Myself and Reece had been planning to travel to London for a while. We initially decided to go in around April but we postponed the trip as we decided to go later on in the year. As the Creative Showcase was announced for September, I persuaded Reece that we just had to go this time! We planned our trip out pretty well, we booked well in advance, bagging ourselves an apartment for a third of the price that it should have cost and our train fair was nearly half the amount we would normally pay. We also planned out what we would do every day that we were there to ensure that we saw the most of London that we possibly could!
DAY ONE
The first day was mainly travelling as its nearly a four hour journey from Carlisle to London on the train. We had to change trains at Crewe to make the journey quicker and when we finally made it to Euston we had to work out where to purchase our Oyster cards, as we had read online that this was the best way to pay to get around London. If you are planning a trip to London, I really suggest purchasing an Oyster card. You have to pay a £5 deposit for the card and we topped up £25 to do us for the three days, There is a cap price that your Oyster card will be charged on a daily basis to ensure that you are getting the cheapest travel possible. We bounced about between zones one and two our entire trip and we only needed to top up and extra £5 on the last day, just to make sure we had enough money on the card. Once we had got ourselves an Oyster card and topped up, we made our way to Canary Wharf, where our apartment was to check in.
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, master bathroom
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, master bedroom
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, second bedroom
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, living room
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, living room
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, kitchen
Pictured - Our apartment in Canary Wharf, en suite
Our apartment was lovely, it was a lot bigger than we anticipated, or even needed! We had a fully functioning kitchen, a living room with a TV, a full bathroom, two bedrooms, one of which had an en-suite and another stand alone toilet. It was a lot bigger than we needed and as nice as it was, I wish we had gotten somewhere a little smaller. Once we had gotten the keys to our apartment, taken a proper look around and taken photos (not only for blogging purposes, but to note what the apartment was like before we spent any time there in case we were charged for something that was already broke etc.) we took ourselves out for a walk. We got the tube to Tower Hill and walked across Tower Bridge. It was a lovely day which I'm glad about as it let us take some lovely photos. We then walked down beside them Thames and crossed over London Bridge and then made our way down to St Paul's Cathedral. It was nice to wander around and stumble upon the city of London.
Pictured - London Bridge
Pictured - Ice cream I bought at London Bridge
Pictured - St Pauls Cathedral
Pictured - St Pauls Cathedral
Pictured - Festival Gardens outside St Pauls Cathedral
We made our way back home so I could cook us some tea as we had barely eaten all day. We were both exhausted so made our way to bed, but ended up spending the majority of the night awake sleeping on the couch as I had been creeped out by a group of guys outside the apartment at around midnight and I couldn't rest because of it. Also when you're staying in quite an old house, there are a lot of creaks in the night that we're obviously not used to, so I was on pins the entire night and probably had around an hour and a half sleep all night.
DAY TWO
Our second day in London was mainly dedicated to the Creative Showcase. After spending most of the night awake and terrified, I felt sick to my stomach and Reece literally was. I didn't think we were going to make it out at first, but after a few minutes of fresh air and some water, we both started feeling a bit better and set off to the Showcase. I'm not going to write too much about the Showcase as I have an entire blog post about it which I will link here. I also managed to meet a lovely friend of mine that I met on Instagram through our love of LUSH at the Showcase. After speaking to Jess for nearly a year, it was really lovely to spend the day with her. We've decided we're going to meet up again, myself and Reece will probably travel to Liverpool where she lives as neither of us have visited there before.
Pictured - Christmas Sweater bath bomb at the LUSH Creative Showcase
Pictured - Star Light Star Bright bath bomb melt at the LUSH Creative Showcase
Pictured - Knot Wraps at the LUSH Creative Showcase
Pictured - Starry Night gift set at the LUSH Creative Showcase
After the Showcase, myself, Reece and Jess hopped on the tube and visited LUSH Oxford Street store, the biggest LUSH store in the world, home to many exclusive products and of course, all the available perfumes. I had been dying to go here since it opened and I couldn't quite believe I was finally going there. If I'm going to be 100% honest, I was slightly underwhelmed. All in all, it's just a huge LUSH store isn't it! Now that you can purchase all the 'Oxford Street exclusives,' it kind of took away the magic of visiting, which disappointed me in whole honesty. I would like to go back and have a proper look around when I'm not exhausted, feeling unwell and I've had a proper nights sleep, I feel that way I would really be able to experience visiting Oxford Street in full form.
