Thursday, 21 May 2015
Flying to England
The mid break has started, and I am so excited to get on the plane because I am finally going to London! The journey to the Entzheim Airport was not easy. No thanks to Google Maps. Turns out, I could have gotten on the train and reach there in 10 mins rather than 1 hour and a half with trams and buses.
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| PS4 in the airport. Though I prefer Metal Slug than FIFA. |
Friday, 22 May 2015
I love the markets in London!
Visits | Leadenhall, Borough Market, Tower Bridge, Clink Prison Museum, Tate Modern, British Museum, & Soho area
Eats | Bread Ahead, Pieminister, BAO
After sending my second cousin to school, my Ah Yi escorted and showed me around London.
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| The view once out of Monument station |
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| Monument to the Great Fire of London |
You can actually go up to the Monument to have a panoramic view of London for 4£ but I didn't do that.
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| First stop, Leadenhall Market |
I don't think this is a very popular spot for tourists. I just thought that the place look really nice from the pictures, that is why I decided to visit it. Harry Potter was also shot here. You're looking at Diagon Alley right now.
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| The church next to Borough Market |
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| I love how much effort they put into designing the packaging |
I think Borough Market is one of the must visit place if you're ever in London. The place is crawling with lots of wonderful food (and also ingredients). It is very nice of the shop owners to put out samples for the customers. I tasted a lot of things there, like truffle oil, some fancy sauce, cheese, and salami. I'm really impressed by the outlook of every booth there because they put so much thought into presenting their booths and food. Almost everyone has their own packaging style! I'm really into these artsy stuff, so I was genuinely intrigue and thrilled to see the designs.
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| Foodie alert! |
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| Got a Classic Vanilla cream donut from Bread Ahead |
Yummy donut for morning snack! I think Bread Ahead is a very popular bakery because of the amount of customers they have and also they have a camera man filming them when we were there. I found out about this place from this
Buzzfeed post.
Okay! Continue to stroll around the vicinity.
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| The HMS Belfast |
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| Posing in front of the Tower Bridge. Not to be confused as the London Bridge. |
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| This is the London Bridge. Yes, not really as fancy as you thought is it? Even though it is a very popular name. |
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| Taking a smoke break. |
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| View along Shad Thames. Very interesting buildings they got here. |
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| If you love oyster, I heard that the Wright Brothers are really popular. As I am not a fan of oyster, I didn't try it. |
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| Instead, I went to Pieminister for lunch |
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| So many funny names. |
The pie came with mash potatoes and gravy as well if you ordered a set. I was kind of alarmed when we were ordering because the waiter called us "darling" which is an endearment that I am not accustomed to... especially by strangers. Haha, but I do find the people there very friendly in general.
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| Since there isn't any table or chairs, people usually just find any place to sit (or stand) and have their meal. |
By this time, I was alone because my aunt have to go pick up her son. And because I was alone, it was kind of freaky to go into this gory museum because it is kind of scary inside. Entry fee for student is 5.50£. It is a pretty small museum, so don't expect too much.
The place was crawling with scary and realistic looking human-sized puppets, all with raggedy clothes and fake bloodstains all over them. There's also a few skeletons, decapitated heads stuck onto spears displayed on the walls, and also a lot of torture equipments. It is interesting in a way but too gory for me. If you like horror stories then maybe you'll like it better than me. The museum was actually once a prison in the past as well, so if you're into those kind of supernatural things....
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Shakespeare Global Theater.
Didn't manage to have a tour inside or watch a play there. Maybe next time. |
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| Tate Modern. |
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| .... very dark... |
I only went into Tate Modern for around an hour. I didn't really enjoyed it because everything is so abstract and... it just didn't make any sense to me. Even though I love art, this is not the kind for me. I keep on getting freaked out by the things that were displayed there. For me, it was just too weird.
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| Walking on the Millennium Bridge and enjoying the view of St Paul's. Spot the cool looking couple in the picture. |
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| Free panoramic view from the rooftop of One New Change Mall. |
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| I wonder if people still use these things |
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| British Museum |
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| I also got the Audio Guide for 4.5£ |
Many museums are free in London. The Audio Guide is optional. I got it because it was recommended by my aunt. I thought it was really good as well. Very informative. I easily spent 3 hours there but I only explored like 1/3 of the museum or less. Yes, it is huge but I took my time reading and listening to the explanation.
