Jaden and Chen Take on LondonTown

Okay wow, I am really behind on updating my blog so this post will probably be super long. So three Thursdays ago I left Rome to embark on my journey to meet up with one of my best friends, Chen, in London and spend the weekend with her (January 30^th – February 3^rd). I somehow managed to pack 4 days worth of stuff in just one backpack, which is a major accomplishment for overpackers such as myself. And as if I wasn’t nervous enough to be flying by myself in another country, right when I got into the taxi that was taking me to the airport the taxi driver told me that RyanAir (the airline I was flying through) is absolutely terrible and that I should have taken EasyJet. Like thanks?! That’s really reassuring…haha anyways my travel experience and flight to London was just fine! After I landed, which was around midnight, I took a shuttle over to my hotel. I checked in, went up to my room, and did as the British do which was making myself some tea! After sipping on my lovely cup of tea, I hit the hay.

Tea Time!

I then woke up early the next morning to have my complimentary breakfast, which consisted of a nutella crepe, sausage, a banana, yogurt, hash browns, and orange juice. What a great way to start my day! After breakfast I took a cab to downtown London to meet up with Chen. My cab driver was super nice and pointed out all of the monuments and famous places in London (including where the Olympics were held!) as we drove past them. It turns out that he is from the same town as where David Beckham grew up so I thought that was really cool! When I finally got to the hostel I greeted Chen with a huge hug and then checked in and dropped off all of my stuff. We shared a room with 10 other people so there was a total of 12 of us in one room. There were 4 bunk beds that were 3 stories high. I was assigned the top bunk, and Chen was assigned the bunk below me and some other kid was on the bottom. As soon as I dropped my stuff off, we hopped on a red double decker bus (all of the buses in London are red double deckers by the way) and headed to downtown London to grab a bite to eat and go sightseeing! We ate at a local pub and Chen got a beer called Nicholson’s with her meal. I had a sip of it and it was by far the best beer that I have ever had. Sadly, when we looked it up as to where we could buy it, we discovered that it is only made and sold in the UK….naturally I would find a beer that I actually like and not be able to buy it back in the United States…Shoots! Anyway, after devouring our food, we walked around in the rain and took pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye. I could not get over how beautiful Big Ben was, especially when it was lit up at night. I took like a billion pictures of it because it was just too incredible of a sight.

Big Ben. It is even more breathtaking in person.

After a little dose of sightseeing we went back to our hostel. By then it was dinnertime so we went across the street to get Chinese food (after all it was the Chinese New Year!). I could not wait to have Chinese food, especially after only eating pizza and pasta in Italy for the past month. I ordered orange chicken and it actually was the worst Chinese food I have ever had (despite some guy telling me that the Chinese restaurant we went to had the best Chinese food in London hahah I don’t think he knew what he was talking about). My chicken literally had orange slices on top of it haha Chen and I were cracking up about how weird and gross it was. After only eating half of my dinner we met up with a guy named Matt who Chen had befriended the day before. Matt is from Wales and was also staying at our hostel. Matt, Chen, and I wandered around the streets on London to find a bar to go to. We ran into a bar called “The Slug and Lettuce”, so we thought why not go in and see what it's like. The people at this bar were of ALL ages which we thought was interesting, and not long after being there we discovered that it was pretty trashy so we left and went to some sort of Tiki themed bar instead. I ordered an Old Fashioned because my Grandpa Heim makes really good ones (or so I’ve heard haha) so I thought I would try one. However, the one I ordered was super strong and not very good (so I’ll just leave it up to my grandpa to make me an Old Fashioned from now on). The nice thing about this bar though was that the upstairs had a chill bar atmosphere and the downstairs was more like a club with music and lots of people dancing. We all had a great time dancing, and I had flashbacks from freshmen year of college because many of the songs that were being played were from that year.

There it is...the orange chicken with actual orange slices on top hahah

The next day we slept until like 10:30 in the morning and left around 11:30 to grab something to eat and go sightseeing. Chen and I found this cute little restaurant where I got a sandwich and “chips” (a.k.a. fries). After eating, we did a lot of walking around and a lot of sightseeing (which is clear from all of my pictures that I have up). Then, since it was so cold out we stopped at a restaurant called Giraffe where we ordered hot chocolate (for me) and tea (for Chen). Of course we had to get desserts too! I got a warm brownie with vanilla ice cream, and Chen got chocolate mousse. It was a delicious treat! After our tummies were full of chocolate, we walked over to see Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria’s Memorial. It was so beautiful. However I was shocked to see that the guards weren’t dressed in red! I always thought that wore red but apparently not because they were dressed in grayish-blue attire. Anyways, it was really neat seeing Buckingham Palace and all of its beauty.