By the time we left Oxford Street, Jess decided to set off back home and we decided to wander about a little bit. I started feeling super ill again and ,y anxiety started to kick in so we made our way back to our apartment. I was annoyed that I didn't feel very well as we had planned to go out for a meal this night and we were unable to. We went back to our apartment with a pizza and watch crappy TV for the rest of the night before finally having a good nights sleep!
Pictured - The perfume lounge at LUSH Oxford Street
Pictured - The bath bomb wall at LUSH Oxford Street
Pictured - Snow Fairy at LUSH Oxford Street
Pictured - Bath oils at LUSH Oxford Street
By the time we left Oxford Street, Jess decided to set off back home and we decided to wander about a little bit. I started feeling super ill again and ,y anxiety started to kick in so we made our way back to our apartment. I was annoyed that I didn't feel very well as we had planned to go out for a meal this night and we were unable to. We went back to our apartment with a pizza and watch crappy TV for the rest of the night before finally having a good nights sleep!
DAY THREE
Our third day in London was all about Harry Potter, another experience that I have dedicated a whole blog post to that you can find here. We spent the morning wandering around London a little, visting Covent Garden, which was gorgeous but a bit too expensive and posh for us.
Pictured - Covent Garden
We then went on to Leicester Square where we visited the Lego store, where they had human sized Lego men and a huge Lego Big Ben! It was incredible to see how creative some people can be with tiny pieces of plastic. We then crossed the road over to M&M world, where they have tubes about 7 foot long filled to the brim with sugar coated chocolates for you to purchase. We then carried on walking down to Chinatown, where I really wish we had spent more time. Chinatown was amazing! The shop windows looked so authentically Chinese and the streets smelled amazing with the scents of Chinese food! I would have loved to have stopped here and ate but as we were pushed for time, I made do with a sandwich from Sainsburys!
We then walked into Soho as there was a Harry Potter graphic art exhibition that I had seen online that I had really wanted to visit called House of Minalima. I have also wrote a blog post about visiting there as there was so much to see and I enjoyed it so much. I should be uploading the post in the next couple of weeks. Just before we made it to House of Minalina, we passed the theatre that was showing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, so naturally, I had to stop and snap some photos.
After visiting Soho, we jumped back on the tube and made our way to Piccadilly Circus. Much to my dismay, it was turned off and covered in board advertisements as there was construction underway on top of the building. At least Reece can say he's been there!
We then went on to Leicester Square where we visited the Lego store, where they had human sized Lego men and a huge Lego Big Ben! It was incredible to see how creative some people can be with tiny pieces of plastic. We then crossed the road over to M&M world, where they have tubes about 7 foot long filled to the brim with sugar coated chocolates for you to purchase. We then carried on walking down to Chinatown, where I really wish we had spent more time. Chinatown was amazing! The shop windows looked so authentically Chinese and the streets smelled amazing with the scents of Chinese food! I would have loved to have stopped here and ate but as we were pushed for time, I made do with a sandwich from Sainsburys!
Pictured - China Town
We then walked into Soho as there was a Harry Potter graphic art exhibition that I had seen online that I had really wanted to visit called House of Minalima. I have also wrote a blog post about visiting there as there was so much to see and I enjoyed it so much. I should be uploading the post in the next couple of weeks. Just before we made it to House of Minalina, we passed the theatre that was showing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, so naturally, I had to stop and snap some photos.
Pictured - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Pictured - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
After visiting Soho, we jumped back on the tube and made our way to Piccadilly Circus. Much to my dismay, it was turned off and covered in board advertisements as there was construction underway on top of the building. At least Reece can say he's been there!
Pictured - Piccadilly Circus
We then went back to Euston and hopped on our train to Watford Junction to go to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour. You can hear all about the worrying mess I became about travelling there and see all the photos I took of the sets and props in a blog post here. This was probably my favourite day in London and will take a lot to top seeing what we saw there!
After we spent nearly five hours walking around the Leavesden Studios, we made our way back to our apartment, where I cooked us some chicken curry.
Pictured - Snape and Voldemort at Malfoy Manor
Pictured - The Hogwarts Express
Pictured - Hogwarts
DAY FOUR
Day four was our last day in London and it was a bit bittersweet. I was quite relieved to be going home, but also sad that our trip had came to and end. Just as we were getting used to the bustle of the underground and making our way about, it was time to leave again. We packed up all our stuff and I stripped the beds and emptied the bins (something I always do as I used to be a chambermaid) we locked the door on our apartment for the very last time and set off into the city.
