London; the rest of it.

On our second day in London; we did more rush-abouts and visited a few more touristy sites, mostly just touch-and-go, not that we had any problems with that. The sight of throngs of other tourists was off-putting, and we aren't exactly such big fans of queues. Anyhow, we managed to find our way on the Underground without Jay's help today since he had to work and couldn't join us; Felicia made sure we got off and on the trains at all the right stops.

ready for boarding at Portsmouth Harbour; another 2 hours to London Waterloo.

counting the number of train tickets for our little UK tour; kudos to cousin dearest! 

Our first stop was at Tower of London, followed by the Tower Bridge. 

look at the crowd in the centre of the picture. Pesky tourists... *shakes head* tsk I am so annoying, I know.

teeny: Hello from the Tower of London!

there was an elephant parade to save Asian elephants going on; so brightly painted elephants (like the one above) were spotted all over central London.  

Tower Bridge; one of the most recognizable bridges around. I used to think this is London Bridge; the one that we've always been singing about.

It was my 4th day in England and I've yet to try the famous English fish and chips. So...

I made sure I had some for lunch today, on the way to Camden Town. And I also learnt that the English eat their chips with vinegar and salt. Or brown sauce. & NO CHILLI SAUCE :(

Camden Market; think Bugis Street with lots of clothes from China/Korea.

Camden Market wasn't as interesting as I thought it'd be (cept for the food stalls that lined the perimeter of the market); most of the clothes here look like those that I always see on Taiwan/Korea clothes sprees. Apart from the market, you can find lots of tattoo parlours heavily advertising their services, random shops selling tiny trinkets, an Aldo outlet store etc in Camden Town. We spent a relatively short time here; and I got myself a clutch from Aldo that was on sale, before making our way to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden; more ellies...

Covent Garden's another interesting place if you're looking for tiny items; just that they aren't exactly cheap (I mean, apart from the usual postcards and souvenirs). There are shops here selling the cutest whatnots; strawberry-shaped paper clips/bookmarks/etc, bags made out of recycled materials... useless but really cute stuff basically.

Regent Street?

Idled and peered into more shop windows along Regent Street as we made our way down to Chinatown (again) for dinner (I love Asian food!). I had piping hot Bat Kut Teh for dinner that evening, and even though it wasn't the best that I've had, it still felt really good to be finally sipping hot soup in that cold weather.

Post dinner. We got onto the train back to Portsmouth, & I started shivering again. I was so dreading the thought that I was going to fall sick; the moment we reached Portsmouth Harbour, I hurried as quickly as I could to a snack station to get a cup of hot tea, held onto it tightly and chased away the cold. Over the next few days, I developed a slight flu. Blah.

After we got back on the second night, we spent the next 20-odd days travelling around UK (England mostly) and Europe; but we came back to London 2 nights prior to my departure back to Singapore. We did what I'd wanted to ever since I saw someone's pictures of it online sometime back, and we bought tickets to watch Wicked at Apollo Victoria Theatre!

While we were somewhere in Florence (Italy), I tried to make an online reservation for tickets but the internet connection/ticketing website was anything but cooperative and I was kinda worried that tickets would be sold out if we didn't buy them any sooner. In the end, we only managed to get the tickets on the day itself, at the ticketing office. Turned out to be a little blessing in disguise though; we were able to use our student cards to get much better seats at much lower prices. I almost jumped with joy (only I didn't la) when the lady told us it was 25 pounds per ticket for students, instead of the 62.50 pounds each that we'd almost bought online hee hee hee.

I loved it I loved it I loved it.

The hotel that we stayed at when we got back to London was just a couple of minutes walk from the theatre; it was perfect for the both of us to try to remember and sing the songs that've just been sung in the theatre on our way back. I was a very happy person that evening.

One day before I left for good, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing-of-guards procession. It was a 10-minute walk from our hotel so that wasn't too bad. There were lots of tourists at the parade square when we reached; the pavements and everywhere else were filled with throngs and throngs of people (the policemen would shoo people off the roads) and I know I am a contributing factor but... urgh... crowds! They make me dizzy. 

fountain within the palace compound. on a side note, maybe I should have cropped the heads out.

We waited for a good 30 minutes before we could hear the band playing as the guards marched in. It was a really brief affair, at least from where we were standing; on the opposite side of the palace. Once the guards've marched past the parade square and into the palace, we couldn't see all that's happening behind the gates; too.many.people. So we stood and watched the second group of guards come onto the parade square, march past it, and disappear behind the palace gates.

here they come...

and there they go.

After Buckingham Palace, we had a quick brunch and headed to....

King's Cross! Platform 9 and 3/4!Cheap (pun intended!) thrill, I know... it cost us probably like a little over a pound to get to the station :p

Then, we did a tai-tai afternoon and dropped by Hummingbird Bakery along Old Brompton Road (tube station: South Kensington) for Red Velvet Cupcakes and coffee.

<3

i'm such a sucker for objects coloured red...

cappucino for you?

And all that, my friends, were parts of the London that I've visited. To end this entry, I'm going to share a chio photo of Felicia at Hummingbird:

thank you so much for everything babe! <3