Sunday 15 September 2013

London 2013

Hi!
So finally the promised London travel diary post. It took me a while because school started again
(it sucks). I am just so exhausted when I get home.  The energy in my body is merely enough for watching New Girl. But well I pulled myself together and here is the result. Oh and this is only covering  the four days that I was in London (well I was in London for six days but the first day was spent eating sushi and watching Harry Potter in our apartment and the last day was of course packing up day). Our time in London was the most interesting (not counting the visit to Harry Potter studio which albeit amazing  I don't feel like sharing. Might come across as my ultimate fan girl dream experience and we don't want to go up that alley do we). Okay prepare for a really photo & text loaded  post! All photos were taken with my Nikon D1300, Fujifilm disposable camera or iPhone 4S.

London day 1:
On the first day Ophelia came to my apartment to meet up and after the obligatory howdy-do with my parents we left for some shopping. We went to Soho and China Town first.

In China Town there was this big 'kawaii-ish' shop with Neighbor Totoro backpack (like this one that Grimes has) which was sadly enough way overpriced but I got an amazing Doraemon watch (which is in my opinion must be one of the best Japanese anime/manga ever made) for six pounds. The thing stopped working after five weeks -insert sad melodramatic music here- but whatever- it is still Doraemon (also I would love you forever if someone bought this for me thank you very much). I must say that they had the best watches selection ever. And I regret not buying another one because they also had a Rilakkuma watch and ugh a girl can never have enough Japanese kawaii-watches right ?
We also went in one of those weird crazy Japanese photobooths, and oh my god there was so much choice in backgrounds and borders. After going through maybe a third of the options and many many many considerations we went for a Totoro, daisy/donut, Asuka/butterfly and Alicia Silverstone themed photo. I swear this was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make (except for the never ending discussion I have with myself every morning: peanut butter or or nutella on toast. #whitegirlproblems).

And after that nerve wrecking experience we found a really cute vintage magazines/pop culture poster/card/button shop on our way to Ed's Dinner. We went a bit crazy and bought ten cards or something, including a Lolita, Winona Ryder, Bob Dylan and Edward Scissorhands one, for five pounds and some really awesome 'neighborhood witch' pins. I don't have photo's of the shop but I think it was called VinMag so go find it and buy cool stuff and be happy because there are so many cool things to put on cards in this world
So after a little walk and some serious Google mapping we found Ed's Dinner, a classic 50's themed Americana dinner with the best milkshakes and floats that you can find in London. There were loads of people but we were lucky enough to find a place for two. Sadly enough we weren't able to take a look at the juke box and play a song but we had a vanilla milkshake, cherry coke float and some fries and that is normally all that a normal human being needs in pursuit of happiness, right ?

After that we went to Carnaby Street and visited the Dr Martens, Monki (photos above were taken here) and the Lazy Oaf shop. I didn't buy anything there because Lazy Oaf is really overpriced and not really my aesthetics anymore and I only just went on a big shopping spree at the Monki shop in Amsterdam. We also went to Oxford Street and visited Topshop and Ophelia got a really cute dress. After that we split up and I had some really good sushi and rewatched Moonrise Kingdom for the 10000x time.
London day 2:





On the second day we met up at a tube station and went to Dover Streetmarket which was amazing but ugh it hurt that we couldn't afford anything there. Shortly after that I realized that I had forgotten my purse so we had to go back to my parents (who were at the London Zoo) to get some money.
After that we decided to stay there and hang around at Regent's Park.
We couldn't go on the boats because we were too young but it was still really fun.

All our stuff spread out. You can see my new watch and cards

We decided to take the bus to Camden to do some charity shopping but apparently we got on the wrong bus and ended up at Hyde Park. So we went to the princess Diana memorial fountains, rested on the lawns and talked and enjoyed ourselvers. That day was kind of chaotic but it was still so much and gah Ophelia is basically an amazing person to be around and  in real she's as cool as she is online.


London day 3:

Day tree was awesome! We met up with Hollie, Ellie and Rachel and Opi at Shoreditch High Street (after getting a wrong tube and almost losing my new badge 5 times) for some shopping in Brick Lane. We went to Urban Outfitters but left really quickly because everything was like meh overpriced fake vintage clothing and UO is just really problematic (I recommend reading this) so we decided to go to some vintage shops and the American Apparel Outlet.
                                               
Here is Ophelia doing her ~thing~ at a vintage store
Uhm yes people THAT IS ZACHARY FROM SWIM DEEP (trying to act cool but failed). 
We met him at a random vintage store and freaked out and wow fan-girling to the max. 
Sorry for my ugly face/blurry picture but everyone was unnerved by the unexpected encounter




We bought some bagels and had lunch somewhere random on the sidewalk because we are rebels. 
Also how cute are Ellie, Rachel, Opi and Hollie like ugh




After we had lunch Rachel told us about this shop called East End Thrift Store where you  fill a bag with clothes and just pay five pounds for it. I got this vintage American high school cheerleader skirt!

Rachel and Ellie left and Hollie and Ophelia and I went for some ice cream and talked some more. Afterwards Hollie left and Ophelia and I went to her house. My parents came for dinner with her parents and we had a sleepover together with Ella (who is also really cool and a friend from Opi who just moved to London from Ophelia) we danced on Brooke Candy, took lots of selfies and watched Submarine.
London day four: 
Ugh this was the last day ):
Ella, Ophelia and I went to the London Rookie Meet up, where we crafted and chatted about important things like Alex Turner, glitter, cats and pizza.





Most of us left but Maisie, Maya, Ella, Ophelia and me decided to go to this fair thing I can't remember the name and had some cotton candy and ice cream and everything was summery and perfect. But then it was time to leave and that was a really bittersweet moment. Ophelia bought me Reese's peanut butter cups (something that we don't have in Belgium) and we hugged goodbye (I may have cried a little bit).
I had some sushi again at the apartment and we left the next morning.

Well that was a lot of work. But I literally had the time of my life!
And wait, it gets better: Ophelia will be coming to Belgium in October
 So expect more Instagram spam and blog posts about that soon.

Love,
Ibe