Day 1 In London
I wrote my travel diary kind of backwards. I shared Day 2 on the blog (which you can read here first) and now I'm sharing what happened on my first day in London. That's just the way my brain wanted to share this experience so lets go along with it ;). I landed in London at about 7am which is 2am my time back home. I barely slept on the plane and was already feeling like I might need to knock out once I reached my hotel. Before boarding the plane I came across this water at the airport called 1Above. The bottle mentioned the water helped fight against jet lag and boosted your immune system. In my opinion it didn't hurt to try it and I'm glad I did. I love water anyways so why not drink one that will help me through the exhaustion. This water works! If you're traveling soon and don't want to get sick or battle jet lag, give it a try.
Driving to the hotel it didn't truly hit me that I was in London. Other than the fact that all the cars were right hand side drive and everyone was driving on the other side of the road (I don't think I could ever get used to that). After about an hour the car pulled up to Hotel Cafe Royal right in what felt like the middle of London. The location was so beautiful it almost looked unreal, like it was right out of a movie. I wouldn't have dreamed of staying anywhere but Cafe Royal. I had a beautiful suite with marble, heated floors and drank the most amazing caramel café lattes everyday.
Even though I was excited to be in this beautiful city, I also felt instantly overwhelmed. Here I am, alone without a clue in the world as to how to get around. I almost wanted to just stay in the hotel room, but I pushed through the nerves and jet lag, changed my outfit and headed out to explore London. Before going on the trip I read about a ton of places I wanted to visit. I only had this one day to myself so I decided in order to make the most of it and go one of their popular bus tours. I found a bus tour online and followed walking directions to the start of the tour. Within 10 minutes I made my way towards Hyde park and found my bus tour. I have to add that I got pretty lucky with the weather. It was warm and didn't rain at all while I was there (London is known for its rainy weather). The tour lasted almost 3 hours, and I got to see a ton of places on my list like Westminster Abbey, The London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Buckingham palace.
Once the tour concluded I decided to keep walking around. I found myself at Oxford street which has the best stores to shop at. I found the oldest book store in London called Hatchards. Being the bookworm that I am, I had to stop in there. I also stopped by Fortnum & Mason. Later I found out that this was London's oldest grocery store. Mind you -- this did not look like a grocery store whatsoever. Much for beautiful and department store-like. There I discovered the most amazing macaroons. I brought a little box back with me for my mom to try. After that I walked over to Picadelly Circus. Another main area with tons of things to do and stores to shop.
After an eventful day and hours of exploring I made my way back to the hotel. I walked everywhere by the way. London is so beautiful I didn't want to miss a single moment zooming past it all in a car. I wanted to take in as much as possible. Also, by that point I felt so comfortable navigating the streets.
Before this trip I had lost total inspiration for writing my blog. My YouTube channel always has my full attention. I love creating videos. But writing my blog had lost my attention and I didn't want to force it. There was something about being in this foreign city, being brave enough to explore on my own and just having a huge change of scenery that inspired me to write again. I used to write everything down -- memories, dreams. Somewhere along the way I lost that. I have to thank the beautiful city of London for giving that back to me.
It felt so good to be absolutely selfish and do everything I wanted to do on a trip without worrying about what another person might want to do as well. It was quite liberating and now I understand why some people take solo trips. It's quite the experience.
This trip to London was too quick and now I have an excuse to go back and explore some more.