My first day in London: Overpriced lunch, great weather & a cute bookstore
Hello! Back again so soon.
Today was our first full day in London, and we had an absolute ball. My Dad is renowned for early starts and being able to do a ridiculous amount of things in a day, so I knew I would have to make some boundaries so we’d both enjoy each other’s company. Today, this meant having nothing officially planned to do, i.e we booked nothing from Perth for the day. And I would really recommend doing that for your first day in a new place. Though I have visited London before, being back in much nicer weather, with more people, it seems like a whole new place. It’s also been lots fun finding new spots to explore that aren’t on the major tourist loop!
We started the day early (peace and love, jetlag), I think I woke up around 5:30am. And I’m writing this at 10:15pm so I reckon I’ve done pretty well. I spent most of the early morning editing a vlog for Youtube and finishing up the last article. We’ve been lucky enough to stay with family friends in London, so if you see a dog in my Instagram stories, that’s Archie, their dog. And yes of course I’m in love with him. Except he actually came into my room this morning at 7am to jump on my bed and snuggle. Are you joking? I’m actually never leaving sorry.
After some toast and coffee we made some plans for the day; one half of the family friend couple was leaving for work in central London, so we decided to hang out for the morning then meet him for lunch at 12pm. This is where we probably mis-stepped. It just so happens that the tube station where we got off was right opposite Harrods. Of course we had to have a look around. Unfortunately we were also really hungry by this point, and Graham had to go back to work soon after his lunch break, so we decided to just eat at one of the restaurants in Harrods. I’m cringing just writing this, I’m going to be so honest with you. To say the food was overpriced is the understatement of the century. That broccoli could’ve been coated in 24k gold and no way should it have been £8.5. You did hear that correctly, yes. Anyway moving on spending that much money on lunch was honestly embarrassing and in no way worth it ok.
After the lunch situation Jenny was heading back home to leave Dad and I to do our wondering by ourselves. Turns out we were just around the corner from Hyde Park, an area I had not visited previously, so we decided to stroll our way through. Walking through the park honestly felt like a little promenade on a Sunday with the Bridgertons you know? The flowers were out, the sun was out, we even saw a couple people on horseback. It was the most British of British situations ever.
Once we arrived at the other side of the park we hopped on the tube to head towards Camden for around 20mins. Once we got off the tube we walked around the corner and took a bus to Gray Inns Road. Our little excursion was to see ‘Words on the Water’, a really cool bookshop on Regents Canal that is inside a catamaran on the actual canal. It was such an amazing setup, and so many cute book nerds were there to go book shopping. It was complete Lauren heaven! We probably spent around half an hour looking through all the different areas of the shop, and people watched from the sunny canal. Further down the waterway we discovered (completely by chance) a large amphitheatre area with a big screen set up with a Wimbledon match on. Everyone had a drink, lounging in the sun, cheering on a young British player. The space had such a good atmosphere, it was a really wholesome space.
Along further down the canal we discovered an alleyway which was holding a market full of lots of cute shopping boutiques, restaurants, cafes, vinyl stores and florists. We didn’t spend too much time around here but we really enjoyed walking through the area- it was definitely a different vibe to a lot of the ‘London’ people think of, which made it more interesting to us. I wouldn’t go out of the way to spend too much time here, but definitely visit the bookshop, that’s been a highlight for sure.
Heading back into central London we jumped on the Elizabeth line which is the newest (and nicest) of the tube lines, and stopped off at Piccadilly Circus to tick it off the list. I would say this is London’s almost equivalent of Times Square. And considering now I have been to both, I would say Piccadilly Circus is more chill, less cramped, and still has some pretty buildings. The street performers are always entertaining, and vibes are in general really good. Although you’ve got to tick it off, anything over half an hour in the area is overdoing it.
At this point we agreed that we had done quite enough steps for the day, so we headed back to the tube to travel back to our friend’s place. I think we got back around 5pm, but of course we had to stop off at a pub on the way for a drinkie poo. After a lovely homemade dinner and revising plans for tomorrow, I’m ready to get some sleep.
See you tomorrow!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
