This June I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to London with my sister, Sara, before visiting family in Italy. Of course I spent several hours, days, even weeks planning, and still, I felt like we hardly followed my agenda. I'm definitely not complaining though; I think it's important to grasp the balance between planned and sporadic events when traveling.
Because we flew into the Gatwick airport, which is at least an hour away from the center of London depending on traffic, we had a later start to our day than anticipated. I definitely recommend flying into Gatwick though because it is immensely cheaper and most London airports aren't that close anyways. We stayed at the Apex City of London Hotel, which is no where near walking distance to the Buckingham Palace, but it was very nice and cheaper than most places. They were even able to get us a room as soon as we got there, so once we set our bags down, we were off to the legendary Borough Market.
First things first, you cannot miss Bread Ahead's donuts. Their storefront is right next to their stand in the market, but either way, you must try one. We had a orange lemon meringue filled donut (£2), and it surpassed expectations.
But that's not actually the first thing we did. On our hunt for donuts, we saw a line stretching across the front of a coffee shop, I turned to Sara and said "if there's a line, get in it." So we did. And that coffee was GOOD. Another great thing about Monmouth Coffee was that it was across the street from the market.
We also shared a pesto tomato focaccia from a different Bread Ahead stand within the market. We actually didn't realize it was the same place until after we ate, but I suppose that just proves how good it is.
Just north of the market was a beautiful little church, the Southwark Cathedral. Even if you don't go inside, you probably won't be able to resist taking a picture of the outside.
Of course we visited the London Bridge. And despite some of my best editing efforts, the further-away shots were hard to brighten, but that's just the English weather. I definitely recommend using the Adobe Lightroom app for most London pictures simply because of the naturally dull setting; It's free for iPhones and can work wonders!
Later that day, we wondered around the Shoreditch area of town. We knew London was known for it's wide variety of ethnic foods, so we didn't feel bad for not eating fish n' chips the first night. We stopped in a cute little ramen restaurant called Shoryu, and it was delicious! I got the Origin Tonkostu (£10), which was probably the most basic type of ramen they had, but it seemed very authentic.
Then we made our way to (the reason we were in Shoreditch) Ballie Ballerson: a bar and a ball pit all in one. Going on a Friday night would make tickets a lot more expensive, but Sara and I actually won free tickets from an Instagram contest, so keep your eyes peeled for those! Since we got in for free, we weren't as opposed to paying for a rather pricey drink. While they aren't cheap, they are so fun; check out the menu here!
I got "The David Bowie" (£10), a lavender blackcurrant flavored drink that literally spilled with smoke when they made it, came with my own sparkly lipstick and was covered with sparkles itself, not to mention, it was really yummy. Sara got the "Hit Me Baby One More Time" (£11), which came with a cute little scrunchie and tasted like bubblegum, and the "The Salt Bae" (£8), which, to be honest, did not taste like a great combonation of flavors but came with a flaming marshmallow on top!
The next day, we made sure to get to the west side of London, so we took an Uber to the Farm Girl Cafe in Notting Hill. We wanted to start off as far northeast as possible so we could make our way down and around, so Notting Hill was a good place to start.
I had the Rose Latte (£3.7) and the Coconut BLT (£9), and surprisingly, the coconut on the BLT made it taste like a completely different sandwich than I had ever had in America. The rose latte was pretty darn good too. Sara had the Latte Black (£4) and the tacos, which also turned out to be a pretty good meal.
After our late brunch, we wandered around Portobello Road and the Notting Hill area for a bit. There were so many beautiful houses, flowers and roads - easily one of the most "Instagramable" places around.
Then we took the London Underground from the Notting Hill stop to Victoria, which was only about £5 per person, but I think it ends up being a lot cheaper if you purchase an oyster card (we didn't buy one because we only used it once). Although my sister and I got lost for a half an hour, all the underground employees were very nice and helpful in getting us to our destination.
Of course we walked around the Buckingham Palace and naturally stumbled upon great finds: Whittard Chelsea, a little tea shop, and The English Rose Cafe and Tea Shop, where we had high tea. The high tea was great, and I was especially glad I got to try it once; It might not have been Harrods, but it was still a great, reasonably priced find.
We walked a lot that day; we passed several important-looking buildings I don't remember the names of, Fortnum & Mason, the Piccadilly Circus, China town, and more. We only stopped once during our eight-mile walk; the Theatre Cafe was definitely a fun stop for us since we're both theatre nerds.
We even got to see St. Paul's Cathedral! My sister had been to London once before and remembered this beautiful view of the cathedral from a rooftop bar - Madison. They had a special event going on, but if you say you're just going for the view, they'll let you up.
We were extremely tired from all the walking that day, so we wanted to have dinner somewhere close to the hotel. We ate at a pub called Hung Drawn & Quartered and shared the sampler pictured above. We weren't expecting much, but it turned out to be really good.
I promised my sister we would go to the Cereal Killer Cafe, so we went. I thought it was a little much for a place that sold cereal, but she loved it. I'll admit I was glad she dragged me down there because walking down Brick Lane was pretty neat and those cornflake chicken tenders were very unique and tasty.
We walked all the way down to Shakespeare's Globe, where I was embarrassed to find out that they were done giving guided tours for the day because they were about to begin a performance of As You Like It. With luck, the lady next to me said she wasn't going anymore and gave me her ticket. Sara and I ran to the box office, bought the cheapest ticket for £5 and watched about 20 minutes of the performance before the heat convinced us it would be a much better idea to have a drink inside while we waited for intermission so we could take pictures. There was actually a sweet little restaurant right next to the theatre and along the water that we waited at.
The last night, we went to another pub close to our hotel called The Liberty Bounds, where we finally had our fish n' chips. There were definitely more things we wanted to do and some things I didn't mention, but all-in-all, it was an amazing trip!