 My brownie and ice cream

                         

              Buckingham Palace

At that point we started to get hungry again so we took a bus and went to Covent Garden. Covent Garden is this super cute area with lots of restaurants, bars, and shops. Located in Covent Garden is a burger joint called “The Shake Shack”. According to Chen there is a “Shake Shack” in New York and she said that it is really good so we got a burger, “chips” (again they are really fries), and a shake. Chen was right, it was super yummy! It was definitely one of the best burgers I have had (watch out In N Out Burger, you’ve got some competition!). We then tried walking off our burgers and shakes by walking around and strolling into several different cute shops. After browsing around, we found a classy bar filled with young professionals, which is definitely more of our scene. However, we did kind of stuck out because we were dressed more casually compared to the majority of people there since we were wearing our daywear while sightseeing. Once we looked over the drink menu and decided what we wanted to get, we walked up to the bar to order. I ordered first, and to my surprise, I got carded! I was in shock since the drinking age in Europe is 18, so apparently I must look like I am 16 years old or something haha. Chen, on the other hand, did not carded so we had a laugh about that. I ordered a white peach martini and Chen got a mojito. We spent a good amount of time just sitting and chatting at the bar until it started to get kind of late so we headed out and took the tube to Tower Bridge. I had driven past the Tower Bridge on my cab ride into London but Chen hadn’t seen it yet. The Tower Bridge is a spectacular sight to see so I did not mind at all that I was going to see it again. Also, I had seen it during the day so it was nice to see it lit up against the night sky. After walking through the Tower Bridge, we hopped on a bus that took us back to our hostel, and we went right to bed.

               

                      The Tower Bridge 

On Sunday morning we got up and headed out with Matt to have some brunch. It was nice to have pancakes and bacon for a change so I was one happy camper! After brunch we said goodbye to Matt and went to Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live (and baby George too)! Chen and I could not believe that we were in the same place as where William and Kate reside. We also went to the Orangery where we were planning on having afternoon tea but it was pretty pricey and we were pressed for time since we had to make it back in time for the Taylor Swift concert so we decided to pass on the tea. Before heading to the T-Swift concert, we grabbed an early dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama. I got teriyaki chicken with rice, and it was quite tasty. I don’t think I have ever eaten so fast in my entre life, partly because we were in a rush and partly because I was starving. After basically inhaling our food, we took the tube over to the O2 Arena where the Taylor Swift concert. It took about 40 minutes to get to the O2 Arena, and we were a little late but thankfully the opening act hadn’t even gone on yet so all was well! Then we found our seats, which were in a really good location because we were on the floor level pretty close to the stage. We then waited for about 15 minutes until the show started. A band called The Vamps was the opening act, and they were quite good. Their lead singer was a Harry Styles look-a-like so of course I was staring at him practically the whole time. He even had very similar mannerisms to Harry Styles, which was actually really weird so I’m guessing that he has been taking some notes from the infamous boy-bander. Then the time had finally come; Taylor came on stage! A rush of excitement came over the entire audience, myself included. Taylor was AH-MAZING live, and she put on a fabulous performance. I am so incredibly glad that I went! Oh yeah, and apparently Niall Horan (Yes, Niall from my favorite boy-band One Direction) was watching T-Swift perform from backstage that same exact night that I was there! I would have freaked out if I had seen him, although I literally would have died if it was Harry Styles that was there instead!

Kensington Palace

      The Harry Styles look-a-like from The Vamps

 

        Chen and I at the Taylor Swift Concert

Oh hey Taylor

After we rocked out to T-Swift we took the tube back to our hostel. By the time we got back it was around 12:30 at night so we went straight to bed because both of us had to get up early the next morning to leave. I only got about 2 hours of sleep because I had a super early flight and had to take a cab to the airport. Before I knew it I was on a plane back to Rome. I slept almost the entire flight back, except I did wake up when the pilot was making an announcement that we were flying over the Swiss Alps so I took a few pictures of that because it was so gorgeous, and then I fell right back to sleep. Once I landed and got back to my apartment, it felt unreal. I could not believe that I was just in London a few hours ago and now I was back in Rome. It was a very strange yet cool feeling that I had never experienced before. I guess that means I’m becoming a jetsetter hahah :)

             Overall, I had an absolute blast in London! It was such an incredible and unforgettable experience. Chen and I had an abundance of laughs (especially when Chen did not mind the gap and fell right between the curb and the parked bus by the bus stop)! Also, random sidenote....I think I grew by half an inch! And I am not just saying this because I think so, but Chen had noticed that I had gotten taller too. She kept saying that she was so proud of me for growing and getting more on her level...k thanks?! Hahaha. Okay now back to London…. I also had my very first hostel experience and all I can say is that I do not like roughing it. I survived though, and we did meet some very nice people from all over the world, including New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy, England, and even some people from the Midwest (Chicago and Wisconsin/Minnesota). Luckily Chen had the public transportation system down so we were able to get to our destinations pretty quickly and easily (although we did get lost just one time). I would have been completely lost without her since I have a terrible sense of direction and probably would have led us in the wrong direction or led us to take the wrong bus haha so major props to you Chen.

As much as I love Rome, I fell in LOVE with London! I could picture myself even living there (especially in Kensington which was my favorite area in London and is where we spent on our last day in London). I love how proper everyone is, and the city is just so elegant and historical yet modern at the same time. Unlike Rome, London offers a variety of different types of restaurants, and I could not get over how clean everything in London is. Even the tube is pretty clean! Also although I did not have time to go shopping, I scoped out all of the stores, and let me tell you, the shopping in London is endless! I also appreciate how the majority of people in London dress so effortlessly preppy and chic. I do wish that I had more time to see more sights, go shopping, and go to the museums, but I have a feeling that London and I will meet again sometime in the future (hopefully in the very near future!). Cheers to you London <3

                                                            XOXO Jaden Ellesse