There are like TONNES OF THINGS to do in this bustling city and honestly, the 3-4days I had there WASN'T ENOUGH, but it's alright, i'm pretty sure I will be back there again someday. I swear you need to spend like months there to catch every single musical, visit every single royal architecture/site, every single museum, every single church...... HAHAHAH but well, doubt anyone would do that. I'm more into the musicals actually :P I kinda got tired of the museums and churches around Europe.

One does not simply go to London and not pay a visit to the Hyde park! I headed there for an afternoon stroll with my uk travel buddies, Finian, Alex, YX, IV, FZ and YI.

Entrance to the Hyde park

Yes, you can even ride horses in the famous hyde park, right smack in the middle of the city

Strolling casually in the park really was such a breeze, given the awesomely cooling weather of just about 15deg :D

I saw many cute little kids too!

this is one cool kid ;)

This is in memory of Puglee, IV's ugly doll which ran away :(

I don't know what the boys were looking at, prolly some ducks/swans

Isn't it great, there are such comfy chairs along the lake, in the park, for you to relax and perhaps just do people watching or read a book.

HAHAHA double

I love flowers!

WWII memorial for commonwealth soldiers

Check out the royal guards' march past!

The Queen wasn't at home :(

Buckingham palace!

Humpty dumpty sat on the wall.........humpty dumpty had a great fall.............. apparently it was nearing easter so there was this snap-as-many-humpty-dumptys-as-possible-to-win competition all over London!

This is apparently the old palace which I think is prettier than the new one, in the sense that it exudes the cultural and historical feel

I always wondered how Trafalgar square looked like, so here it is! the giant pillar over there is where they start measuring distances from

This is to mark the queen's silver jubilee! (60 years)

BIG BEN!!

hoho see what I mean, London, has Duck tours too!

This is Westminister Abbey, the place where Prince William and Kate got married at!! I didn't go in because it costs like 16pounds to enter, i think!

Stupid story: I got scammed 2pounds for these flowers which could be easily plucked from the ground :( but thankfully that was the only prank I fell prey of in europe! I didn't get pickpocket-ted or anything but I did loose my camera lens cap, one of my original camera batteries and some earrings during my trips.

Parliament house

One must eat a plate of fish and chips in England like how one must eat sushi in Japan! Something special about their fish and chips is that they have this pea sauce and peperish mayo to go with it!

This mushroom risotto was pretty good!!

THE TUBE. It seriously breaks down super often! I experienced delays, black outs, flickering of lights and weird noises a few times during my time there and the funny thing is the locals just act so indifferently that they whip out their storybooks and start reading silently. There are also "planned break downs" during weekends when they decide to close an entire train line.

Tower of London, where all the crown jewels are kept

I really like their ice cream vans, super cute and old school

The one that has always been mistaken as the "London bridge"

This is me with the TOWER BRIDGE, NOT LONDON BRIDGE. The real london bridge is just.........well, like any other bridge. *yawns*

There, a wider perspective

Fancy challenging a masked man to a game of chess along the river?

I can't seem to find pictures of the london bridge LOL, maybe it was just too ordinary. There were many scams along the river, between the two bridges, like gambling scams and stuffs, one has to keep walking and not be tempted.

Chinatown! This is the biggest Chinatown that I've been to in Europe! It also seems to be the most authentic! hahahah I think UK generally has good chinatowns, there's a good one in Manchester too

Soon, it was dinner time and we really really really missed sg food!! :D

CHENDOL!! OMG, you have no idea how happy I was to be able to eat that sweet dessert!

Nasi Lemak!

Laksa (didn't really taste authentic though but not too bad!)

Rendang!! pretty good!

ORH JIAN! it wasn't the kind that had lots of flour and crisps but still not too bad

Nasi Padang or smth with satay chicken ;)

SAMBAL KANGKONG!! OMG HAHAHA FINALLY NOT BROCOLLI HAHAHAH. It didn't have a lot of sambal belachan though but it still was a refreshing change ;)

Char Kuay Tiao

It was a tad too pricey for hawker food like 20+ sgd but it was immensely satisfying because it cured my cravings! HAHAHA

The boys (minus YX) and I headed to PUB CRAWL! AHAHAH Pretty cool because you get a tshirt with random strangers' autographs hahahaha ;) and of cos, the booze and club hopping which ended at MOF, THE CLUB of London. Honestly, I felt that it was really overrated, there was so much hassle, like stringent security checks, just to enter and the interior was just pretty average. The songs were like house music i guess, wasn't really appealing compared to the other clubs that we went to before MOF. I don't really get what the hype is :/

On the very next day.......

