My Birthday Trip To LONDON!

Exactly a week ago yesterday (Jan 28th) it was my birthday and I turned 21. Yep that's right, I'm now a real adult. Turning 21, as you all know, is a special birthday so I planned a trip away for myself and my boyfriend. I've always wanted to go to London (I've been to London before but I was only 8/9 so I don't really remember an awful lot of it) so I thought 'why not?' and booked 3 days away.

We left Newcastle on the train at around 12pm on my birthday and got to London at 4pm, not bad. Our hotel was in Covent Garden, so pretty central and once we'd found the hotel we decided to go 'exploring'. It was quite fun actually, the first thing we stumbled across was a Five Guys restaurant and on our way back we popped in, it was delicious. We also, by chance, found M&M's world (which we went in every day we were in London and made it our 'base'), Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Queen's Theatre, and also Ripley's believe it or not museum. I took my touristy photos of Piccadilly Circus and Queen's Theatre and then we decided to go in to Ripley's. It was £26 each but to be honest I think it was worth it 'cause there's so much interesting stuff and also a mirror maze! I had a lot of fun and it was a great way to spend my actual day of birth. We called back at Five Guys and bought our tea, I went in MAC and got 2 lip liners, and then we went back to the hotel to get ourselves rested for our first full day in London.

We woke up at around 9am and got dressed and were out by half 10. We made our way across Waterloo bridge and towards The London Eye and Big Ben (we also stopped along the way for some photo opportunities). After that we decided we'd go inside Westminster Abbey. It was £20 for an adult and £17 for a student (i used my student card) but Ry thinks it's disgusting that they're charging people to go inside a church. They give you a leaflet with a map on where you should be going and they also give you an electronic guide type thing that gives you information about where you are in the building, so for example if I'm at artifact 8 I press number 8 and press play and it gives me information about said artifact. The whole building and the statues etc. in it are so beautiful, we even got to see the coronation chair! It was a really interesting couple of hours and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then went to Marylebone Road and went to KFC for food before making our way to Madame Tussauds. Everything about our experience here was pretty much awful. For a start it costs £30 to get in if you pay on the door but only £15 online and if we realised that we wouldn't have bothered going 'cause it's no where near worth £30. It's just filled with inconsiderate people with selfie sticks taking selfies with the wax figures so you can't really get near them to have a proper look. I managed to take photos of a few but I've only uploaded 3 on to my blog. A lot of them actually look nothing like the person they're supposed to be, it's tragic. The only good part of our time there was a 3D/4D marvel movie at the end of the tour. All in all really not impressed with Madame Tussauds and me and Ry still feel robbed of £30 (I could've bought 2 MAC lipsticks with that!). After the disappointment that is Madame Tussauds, we went to Camden. This was my idea as I've heard it's meant to be amazing and that Camden market is meant to be good but tbh it just scared me, like really scared me. I dunno if it's just me but I associate market stalls as being a bit dodgy and the people who work on these stalls also seemed dodgy, I dunno it just didn't feel right so we weren't in Camden very long at all. I think next time I go to London and have time I'll explore Camden properly, I feel like I didn't really give it a chance. Surely it can't be that bad since everyone seems to love it so much! Ry popped back to M&M's world to get some M&M's (obvs) and then we went SHOPPING! Poor Ryan's feet were bloody killing and here's me dragging him shopping. We first went to Carnaby Street and I popped in to the Benefit store and purchased They're Real mascara and Puff Off eye gel. The girls who work there are all so kind, they gave me 4 Lindor chocs in my bag! We then (after getting lost) found Oxford Street. I of course went in to Selfridges and I also of course bought some beauty items. First I went to the MAC counter and asked if they had Brave, Soar and Whirl in stock but to my dismay they did not. So I made my way over to the NARS counter and got colour matched to their new foundation, All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation, and I of course purchased myself a bottle. Next over to the Chanel counter and there I purchased Healthy Glow Sheer Powder with SPF 15 in shade No 10. We then made our way to Primark and I didn't buy much, just socks and a shirt 'cause both mine and Ry's feet were hurting so we got a taxi back to the hotel straight after that. Once back at the hotel we ordered a Domino's and watched Big Brother before going to bed, ready for the next full day!

 Again we were up bright and early and made our way towards M&M's world so I could get some M&M's of my own. We got there for 10 past 10 and it was empty (bonus). We did some proper looking 'cause it wasn't full of people, I took some photos and then I got some personalised M&M's. I chose 4 designs, Big Ben, Union Jack, my name, and 'Happy 21st' and chose 4 colours, light pink, dark pink, white, and lilac. It cost £19.99 for a large tub, totally worth it considering they're personalised! We didn't really have a plan of action for this day, we just wondered and as a result of this wondering stumbled upon a restaurant named 'Bubba Gump Shrimp' and 'cause I love Forrest Gump I had to take a photo, the novelty was too much. We also stumbled upon a Cath Kidston store and I was in my element. I purchased two things from the sale, a phone case in the London Buses print and a dress in the same London Buses Print. It cost £35 altogether instead of £90 and I was so proud of myself for being such a good bargain hunter (with the help of Ry). Next we were back at Oxford Street and I popped in to the Disney store. I couldn't believe how much effort they make in this store, they have life sized figurines of Rapunzel from Tangled, Jessie from Toy Story and Sven, Anna, and Elsa from Frozen! I then went in Debenhams and purchased step 2 and 3 in the 3 step program and am yet to try them out (I purchased step 1 quite a while ago and never bothered to get the other 2 steps). We somehow wondered on to Bond Street and I could've honestly cried at how much designer stuff there was and how little money I had, if I win the lottery I'll shop there all the time I'm sure of it. We then made our way to Harrods but on the way stopped in Harvey Nichols, the 3rd place I asked about Brave and sadly they didn't have it and Harrods also didn't have it. Harrods also didn't stock Vivienne Westwood earrings and that's the main reason I bloody went there! We got the tube back to Covent Garden from Knightsbridge and went back to the hotel cos our feet were in agony. At about 8pm we went wondering so I could go and see the palladium and find where it is (I'm going to see Cats the musical here in April) and it wasn't far at all! I also took a photo 'cause it just looked beautiful. The last photo in this post is of Platform 9 and 3/4 in Kings Cross Station, to be honest it's nothing special and I couldn't believe the amount of people who were crowding to get a photo WITH it! We got the train home at half 2 and made it back to Newcastle for 5pm. I had a wonderful time in London and I can't wait to come back in April, I think it's my new favourite place.