary February London day 7, 2017: Well, that was a delay of about 4hours...

Hallooooo!!

My final day, well, half day, in London :( Sad sad sad day.

Got up bright and early. Got ready and was downstairs for breakfast by 8am. Check out was before 11am, so I still had plenty of time when I got back up stairs to pack my bag. But I wanted to spend as much time as possible in the city before I had to leave, so by 9.15am I was out the hotel door :)

I did another Jane Austen walking tour, or a part of it anyway. This time the tour started at Marble Arch and would end on Piccadilly near Green Park underground station. A nice tour :)

William Pitt, youngest Prime Minister at age 23 :)

I had anticipated the tour would take about 2hours, but as a fast walker it took me just about an hour... So what to do? A hot chocolate at Café Nero. That is what to do :) I went all the way to Regent street for that, so I could sit outside and look at the busses, taxis and pedestrians. And of course, read in my book Austenland :) It was a very quiet and uneventful day, but I loved it. I love that city. It's home.

At 1pm it was time to return to the hotel to collect my bag and head to St Pancras. Bought a quick lunch before checking in at 2pm as the Eurostar would leave at 3. Lunch was good and train left the station on time. Hurray, by 7pm I'd be home, have dinner, unpack, take a bath, watch a movie and just get ready at the 6am start tomorrow morning. How blis it will be...

Well, Eurostar had something else in mind. A few miles from Lille the Eurostar train decided to die. No electricity, no aircon, no lights,... At first I thought I would be just a small hick up and that we'd be on our way within 30minutes. Well, think again Sara, 3hours we were still standing still. Ugh. Eventually we were toad to Lille Europe station where we had to change Eurostar trains. Rather than leave immediately, the replacement train couldn't leave until they were sure that the broken down train could close. Another 30min stand still. But once we were on our way, we were in Brussels in 30mintues. Phieuw. But by the time I actually got home, it was well past 10pm... My night turned out rather differently than what I had in mind.

So that was the tiny dumper on an amazing trip. But I'm already looking at the earliest dates when I can go back :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary February London day 6, 2017: Meetup with friends as if I've never left

Hallooooooo!!

My last complete day in London :( Can't believe my trip is nearly over. It's gone by so fast. Time flies when you're having fun, hein?:)

So what did I do on my last complete day? A Jane Austen walking tour... Of course! I walked from my hotel in Pimlico to the first stop on Sloan square. Henry, Jane's brother, used to live here. Around the corner, on Hans place, her brother lived as well after the death of his wife.

And then I walked to Knightsbrigde to continue the tour, but decides eventually not to. Apsley House and surroundings I've seen as Hyde Park and Kensington gardens and palace. So I wandered around Knightsbridge for a while and walked to V&A museum where I walked around for about an hour and a half.

By the time I got out it was nearly 2pm, so high time for some lunch! Paul's it was again :) Honestly, their tuna sandwiches are just the best.

After lunch I walked back towards Knightsbridge and then on to Victoria station. I wanted to have a look at the WHSmith in Victoria if they had any Simply Knitting magazines. And sure enough :) In the morning I did a lot of walking oO So by the time I arrived at Victoria it was high time to take the underground to Oxford Circus rather than walk everything. Not to worry, didn't go on a shopping spree on Oxford Street ;)

But from Oxford Circus it was easy to get to Wimbledon, where I had agreed to meet a few friends who had time on a monday evening x) It was such a lovely night. It was as if I've never moved out of London and as if we've seen each other just the other day. Those are the good people! Those are the ones to hold on to :)

By 10pm it was time for all of us to head back home (or in my case, hotel). And I'm exhausted, so this is where I'll leave  you!

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary February London day 5, 2017: Just your regular quiet Sunday

** I'm writing and uploading this on the same day. I'm usually too tired to re read for any errors or typos, so my apologies for this in advance**

Halloooooo!!

Unlike yesterday, today was a very quite day. Woke up really early again, got ready and by 10am left my friend's apartment in search for breakfast and a Poundland store.

via GIPHY

I walked to Camden to go to the Cafe Nero for breakfast and read in my book Austenland. Completely lost track of time and it was 11am before I knew it. I had agreed to meet my friend at 11.30am and I still had to go to the pound store! So I arrived 5minutes later at her apartment than planned... Oops.