I initially thought that British museum would have only things from EU and UK but I was so wrong. The museum is so vast and you can find things from all around the world. A lot of information of the objects being displayed there too!
Oh, and the museums open till much later on Fridays! TGIF! Usually they close around 5.30pm.
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| King's Library |
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| Dried and mummified. |
Out of all the themes they have there, I find the Egyptian mummification the most interesting. Apparently, the mummy has gone through a natural mummification process. It was dried up by the sun and became like this.
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| Spot the Garuda! |
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| Pubs in the evening in Soho. Look at the crowd. |
At first I thought there were some events happening but it turns out it's just a normal scene. People standing outside with a beer in their hand and chatting away with their friends and family. This occurs at every pub that I have passed by.
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| I scooted my way to BAO as I was so very hungry! |
I arrive there around 6pm, and the line was already sooooooooooooooooooo long. I have like 15+ people waiting in front of me. I was lucky though as I didn't wait too long because I was alone, so I get to skip the line. The place is very very small and they don't allow take-away, ergo the long queue. Must be really good if people are willing to wait so long.
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Peanut Milk. First time having something like this.
I think it's literally just milk/soya with some peanut powder or something. |
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| Classic Bao. Very small but super delicious. |
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| Yummy herbsssss |
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| Taiwanese Fried Chicken |
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| Scallop with Yellow Bean Garlic |
All the dishes were very very small, especially the Bao. I love all of the food that I ordered but it is advisable to order at least 3 bao to feel full. Hahaha. A great Taiwanese gourmet experience.
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| Piccadilly Circus station |
I walked around Soho for a bit. It is a very cool place to hang around. A lot of fancy and hipster looking restaurants and cafe. I was really tempted to stop by all of them to try the food. If only I have a few stomach for that. Haha. Truth to be told, I think my trip to London is more like a gastronomic experience.
Saturday, 23 May 2015
I saw the Crown Jewel today!
Visits | Portobello Market & Tower of London.
Eats | Recipease, Comptoir Libanais
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| Breakfast at Recipease by Jamie Oliver |
The concept is really interesting, it's like a combination of a shop, cafe and cooking school. As you can see, in the center, they have this big area for cooking class to take place. I thought it was very cool, and there was one girl cooking in front of our table. Though it would be very cool to see a whole class cooking there.
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| Typical English Breakfast Set |
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| Window shopping at Portobello Market |
After breakfast, we made our way to Portobello Market. Very different from Borough Market in my opinion. Both of them have very different style. And along this street, there's just a lot of shops selling antiques.
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| They even put up a map along the street to indicate which section you are currently in. |
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| Notting Hill station. I think it's really pretty here. |
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| Tower of London. |
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The Yeoman (they act as a tour guide inside the ToL)
We didn't manage to follow him though because there's just too much people and we couldn't really hear him from far away. So we walked on our own instead |
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| Guess what caught my attention. LOL |
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| Very impressive dragon made entirely with the armories and weapons |
We also got to see The Crown Jewel but unfortunately, no pictures are allowed of course. I just saw many diamonds, gold and silver. Too many of them. It's crazy. Even the plates and jugs they use are made of gold and all of them have their individual case so that they are protected when they have to move them somewhere to be used. #Royalty #immaeatappleonmygoldplate #anddrinkwaterinmygoldgoblet
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| Experienced a taxi ride too. A lot of leg room despite the size of the taxi. |
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| Victoria and Albert Museum |
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| Natural History Museum |
I didn't really had much time to browse through the two museums because they closed at 5.30pm. So we only had like one hour to quickly go through two of them. Hahaha. For me, I find V&A a lot more interesting than the Natural History Museum (but the architecture at the main lobby is incredible).
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| Lebanese food for dinner at Comptoir! |
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Toufaha, which is a "lemonade" made from apple, mint & ginger.
Interesting combination and it was really good. Into my Pinterest board it goes. |
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| Chicken Wrap |
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| Mezze Platter |
I think it is my first time trying Lebanese food and I have to say,
what a discovery! This was very unexpected. After this food experience, I was very hooked up on hummus and tabbouleh. They go so well with pita bread. I even discovered my love for parsley in this meal. Hahaha.
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| Explored the colourful residence in Notting Hill on our way back home |
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