5 days in England

Tuesday, I got back from being in England for 5 days (boo for coming back to the continent :( ).  I spent most of my time in London, but I also ventured north for a day.  So, I thought I'd do a post showing you what all I did :)

I arrived early afternoon on Thursday and after I checked into my hostel I decided to go to the Tate Modern, since I'd never been there before.  It was interesting, to say the least.  I'm not artistic, at all (or even very creative), so I had a lot of difficulty understanding the point of some of the pieces of art.

On Friday, I spent most of my day here!  I'm such a nerd, but I grew up with Harry Potter, so I had to go on the Studio Tour.  It was unbelievable! I spent about 4 hours here, but you could easily spend about 6 or 7.  There is so much to see, this is something I would go see again! It was damn expensive (about £30 for just the ticket, plus I had to get there - it's on the outskirts of London), but worth every penny.

Saturday was possibly the most beautiful day in the world.  It was clear skies, about 20°C, and it was probably my favorite day of the trip.  I woke up early and went to Tower Bridge.

I then went to Westminster and saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey (like a true tourist).  I didn't go inside the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Abbey, as I've been in Westminster Abbey before (it's incredible), and I just didn't have time to go to the Houses of Parliament (I've got to save some things for December, when I'm going back)!

Then I walked down to Trafalgar Square and I even climbed up it a little ways :)

Then I walked through St. James' Park to get to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  I was only going to be able to see it on the Saturday when I was in England, so I went that day.  Big mistake.  It was packed, and not that great.  I'm glad I went, though, because now I'll never have to see it again.

After the changing of the guards I took the tube over to Covent Garden.  I walked around and went inside the Chanel Beauty Pop-up store (why didn't I take a picture??) and I also went into LUSH.

There was also a promotion at Covent Garden for Diet Coke, so I got a free Jean Paul Gaultier Diet Coke!  I haven't been able to drink it yet (damn bottle cap), but I managed to bring it back to Germany with me :)

Then I bought myself lunch at Pret and headed over to Hyde Park to eat lunch in the park.  It was so gorgeous outside, part of me just wanted to lay in the grass and read all afternoon, but I didn't!

I headed over to Harrods and went to the Burberry counter and bought a few things (which I featured in my England Haul).  The woman at the Burberry counter also told me that there are new lipsticks being released on 30 September, so look out for that!  I had never been in here before, the store itself is beautiful and filled with many beautiful things, as well :)

I also went to see Les Mis on Shaftesbury Avenue.  This is the amazing view from my crap £20 seat.  I ended up being able to see everything just fine, I just had to lean forward a bit.  The play itself was amazing, definitely a tear-jerker.  It was different from any other play I'd seen though, as the ENTIRE play was sung, which I thought was a bit odd, but I enjoyed it, all the same.

The last thing I did on Saturday was walk down to Piccadilly Circus to see it at night, it was very cool, but absolutely packed!

On Sunday, I first went to Soho Square, it was very cute and quaint.  I read a bit and then I left for the British Museum.

The British Museum is possibly my favorite museum in London, there's so much to see there!

Whilst in the British Museum, I went to the Citi Money Gallery, which was so interesting (I am an Economics-Finance major, though, so I'm a bit biased!).  This piece was the most interesting to me.

After I went to the museum, I headed to Regent Street and went to the new Burberry Flagship (121 Regent Street).  I took a picture of it, but I just found out this morning that it's blurry - noo! So I decided not to include the picture, but the store is amazing, I wanted to buy one piece of makeup there, but there's not a beauty section in the store for another 6-8 weeks, so I'll have to wait until December!

For dinner/supper (whatever you want to call it), I stopped at a gastro-pub right next to Westminster Pier.  I had Fish & Chips (yum) and a glass of Pinot Grigio (yum).

On Monday morning, I woke up bright and early and went to Kings Cross to catch a train to York (don't be fooled by this picture, which I actually took on Tuesday, the weather was absolute crap the entire day).

Here are my train essentials: Skinny Pumpkin Spice Latte (which they made specially for me!), my iPod, my Kindle, and a magazine (which was back in bag at this point, but you can see the little subscription flyer they give you).

A picture of the English countryside for you!  That is what the sky looked like all of Monday!

I went to the York Minster! If you haven't been and you live in the UK/are going to the UK, you need to go, it's amazing!

My flight didn't leave until the mid-afternoon on Tuesday, so I decided to walk through Hyde Park for a bit that morning before heading off to Heathrow.

I had a fantastic time in England! I can't wait to go back to the UK :)  Of course, I want to see other parts of Europe during my time in Germany, so if you have any recommendations on places to go, please let me know!

P.S. if you'd like to know what I bought while I was in England, check out my haul here!