We then went for brunch. Well, lunch for me really, at a restaurant nearby. Before we knew it, it was 2pm, so time to head back to her apartment and pack my bag as I was to leave her mid afternoon. By 2.45pm I had said goodbyes and thank yous and I was standing at the bus stop to catch the C2 all the way to Victoria station, which took about 50minutes. Hey, I had time :)

Was in my room and checked in by 4pm, watched a bit of telly and then went back out again to go to Hatcherds as I was looking for a book and Waterstones didn't have it. Looked around the bookshop for a while, went to Tesco to buy dinner and  headed back to my hotel. That is literally all I did today. Oh and finished listening to the audio book of Pride and Prejudice and restarting it.

I'm now sitting on my bed, will probably watch a movie on my laptop or read a bit before turning the light off. Telly isn't working too well, so the movie will probably be one of my own x)

Short but sweet. No pictures.

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary February London day 4, 2017: We've visited the house Queen Victoria grew up in. Well, the palace...

**I write and upload on the same day. Often I'm too tired to read for spelling mistakes or missing words/letters**

Halloooooo!!

It was such a fun day!!

After Tate Modern yesterday, I jumped right back to thing I actually enjoy: to visit palaces (or old manor houses, etc) Today, Kensington Palace was on the program.

But before we made our way there, we (my friend and I) had breakfast at home. We then took the bus to Oxford Circus as my friend had an appointment at her bank, so I 'dropped' her off and went on to Oxford street wandering around some shops. We met up around 12pm again, had lunch at Paul's and then made our way to Queensway underground station to walk to Kensington Palace from there.

The main reason why I wanted to visit Kensington Palace is because it is the home a young Victoria grew up before she became queen and the first monarch to reach the milestone of 60 years rule. Since watching the film the Young Victoria and the itv series Victoria, I just had to visit it.

It was kind of weird because I've passed the palace multiple times, but never realising how important this building actually is. Princess Diana used to live there, Kate and William have moved or will move there,... It is still an actual working palace, like Buckingham and Windsor. Of course, as a non royal, a mere mortal, you can only visit certain state rooms, but it is nevertheless cool to walk those halls and rooms :)

We did about 2 to 3 hours to walk around all the rooms there are open for visitors, saving the best for last: Victoria reveals. We got see original dresses of the Queen, a replica of Albert's wedding suit, portrait of Victoria which was very risqué at the time, a doll house of Victoria before she became Queen, etc. It was genuinely amazing. My friend and I are both interested in actually understanding who is who in the Royal family tree so that kind of took us some time, walking back and forth between rooms and google to understand the relationship between all the monarchs mentioned in the state rooms.

First painting of Victoria as Queen

After we had seen everything that was to be seen, we stopped by the gift shop and honestly, there was alot that I wanted to buy. In specific a planner. But, I'm going to wait until Monday or Tuesday and see if I still would like to buy it and then go for it :) Ya need to be sure!

We then walked around the gardens a bit, went to see the Golden Gate and sat on a bench, discussing whether spiders are animals or not and the fact that Jane Austen didn't live when Victoria became queen. The weather was sooo nice.

After our stroll around we returned to my friend's apartment to make dinner and just chill. We saw an episode of the Crown and then Hot Fuzz. Little fun fact: when I was on an exchange with Uppingham Community College about 8 or 9 years ago, I saw Hot Fuzz, but not everything of it. I also forgot the title of the film but never forgot what happened in that film. Quite often I would think about it again, wondering what movie it was. As the film started, a bell started to ring in the back of my head. And then I saw the scenes that I remembered. It was so weird x) Really happy I saw the ending of it. Hot Fuzz is a comedy, black, but comedy nonetheless. However, the bit that I've seen 8 years ago wasn't really funny, but more gory and scary. Now that I know the end, it makes it all less scary and actually funny x')

When the movie ended, it was time for bed. So here I am, writing, whilst also actually watching Safe Haven, just because it is on the telly and enjoying the night view:

I can't wait to be able to save to book my next trip to this city where I feel like I'm home and of course to other places in the world :)

This is it for my fourth day in London :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary February London day 3, 2017: "Thanks to sushi, I'm here in London now."

**I write and upload on the same day. Often I'm too tired to read for spelling mistakes or missing words/letters**

Halloooooo!

Day 3 has come and gone and what a day it was^^ (Read: a good one)

Sunrised are always a lovely view to behold, but in this case, I got a panoramic view with it. My friend lives on the 3 floor and has an amazing view on all the roofs in North London.

I woke up to something like this...

Which then progressed to this...

What a view. And it wasn't even 7.30am yet!

So my friend left for work around 8am, I then had a shower, got ready and left the apartment by 9am. Another breakfast at Cafe Nero and by 10am I was on the Northern Line underground towards Waterloo. I'd walk from there, via Soutbank to Tate Modern.