I planned to purchased a locker in Euston station, because as far as I was aware they had lockers available to rent to store your cases, I was wrong. It was going to cost me £25 to store two bags for over three hours and I really just couldn't justify the price. I ended up trailing my suitcase, my tote bag and my rucksack around London with me for the rest of the day. It was torture, my suitcase was super heavy as it was packed to the brim with all the products I had bought at the Showcase and I had all my clothes, my shoes, make up, hair straighteners, hair dryer and so much more crap in my ruck sack and tote bag! That will teach me to buy and over pack!
Pictured - Leaving our apartment for the last time
As the most of the trip had been my decision, I left the final day for Reece to decide what he wanted to do. He chose to visit the Emirates Stadium, the home of Arsenal. I'm not a football fan myself but I couldn't complain when he had trailed around a LUSH convention with me! The stadium tour was actually better than I thought, I managed to find a seat at every point so I could relieve my back from my heavy bags and Reece seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself! After we completed the stadium tour, we were allowed entry into the museum, so we went there next. I walked right and found a bench to park myself at whilst Reece wandered around and took some photos.
Once we were finished at the Emirates, we jumped back onto another tube and made our way towards the London Eye. I've been on the London Eye before when I visited London in 2010 with my sixth form group and I wouldn't go on it again. Who in their right mind when they have a fear of heights, decides to stand in a glass bubble and go hundreds of metres in the air?!
We snapped a few photos of it and then continued on to Westminster and Big Ben. It was unbelievable to see something you see all the time on TV and in films in real life, it was quite surreal.
We then walked on the 10 Downing Street which was rather disappointing. There were a lot of tourists there and of course, you can't just go and stand outside the door to where the Prime Minister lives, so we ended up leaving shortly after getting there as there was no way to get a good picture and the tight crowd was a little too much for me. After visiting Downing Street, we stumbled upon New Scotland Yard which was quite exciting!
After we were done here, we took a short walk through Hyde Park. I really wished we had more time and I'd been in a better mood when we got here, (bare in mind, I still have all my luggage with me) as it looked so pretty, but I was determined to make it to our final destination and then head back to the train station. We took a slight short cut and dipped out of the park to find ourselves at Buckingham Palace. It looks ten times bigger and prettier in real life! I wish we'd had time to get closer and see the changing of the beefeaters, but we were quite strapped for time by this point.
We found the closest tube station and headed back to Euston to catch our train home to Carlisle.
Pictured - Emirates Stadium
Pictured - The London Eye
Pictured - Big Ben
Pictured - Big Ben and Westminster
Pictured - New Scotland Yard
After we were done here, we took a short walk through Hyde Park. I really wished we had more time and I'd been in a better mood when we got here, (bare in mind, I still have all my luggage with me) as it looked so pretty, but I was determined to make it to our final destination and then head back to the train station. We took a slight short cut and dipped out of the park to find ourselves at Buckingham Palace. It looks ten times bigger and prettier in real life! I wish we'd had time to get closer and see the changing of the beefeaters, but we were quite strapped for time by this point.
Pictured - Buckingham Palace
We found the closest tube station and headed back to Euston to catch our train home to Carlisle.
Overall, I enjoyed our trip to London. It was nice to get away from home for a few days, especially with Reece who I only see every few months, We don't go away together near enough as we should do and I think this trip showed us how much we like being away together, when I'm not complaining about trudging my luggage around with me! As much as I enjoyed our trip away, I don't think I'll be planning to go away to London again in a hurry. For me, I think it's a bit too fast paced and too crowded. The anxious, panicky and paranoid side of me hated constantly watching my hand bag and being shoved here there and everywhere by passers by. I was quite relieved to get on the train home and know I was going back to my safety blanket of a city, Carlisle, where I would happily wander around the streets at 3am and not panic at all. We did miss out a few things that we wanted to do, I really wanted to go to Camden Market as I thoroughly enjoyed it last time I visited and Reece wanted to visit Abbey Road. I'm sure we'll travel back in the next couple of years and complete the list we made. I think we didn't think about how tired we would be and how lack of sleep can make you feel and we definitely over planned our trip, thinking we were going to be able to squeeze so much into a day, when in reality we just couldn't.
If you're planning a trip to London anytime soon, I would suggest first, buy an Oyster card! It will save you a tonne of money and you only need to tap in and out of the areas you need to enter and leave. I would also suggest staying in a hotel and not an apartment. We chose to stay in an apartment t save money on food, so we didn't have to eat out every day and we could cook for ourselves. In whole honesty, I'd rather pay for eating out every day and have a little bit of extra security in the place I am staying, especially in a huge city like London! With hotels you tend to have 24 hour service and so much more security, this you do not get with an apartment.
If you've ever visited London, let me know down in the comments what you got up to and whether you had the same feelings as me - please tell me I'm not the only one!
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