We got up nice and early in the morning in order to make the most of the day! Most people were heading off to the Harry Potter studios later in the day, so they didn't have as much time. We went down to Camden, where there are loads of different markets. We went to three different markets, one of which was mostly food, one was mostly clothing, and one was a huge mixture of everything. There were people selling donuts, food, scarves, jewelry, antiques, clothing, purses, and so many other things. Anything and everything you could think of was at the markets! Thankfully I didn't spend nearly as much money on Sunday as I did on Saturday, but I did buy a lot of food. It just smelled so good! And of course after I bought it I realized it tasted even better than it smelled too! I quickly found out while I was in London that street food is the way to go. After a few hours of browsing and digging through mounds of stuff, the group I was with headed down to the train station around 2PM, since they were off to the Harry Potter studio tours. I originally bought tickets to the Harry Potter studios, but sold them. A girl in the group somehow didn't get signed up for the tour and was really bummed about it, and since I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan anyway, I decided she would have a much better time at it than I would. That was my good deed of the day! Because I'm a pretty intense shopper, and most people don't like shopping with me, I decided today was the best day for me to explore the best shopping streets in London. Armed with an Oyster card and Underground map, I went out in search of the coolest and most unique British stores I could find. I ended up on Oxford Street, which is a few mile long street filled with interesting one-off shops next to ginormous chains. The most interesting thing for me to see was Selfridges. So many people told me that I had to go there, since I'm such a fashion junkie. As soon as you step out onto the street you can see it. The week I was there they had a huge polka dot Louis Vuitton display, since a collaborating designer was working with them. They had decorated their windows with a woman wearing polka dots and even put a blow up version on the top of the building!
As soon as I walked into Selfridges, I realized why so many people loved it. The inside was incredibly huge. The building itself took up an entire city block, front to back and side to side. There were numerous levels, all filled with clothing, accessories and shoes from hundreds of designers. There were even stores within the store! American Apparel and Topshop were just two of the many examples. As I was walking around, I wondered how anyone was able to find anything in the store. You could spend a week inside that store and still not get to see everything inside. I can't imagine what it's like working there! Because it was such an incredibly large building, I started to get overwhelmed after a while and decided it was probably a better idea to start off with smaller stores first. I went into Wallis, Next, New, Primark, and lots of other fun stores, but I made sure not to go into anything that we had back in the States, because where is the fun in that? I found a great bronze metallic faux leather jacket and a sparkly pink case that was designed for an e-Reader, but fit my PlayBook tablet perfectly! I had to limit myself to the amount of stuff I could buy, since I still had another day left in London. While I was walking, I was also able to see the London College of Fashion, which has always been a dream of mine. Just because I'm a business student now doesn't mean I don't still have fashion in my heart! I loved people watching as I walked up and down the street, admiring what people were wearing, things they were doing, and how they were interacting with others. Of course I also watched the street to see just how many Bentleys, Ferraris and Audis I could spot (way too many to count!). One interesting difference between Britain and the United States is how early the stores close, even on a popular street! Everything was closed by 6PM, whereas in the US they would be open until at least 9 or 10. Deciding I did my fair share of supporting the economy (look mom, I'm helping!) I made my way back to the hostel for some dinner and relaxation time. I got back shortly before another group who didn't go to Harry Potter, so I was able to chill in my cubby of a bed for a few minutes. As I looked back on everything that happened that day, I realized how proud I was of myself. I had traveled through London by myself. There was nobody there to tell me where to go, what stop to get off on, or how to deal with closures. For the first time, I truly felt independent. It's such a powerful experience to be on your own in a city as big and crazy as London. An overwhelming feeling of accomplishment washed over me as I sat there and soaked it in. After taking in as much as I could from my overwhelming (in a good way!) day, I headed down to the pub in the basement of the hostel with a few other people from our trip. We ended up meeting more Americans and an Australian, and talked to them for a few hours. After a few beers, we headed back upstairs for our last night's sleep in the hostel!
MondayAfter sleeping in a little bit to re energize ourselves from the previous days, we packed up our things since we had to be out by 11AM. Thankfully the hostel had a storage shed available for us to use so we didn't have to tote our luggage around with us all day. We headed back into the city for our last day in London. With so many things to see, we had to make the most of our time! One of my friends has a friend who lives and works in central London, so we stopped over to have lunch with her. We ate at an adorable chain restaurant that seems to be very popular over here, called Pret a Manger. We sat on benches overlooking the River Thames and ate delicious croissants. Then, after a quick goodbye we rushed across the river because we had important places to be! One of the most exciting things that was going on while we were in London was London Fashion Week. If you don't know what this is, please crawl out from under your rock and read the newspaper once in a while. Two of my friends and I decided to stalk the scene and see if we could spot any celebrities, designers or socialites. As we walked across the bridge, we could immediately tell that we were getting closer to Somerset House, which is where the main events were being held. We found an entrance that was mainly for other, less important parts of the building, but easily found our way to the top part, where shows were staged. Everyone was dressed in designer clothes, perfectly emulating the trends of the upcoming season. As much as I tried to dress up for this day, I found my effort was lost among the groups of immaculately dressed men and women. We walked around a little bit, but quickly realized that in order to get into any of the rooms, you needed a fashion week pass, which unfortunately we didn't have. So we decided to do the next best thing, which was sit and people watch. We weren't able to see any big names, but we saw lots of big outfits! There were so many people showing off their style, and in a completely unique way. Looking back on the pictures from fashion week, I'm able to say, "I saw that person! I was there!" This was just another absolutely incredible experience that goes along with being in London.
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