But not only Tate Modern was on the agenda this morning, I also made sure I had some more pictures of a film location in Love Actually. And by accident, I stumbled upon more! And I discovered a quiet square whilst I was at it. Win win x)

Eventually, around 12p, I arrived at Tate Modern. You see how I took my time?x) Once inside the building, I spent just 1 hour in there. Not a big fan of modern art, I just went in there to be able to say that I actually went to the Tate. Some installation were kind of cool, the other pieces were, I don't know, art I guess. It was kind of cool so see pieces of art of artists like Matiss, Warhol, Dali and Picasso, masters of which I've learned during my 1 year of Graphic Design. Other than that it was meh. One piece of art was actually a Sainsbury's receipt. I mean...

So after that 1 hour, of which I've spent about 15minutes on the museum's wifi, I walked back to Waterloo station via Southbank, to take the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and go the old office and meet my old colleagues.

It was so nice to see everyone again! Or at least everyone that was at the office 'cause alot of people were off... I've spent a bit over an hour in there, catching up with everyone. I even ended up make a tea for my old team mates^^

By 3.30pm I walked out of the building and headed to the big Tesco to get some food. Meal deal it was. Whilst walking I ate my late lunch on the way to Covent Garden. Made some stops in between such as Soho square and the Minalima house.

I didn't actually made to Covent Garden, but I did buy a cinema ticket for Hidden Figures whilst I was on my way to Forbidden Planet :) I could buy everything in that shop...x')

So yeah, I saw Hidden Figures today and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone who wants to see a feel good film but doesn't want to see a romcom. Reason why I saw the film is because I agreed to meet up a few of the old colleagues after work, but today they also had a screening of Logan, which didn't end until 9.30pm. So I had some time to kill and why not go see a movie myself? So happy I saw the film, absolutely inspiring and mind blowing.

So eventually I met up with a few of the ex colleagues on Leicester Square and we went to a pub around the corner and catched up. Didn't got home until 12am, so it was a good night. Although I am exhausted...

So ths is where I leave you.
Thanks for reading!
xo Sara

Travel diary February London day 2, 2017: Shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping

**I write and upload on the same day. Often I'm too tired to read for spelling mistakes or missing words/letters**

Hallooooooo!!

Day 2 of my 7 day city trip. As predicted I didn't sleep much. Not only did I fell asleep with my earphones in, listening to the audiobook of Pride and Prejudice, but it was also boiling hot. Half way through the night some people arrived after a night out, so that woke me up too and well, I didn't get the usual amount of good sleep. No disaster though, I'm in London so something really bad will need to happen for me not to be in a good mood.

After I woke up, I didn't get up immediately but had a bit of a lay in. Around 8h45am I eventually made it out of bed to get ready: get dressed, charge my phone and pack. Check out was at 10am, left my luggage at the hostel's storage and went out in search of breakfast. Cafe Nero it was. I was craving those apricot croissants x) Whilst enjoying my breakfast, I made up a plan for the next few days. Yes, I finally have a plan :) On today's planning: walk around Camden market and eat a crepes at 'my' stall and make sure all the shopping that I wanted to do is over and done with so I can focus on the visiting in the next few days. Yes, moooooore shopping. Nooooooo!

So, after cafe Nero I did just that what was on the planning: go to Camden Market. A lot has changed and certain areas are gone and are now a construction sight. Also the stall where I usually got my crepes, was gone :(

No crepe then... Off to Tottenham court road to make a stop at Primark. I wandered around for about 2hours in the store. From there back on the underground to go the the HMV. Come on, how can you think I didn't make a stop at my favourite DVD store in town?x) After HMV, I walked into Boots and the into the Disney store to look. Beauty and the Beast are now in full swing, as are Star Wars, Moana, etc. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy the Disney store ;)

From the Disney store hop on the underground toward Green Park. There I sat on a bench and ate my snack and rested my feet for a bit. After approx 15min break, I made my way to Cath Kidston flagship store where again I've spent enough time x) From Cath Kidston to Waterstones on Piccadilly. That was a quick one, in and out, so I'd assume I'll be able to go and have a proper look around later this week. And from Waterstones Piccadilly hup to Piccadilly Circus to have a look at the works on the big screen. It looks so sad right now...

And from Piccadilly back on the underground towards the hostel to pick up my bag, because believe it or not by this time it is already 5h15pm and I'd agreed to meet my friend, that I'm staying at from tonight until Sunday, around 5h45pm. That eventually became an hour later, but no issues. It wasn't raining and it wasn't too cold.

