London, London, London! I was very excited about London, mostly because I was going to be able to catch up with some friends, especia...

London!

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 London, London, London!

 I was very excited about London, mostly because I was going to be able to catch up with some friends, especially Becca and Sophia who I hadn't seen in years. I met both of them in 2013 and traveled through South East Asia having so much fun together. 


Sophia, Becca, and I teaching some kids in a village in Laos how to dance the Macarena!
I arrived in London at 5:30am after a long night bus from Paris. The bus ride was interesting. I had been told by two people that I would have to get off the bus while on a ferry and to make sure to go to the waiting area to grab a couch so I could sleep. Well, none of that happened! The whole bus was put inside a pipe-like thing (I am guessing it's the tunnel) and no-one was able to leave the bus, the driver turned on the lights and turned off the engine and that was it. I slept through the whole thing, I woke-up in London!

 Once in London I got on a bus and headed to Becca's house who was so kind to host me with her boyfriend Ben!
Waiting for brunch!

The following day it was a day of friends!!! Becca let me borrow her straightener so after a year+ I was able to straighten my hair... yeay, I was London ready!



First stop was Borough Market where I met Billy, who I met in Montenegro, and Ingrid, in Georgia.


Treats, treats, and more treats!
Pad Thai... delicious!
Then we walked to Tower Bridge and checked out the Christmas Market! 
The weather was freeeeezing even with 4 layers!!!!

Ingrid buying some chestnuts

After a while we needed something warm so we decided to enter a pub and have some hot cider. 


And this is what London looked like even before 5pm! How depressing, so dark, so soon!





Of course I got some chocolate!

 We kept walking along the River Thames and stoped at the cider lodge for more hot cider and more friends!


My friend Judith joined us!

And then Sophia and her boyfriend.

That night I was exhausted, 12 full hours of friends and fun conversations was exactly what I needed!
The next day I took a half day off, went for a walk with Becca and later on we meet Sophia for some girly catching up!

2017
2013 at the floating market in Thailand 

 At dinner we were joined by my friend Mo from SF and then headed to The Ned, a fancy and really cool bar/ restaurant place in London to celebrate my friend Ciara's birthday!



Mo had stopped in London for 18 hours in between business meetings to meet up with me. He had never been to the UK so we left the Ned to checkout a little bit of London before he had to go back to the airport at 6am! eek!



Selfie time!


Bright lights and Big Ben!



On my 2day day in London I saw a reply to one of my status on facebook that said "In London Sunday for a week" from Tracey and I thought it was only her and could meet again like in Kenya a couple of months back; to my surprise it was the whole family for a week!!!!


I immediately knew I had to see them so I grabbed my calendar and re plan my route, bought a new flight out of the UK, and added an extra full week in London with the Turners! 

 Look at them... don't they look like a lot of fun?!?! hehe


I went from sharing rooms with strangers to sharing my bed with an 8 year-old that sometimes wakes up with her feet on your face!


 As they are getting ready to move to London the children had to go to many different schools for visits but we still managed to have some fun!
Somerset's favourite: riding a London bus!


Somerset and I went to the science museum...




And to London's very famous Winter Wonderland!




She even went fishing for penguins and got a gingerbread stuffed animal!
During christmas time the Royal Botanical Gardens decorates a part of the park with Christmas lights, music, and performances and right before I got to London my friend Ciara posted a video of "Christmas at Kew Gardens" and asked if anybody was interested... I was!

 We bought our tickets in advance and then experienced the magic of Kew Gardens!

The whole place feels magical with a hint of scary! Everything at the beginning is dark and the trees look like from a scary movie. Our first stop was at this field full of round lights on the ground, the lights kept changing colour and pattern according to the Christmas music being played... it was so cool!


I felt like in the middle of a scene from frozen (without snow!)

 And then we got to the marshmallow station... YUM!






The tunnel is for sure the most famous part but also the most crowded! From the video it looked magical with only one person in it but in reality it is extremely crowded! A picture of yourself? Almost impossible! haha

The grand finale was a light show with music.. so beautiful and christmassy!
I loved walking around London. Spent a lot of my time checking out grocery stores and looking at their products and to be honest I was scared to death to see that most of the stores ONLY sold packaged food!!! (Marks and Spencer even sold already made pancakes!)
 One can't even chose their own apples! Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose and many others had like 98% of their produce in not only plastic bags but in plastic trays inside plastic bags! What's worst? The plastic wrapping is non recyclable! And even worst, the stores that sell all these food with packaging do not accept the packaging  back! Are you kidding me Great Britain?!?! Aren't you supposed to be "Great?" 

 I am big in the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!) to the point that in the US I always bought plastic toothbrush with only removable head not to waste too much plastic, brought back to whole food my yogurt containers to be turned into toothbrushes, shopped the bulk area with Mason jars, had a trunk full of reusable bags, so to see that absolutely everything in a store was packaged really left me in shock! But I digress!

 London is nice to walk around and to explore, is full of museums free of charge for people to visit, and of course it is full of good food and people from all over the world! 
Last time in London I did a lot of the touristy stuff so this time I decided it would be more about friends and relaxing, but still managed to visit Tate Modern.


At the Tate Museum
This view is from the Top floor at Tate Modern Museum!



My time in London was great, especially seeing the kids and having time to relax and have a taste of what life used to be and just a reminder of how happy I am when I do what I love. Now back to France... oui, oui!


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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com