Bangor Buddies and Big Ben

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you'll be aware that I have been in Kraków, Poland recently! I got back on Friday and I have so much to share with you about my trip there. However before I tell you about my time in Poland, I wanted to finish telling you about my trip in London, so here goes another post about London town!

On the Monday, Lucy and Alex arrived in LDN and Ayala and I went to greet them at Euston Station. It was beautiful weather, which made Lucy's first time in London all the better! She was super duper excited to finally visit London, and I was super duper happy to share her first experience!

We strolled around London in search for a bite to eat for breakfast, which took a lot longer than we expected, and Ayala and I just ended up buying yoghurt pots with granola to go, whilst Lucy and Alex gave up the search and waited to satisfy their hunger until lunch time. Lucy was the perfect candidate for cheesy tourist shots, and she was more than willing to be my model ^^

It was quite strange, but so lovely, having my good friend Ayala, from Singapore, and my good friends Lucy and Alex, from Bangor, with me in the same place! It's quite a peculiar feeling bringing your two world's together!

After a chat in the park over our take away yoghurt Ayala left for the library, and Lucy, Alex and I began our group adventure... London adventures take two!

First on the list... the London Eye! Both Alex and I had been on the London Eye before, but this was Lucy's first time, she was pretty excited, and she had every reason to be because, with the weather as beautiful as it was (check out that blue sky!) the view was so clear and you could see London for miles!

The queue was relatively long, but we made it to the front pretty quickly!

...

And we're on!...

How incredible is that view though!?

Once we'd overlooked the whole of London from the sky, it was time to explore the city on our feet (It was to be yet another long day of walking)! 

Lucy renamed big Ben to

.... 'little Ben'. Because she thought it would be a lot bigger than it actually is (but I think Miss Lucy perhaps had a bit too grandiose an expectation of gorgeous Ben, because it really does live up to it's name.. it is pretty big! haha!)

'Is this love, is this love, is this love that I'm feeeeeeeelin'?'

We then casually headed on over to Buckingham Palace, as you do..

It is a rather beautiful building...

With rather serious 'don't expect me to wave back' kinda guards...

After admiring both the beauty of the palace and the patience of it's guards...

 Lucy and I were more than ready to hustle on over to our beloved Victoria's Secret! Lucy and I are both big fans of Victoria's Secret and it's angels. It was awesome to experience the new, and HUGE multi story branch with my bestie who appreciates VS (almost) as much as I do! ^^

You will most likely all be aware by now that Miranda Kerr has always been and will always remain to be my favourite angel! She is my number one idol, and not just for her outer beauty, but for her inner radiance and grace as well!

...and of course, after an hour and half in there (poor Alex!), we certainly couldn't leave empty handed! Lucy purchased 5 pairs of knickers, and I brought a PINK jumper, which... J'adore!

As if our day couldn't get any more exciting... we tried our first ever Ben's Cookies! 

and oh my ... they were heavenly! So incredibly thick, yet soft and squishy! I had a peanut butter and chocolate chip one, and it was absolutely divine. Bellissima! 

After a long, eventful day we chose the Blue's Kitchen in Camden Town as our chill out, wind down spot, of course cocktails and live blues music were involved! The live performer had a gorgeous voice, which made the mellow atmosphere of the place all the more enticing, we could have stayed there all night... But the clock was atickin' and we had to be up early in the morning for our conference! What responsible kids we are eh?^^

-Alyssa xo

Keep Calm and Love London

After some much needed slumber, Ayala and I gladly awoke to the greetings of the crisp morning sunshine that pleasantly illuminated Ayala's pretty little minimalist bedroom. 

After swiftly showering, throwing on some clothes and dabbing on some makeup, our revived, upbeat selves headed out for breakfast.

We arrived in Angel, in the hope of indulging in peanut butter and banana milkshakes Ayala had been desperate to introduce me to. But being the eager beavers that we were, we had arrived before the cafe was open! So we decided to find a park bench, to sit back and revel in the serene hours of the mornings. 

 As lovely as it was, it was getting a bit chilly, and so with our fingers and toes crossed (we really wanted those milkshakes!), we ventured back to the milkshake place, only to be disappointed by the fact that it was still closed! Not to mention it had started to rain!

But you know what they say... everything happens for a reason! Ayala and I were obviously fated towards something a little more awesome than a peanut butter and banana milkshake...because we ended up at The Breakfast Club....

 ... with both milkshakes and two very delicious breakfast meals!

Ayala's breakfast was a delicious concoction of spinach and poached egg on toasted English muffin bathed in hollandaise, aka eggs florentine.

...and my beast of a breakfast was apple and cinnamon french toast; wonderfully thick eggy bread with cinnamon roasted apples, aka heaven on earth!

The best hasn't even come yet! ....Elvis Shakes; made with vanilla ice-cream, peanut butter and banana!

I simply could not get enough. Honestly, I have never had a milkshake as scrumptious as this one! 

 If you have never been to The Breakfast Club before, I highly recommend it! There are five dotted around London, in Angel, Soho, Hoxton, Spital Fields and Battersea Rise, and there's one coming soon by London Bridge! 

Impregnated with delightful breakfast food we were all set to pursue our second day of London adventuring.

First stop... the ultra impressive Oxford Circus Topshop! Topshop is my favourite store, without a doubt, I purchase most of my clothes there. It was my first time exploring the flagship UK Topshop store, and my gosh, was I in for a treat! I mean not only is it Topshop, but it's the largest fashion store in the world! It has five floors, including a nail bar, tailoring service, hair salon, cafe,

                                                         .....and let's not forget bubble tea...

...frozen yoghurt...

 ....

or cupcakes!

Of course I found a hundred and one things to try on, everything in season is so beautiful! I fell in love with this cute little number, I may just have to have a cheeky purchase of it before my trip to Italy in June so it can roam the streets of Rome, Florence and Venice with me! What do you think?

After our little field trip to Topshop, we met up with Saoni for lunch. Saoni also studies in London, and is another friend of mine from high school in Singapore, whom I also hadn't seen since the summer of 2012, so it was so lovely to meet with her and have a good ol' catch up!

Everybody meet Saoni!

We had lunch at Scandinavian Kitchen on Oxford Street. After our feast of a breakfast, Ayala and I could only manage something small for lunch, so this was the perfect spot! We spent a good hour or so chatting away, enjoying our food and discussing law and psychology with our friendly neighbour on the table beside.

Once the conversation with our neighbour fizzled out we took the opportunity to get back out onto the streets of London and have a nosy in the shops.

Yet another beautiful creation that I feasted my eyes upon and instantly secured my heart to. These would fit in so perfectly with my collection of doc martens... do I foresee my fourth pair??

Tearing myself away from my soul mate in shoe form, we continued to wander the streets of pretty little London, not forgetting to take some selfies (god forbid we forget!)...

After stopping for a quick bite to eat for dinner (I know, we're always eating!), we went to celebrate our reunion at London's leading cocktail bar Be At One. Where we enjoyed two for one Cuban Zombie cocktails! I'd never had a Cuban Zombie before... it was delicious! If you're a fan of rum then this may just tickle your tastebuds, and the passion fruit, pineapple and citrus juices all pleasantly add to the fun!

Cocktails with my Singapore girls was certainly my idea of a perfect end to the perfect day!

-Alyssa xo