Around 7pm we made ourway to the Diner at Camden for dinner with my friend and her boyfriend. After dinner we went straight home and watched an episode of Hustle. It is sooooo good! But it stayed with one episode though, we were too tired. Even now I'm typing this with one eye closed...

So thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Travel diary February London day 1, 2017: I'm back! I'm freaking back!

Halloooooo!!

Long time no see, well, read. But here I am again! Since I moved back to Belgium and out of London, I haven't had a lot of interesting things to write about weekly, so I kind of left that bit off my blog. But now that I'm on holiday, I thought I'd do another travel diary :) Not that I'm travelling much, just city tripping for 7 days... Which is a really long time for a city trip x) But yeah, today was my first day back.

Austenland
The Eurostar trip was super chill. I arrived in Brussels Midi on time, check in went really smoothly, had my capuccino and the train was on time. As per usual, I saw a film. This time it was Austenland, again. I've seen that film numerous times now and as I'm currently also reading the book, I'm only watching it more often x)

A bit after 2pm the train rolled into St Pancras station. Kind of couldn't believe it. It is the first time I'm back since I moved and it's been a very long time since I stayed in the city as a tourist. As long as I don't look at it like that and don't think about it too much, I'm fine. The moment I dare to think that I don't live here anymore and that from now on, I'll always be a tourist when I visit, makes me really sad (unless I move back of course, and that definitely is still an option :)). It'll be an exercise for the next few days.

Going to London to shop... Cliché confirmed
First thing I did on UK soil was a stop at Cath Kidston... We don't have anything like it in Belgium and I'm a hug fan. A visit to the flagship store on Piccadilly is definitely also on the agenda for this trip, but today I made a stop at the store in St Pancras. You see, I was in need of a travel wallet. In the past I've always travelled with my everyday purse. As much as I love it, it is a bit too big if you'd like to travel as light as possible. So, time to invest in something where I can leave out all the client cards I don't need on holiday :) And I freaking love it. It is so pretty ^^

So the cliché of going to London to shop is half true... Oops x)

Can't wait to drink my tea out of this mug
After I got something to put my notes, change and cards in, I walked over to King's Cross to pop by the 9 3/4 shop. One of my leaving presents from my colleagues was this really cool mug which changes colour when a hot drink it poored in. When I unpacked it for the first time when I'd already moved back to Belgium, I noticed a crack on the side of the mug. I was gutted. So now, I just wanted so let the people of the store know there was a problem with the mug, no intention to have a refund or replacement as I didn't have a bag or receipt (as it was a present). But they were super friendly and understanding and they helped me so well! Bless them. Can't wait to go home and drink my tea out of it :D

The mug looks something likes this when cold

From King's Cross and after topping up my oyster card with a 7day travelcard (£33= £4.7/ day. 3 rides on the underground and you already have your money's worth out of it for a day), I made my way to the hostel to check in. Between the time I checked in and the time I left the building again, nearly 2hours had passed. I answered some emails, did some researched to where the nearest Argos was and roughly making a plan for today and tomorrow.

Earphones...
Reason why I needed an Argos is because I lost my earphones that I had for nearly 2 years. I came to the conclusion right before I had to leave the house to catch the train to Brussels Midi. I've been looking for them for a few weeks now and today I remembered where I had put them. When I went to look for them, they were no longer there. As they weren't there, nor in any of my handbags, the only explanation is that I've lost them...:( At first I had in mind to buy very cheap temporary ones, but soon realised I was going to buy descent ones anyway, so might as well get it right from the first go. Argos had the same earphones I'd lost and they were only £8, so no moment's hesitation.

What I bought today: mini eggs, Sony earphones and a Cath Kidston travel wallet (and of course I'm listening to the audio book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

After Argos I walked around in Paperchase for a while, marvelling in all the stationery wonderfulness. From Paperchase, I crossed the street to go to Tesco to buy a bottle of water and some treats for the next few days. So on my very first day I've bought quite a few bits already. In my defence, these were things I kind of needed. I'm using them already.

After Tesco, it was time to find dinner. Nando's it was and it was soooo good! I worked a bit whilst eating and after dinner I went to a Costa for a peppermint tea and some blogging. I even took the above 'flat lay'... How hipster of me... Well, it would have been if my internet connection wasn't such a failure x) Costa closed at 8pm so I made my way to the hostel, got in my pj's, brushed my teeth and here we are. Not sure how well I'll be able to sleep, as it is super hot in the room, but it's an all women's room, so I'm sure it will be okay :)

And that it is for today :) No concrete plans yet for the next few days, but I'm not going to be bored, that is certain :)

Thanks for reading things very long post!
xo - Sara