LONDON!!

Last weekend I spent 4 days in London and this is the run down:

Friday

We flew in on Friday morning at 9am and right away, we got to exploring. After arriving in central London from Stansted airport, we got some bagels at B Bagel Bakery Bar. I got salmon and cream cheese on an everything bagel and it definitely hit the spot. We then did a bit of sightseeing and saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, and more. The weather made it a little hard to walk everywhere because it was insanely hot, but it felt surreal seeing all theses sights in person. As we walked around some more, we ended up at Borough market where there were so many stands with different food being sold. We were there around 3:30pm and it was very busy. I ended up getting some empanadas from a stand and they were pretty good. All this walking in the heat had us quite tired so we went back to a friend's flat to freshen up and take a nap. The day wasn't over yet because for dinner we had a picnic at the park before going out for drinks. We ordered an aubergine pizza as well as a mushroom and truffle one and they were some of the best pizza I had.

Saturday

Saturday was another busy day. We started off in Paddington where we ate brunch/lunch at a Middle Eastern place called Mihbaj Cafe and Kitchen and I got kofta (SO good). We took a bus to Notting Hill and walked down Portobello Road which had a lot of vintage clothing stands. We also walked down a couple of the streets where the colorful houses were. After spending an hour or so in Notting Hill, we got gelato and went through Kensington Park to see Kensington Palace and the Princess Diana Memorial Garden. Later on in the night we had ramen for dinner at Kanada-Ya then took a walk around the city at midnight. The River Thames at night was a sight I will never forget. The London Eye was lit up pink and the city was still so lively at that time of night.

Sunday

On Sunday, a group of us checked out a few flea markets and car boot sales in Shoreditch. There were a lot of antique and vintage pieces for good prices which I thought was pretty cool. We grabbed bagels at Beigel Bake Brick Lane Bakery which is actually quite known. The line was fairly long by the time we got there but I got their famous salt beef bagel and it was unlike any other bagel I've tried. It wasn't your normal cream cheese bagel but it was pretty memorable. Afterwards we went to Columbia Road flower market. It was packed with people but the flowers were so beautiful! We spent a couple hours there before we left to go to Camden market. For dinner, we walked to a restaurant with a view of the canal and I tried Sunday roast which is traditional in Britain. After a filling meal we sat near the canal and watched the sunset.

Monday

Our last day was probably our most chill day. Our flight was at night but after such a busy weekend we were pretty exhausted. We visited the National Gallery and walked around Covent Garden. There were a lot of shops and places to grab a bite there. We had lunch at Seven Dials market then just relaxed until it was time to catch our bus back to the airport.

Even though we only got to spend a few days in London, I feel like we did as much as we could. The hot weather kind of makes me scared to go back home to California because I know it's just as hot, if not hotter. Despite the heat, London was such a wonderful experience and I hope I can go back some day.