London has tonnes of markets but it was a sunday so there was only one flea market opened! Oh and we met michelle lim there! hahaha funny thing is, I actually met her twice in europe by just walking on the streets randomly

IV and I bought this Lithuanian food to share!

Lots of colourful sweet treats!

After buying some clothes and food, we headed to the korean restaurant, kimchee, with IV's friend, Alex, for lunch!

Kimchi jidae was pretty good!! Spicy and thick!!

Succulent scallops

Korean rice cake

I took a walk along oxford street! YES THE FAMOUS SHOPPING STREET ;) HAHAHAH That time I didn't buy anything but when I went there again on the 30th I WENT CRAZY AT PRIMAK AGAIN. LOL

The good thing about London is that the museums are all free of charged! I went to the Natural history museum..............felt like I got lost in an encyclopedia

There was a photo exhibition on animal photography and I thought this is damn cute!

Giant TREX greeted me the moment i stepped in! Felt like a scene from "night at the museum"

Father of evolution! Charles Darwin!

HAHAHA this really reminds me of all those 9gag jokes on Trex

Try this, it really works ;)

We had dinner at this awesome place!!! OMG I SWEAR THEIR STANDARD IS HIGHER THAN SG HAHAHA It's a restaurant opened by hk people.

omg finally some veggie in oyster sauce

Roasted duck *drools*

The roasted pork and char siew were really good too!!

We then went for supper at another place (which I forgot where but i remember walking a long distance to get there and we saw a waitress that looked a lot like emma watson!)

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE WITH BUTTER CREAM AND CARAMEL!! HAHAHA IT WAS DAMN GOOD!!! BUT kinda too sweet! HAHAHA

Lemon cake with cream!!

OFF TO HOGWARTS!!!!!!

Some 5 or 6 days later we came back to London again and I went to the British museum!

Don't you love the shades? HAHAHA I got it at the flea market in London :D It accompanied me throughout my euro trip!! LOVE IT!!

THERE, I've seen the olympic gold medals for London 2012 before all of you :P

One does not leave London without trying one of the famous hummingbird cupcakes!! Their red velvet cupcake was really good! I love the generous cream cheese topping!! :) It was kinda pricey though, close to 3 pounds for one cupcake.

RED VELVET!! (took this w my phone)

HAHAHA IKR. I WAS CRAVING SUSHI!!! Honestly they had really good sushi! Super fresh and all! This was about 7pounds i think?

After my jap dinner, I went to watch the musical that I have always wanted to watch!!! *sings* HAHAHAHA i only paid 19pounds btw :P HAHAHA it costs like 3 times that amount to watch it in singapore :P

HAPPY HAPPY.

THE BOYS

THE CROWD!! OMG IT WAS LIKE FULL HOUSE! I bet it's like this every night. Tickets sell out really fast.

This is alphaba (without her makeup), shes really AWESOME!!!

The male lead!

HAHA funny thing was, after the musical it was like 11+ and we had a plane to catch at 7am (means 5am at the airport), so we decided not to book a hostel and like catch the last bus to the airport BUT UNFORTUNATELY WE MISSED THE LAST BUS. We had to live like hobos until the first bus at around 3+

London felt like a city that never sleeps, characteristic of any huge cosmopolitan. It was like a huge contrast to the countries that i went to before UK! I really enjoyed the fact that the brits are so friendly, some lady just randomly came to talk to us, and the fact that transport is so convenient, and that you can get food of any cuisine anywhere and everywhere! The best part is, amidst all that, London did not lose all its historical sites and culture :)

Sad to say, I can't remember much of the history except that King Henry the 8th, was the one who converted England from Catholic to Protestant just so to get another wife ;) He had 6 wives and they were treated in the order of: divorced, beheaded, dead, divorced, beheaded, survived!
It was also said that the Prime minister could choose a sport for olympics to be held right in front of his house, not exactly right in front but in his view and guess which sport did he choose?





BEACH VOLLEYBALL. HAHAHAHAHA MEN HAVE THEIR NEEDS HUH.

Anyway, London is definitely a city worth visiting and I would love to visit it again :)

Labels: England, London, UK