Day 1 - London trip (Picadilly Circus & Chinatown)

Visiting London is a totally new experience for me. It’s a country full of heritage, history, skyscrapers, landmarks, shops, savouries and essentially everything is found here. After landing at Heathrow, we made our way to the hotel via Terranova bus to Victoria. We had to wait for at least half an hour for our bus to arrive \(╯-╰)/

Us taking cheap flight from Netherlands to London (Ryanair)

Summer in London (Early June) aren’t always hot instead it was chilly, cold and gloomy. That being said, drink lots of water to stay hydrated and for ladies; apply plenty of moisturiser and lip balm! It was really chilling at that time, around 18 – 19 degree and thank God we wore leggings and cardigan to keep us warm.

On our very first day, we relished the type of typical touristy to-do-thing: selfie at the heritage buildngs, souveniers and foodie huntings and other normal touristy. There’s a long list of things to do which took us literally all over the place in London. We passed by London Victoria station, a heritage train station full with nostalgia, development and tourists. 

Spot me and my MIL with our luggages #^_^# 

We headed to our hotel in Church street – The New Dome Hotel, offers budget accommodation with en-suite facilities. The hotel staffs were friendly and helpful albeit a more remote location. But, it’s not too bad for our first experience in the hostel. The room is very basic, at a lower price (£50/night). Note: You’ll need to pay for their WiFi service. It’s recommended to buy a SIM card at the airport with 500MB data for only £13 (Includes tax) as well as Oyster card (£15) if you wish to travel by buses.

We took a moment to sit, relax and enjoy a cuppa first before we started with our expedition.

                                               Comprehensive info on London bus routes. 

We reached Picadilly Circus. a.k.a London's Times Square. It’s a place bustling with tourist crowd, street performances, LED advertising boards, souvenier shops and heritage buildings.

Wefie at the iconic Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain ∩__∩y

History vs. Technology (LED advertising boards)

Of buildings, people and mini flags in the form of signages~

Alot of street performances were happening in Picadilly Circus which lives up to its name (Literally transformed the surrounding streets into a real circus ^_^). A variety of performances ranging from street dance, monks show, magic shows to stand-up comedy show. However, the performance that caught our attention was the magic show with pretty cool illusion of street performances.

Spot the cute dancers #^_^# 

Bill Cosby wannabe ^_^III

Spot the cool-looking magic guy #^_^#

In London, one of the must visit stores is their souvenir shops of course. You can’t run away from the knick knacks and huge assortments of the classic British souvenirs such as Big Ben mugs, magnets, keychains, red telephone boxes etc.– you’ll find a whole variety of souvenirs at reasonable prices here. Tips: You can have a better bargain at smaller souvenier shops ^_^

Posing with the iconic British flag mini cooper (❁´◡`❁)

And the trademark red telephone booth of course.

Another must visit stores for sports lover is Lillywhites in Picadilly Circus, a Sports discount store that offers big discounts. You can find most of your favourite sports brands here at a discounted rate.

Nice windows display with discounted items O.O

So tempted to watch this but we didn't. Guess which show we watched instead?

A place full with arts.

And not forgetting history!~

Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Dinner time. Too many choices to choose from ...

The bar name says it all. (Heehee... please don't judge!)

In the end, we headed to Chinatown for a sumptuous first day dinner. We had the famous Four Season Beijing duck. It was a wise choice instead ^.^v

Sorry,didn't take photos of the food. We were too starving to do so =.=

An evening stroll to digest our dinner. Indeed,London is a country full with history.

That’s a wonderful day to kick off our first day in London!

P.s: Day 2 we are off to Tower Bridge, St. Paul cathederal, Bourough market tour, London Bridge and Tower of London where we spent the day sight-seeing ∩__∩y

XOXO

sassycat