Brighton, England - September 2012

Hayley and I headed out to Brighton today. It's a seaside town about an hour south of London by train. We walked from the train station towards the beach, making our way through some of the gardens, museum and cute streets.

We made our first food stop at Choccywoccydoodah Cafe. Oh my word! This place was amazing but a total chocolate overload. I had a delicious hot chocolate and then Hayley and I shared 2 cakes which came with ice-cream and more chocolate (see photo). Pretty much put ourselves into diabetic comas.

We managed to move on from there and headed down to the seaside. Yay beach! We went to the Brighton Pier and walked along to the end of it. It's a cool pier with cute stands & stalls along the way and rides at the end. Reminded me of Santa Monica Pier in LA.

We quickly realized that something was happening in Brighton this weekend because as soon as we got of the train there was quite a large amount of people dressed in bright clothing, especially men dressed as women and rainbow flags...and that's how we came across the Brighton Pride Parade! When we got off the pier the parade was going by so we stopped and joined in with everyone partying, dancing and having a good time.

Once the parade had passed we were able to cross the street and head to the sealife aquarium. We had a 50% off voucher we found in a tourist guide. The aquarium in brighton is the oldest in the world...it opened in the 1800's. Patted a starfish.

We then headed for lunch at a delicious Thai tapas restaurant called The Giggling Squid. So good.

Wandered around a bit more then headed back to the train at around 3pm to get back to London. Such a good day trip location, be sure to check it out if you have time from London.

12 weeks

Today marks 12 weeks since I left Australia. It has been an amazing 3 months and I have travelled to more places in this time than I have in my lifetime.

Europe was amazing and the UK has been very exciting. I feel I've managed to settle into London well, its had its ups and downs but it hasn't been as difficult as I was told it would be...but then again, winter hasn't hit yet!

I miss my friends and family but they don't feel too far away as I can talk to them on the phone or internet whenever I want. Plus I'm keeping really busy now with work, gym and weekend adventures theres not much time to stop and think.

I'm really enjoying meeting new people and getting outside of my comfort zone. So many more adventures to look forward to.

❤❤❤

Notting Hill Carnival - London- August 2012

Went to the Notting Hill Carnival today. It's a Bank Holiday so everyone has the day off yay! The carnival is basically a huge street festival in Notting Hill with a parade that goes around all day full of drummers and dancers. The vibe was heaps of fun with everyone partying on the streets.

We wandered around the carnival checking out the food stalls and the parade and random DJ's set up along the street. We found a good DJ and had a dance for a while on the street before moving on to find some lunch. They say around 1/2 a million people were expected at the carnival today! In London you can drink on the street- which means things get messy! By the time we left the crowd was getting pretty rowdy, but still was a pretty cool party.

Alton Towers Theme Park - England - August 2012

Hayley and I went out to Alton Towers theme park on Saturday. It was an early morning departure, caught the train from Euston Station at 6:55....I got there at 6:54 and basically ran onto the train just in time!

The train took about 1.5 hours to Stoke-on-Trent, then we caught a taxi to the theme park. It was incredible. It's a huge area of land and has a big castle in the centre...surrounded by gardens and crazy rides.

We ended up going on a heap of rollercoasters and rides until we finally felt sick and couldn't ride anymore. The rides we went on were the Oblivion- a vertical drop into a hole in the ground (scariest!), Thirteen - awesome rollercoaster that stops halfway, does a free fall drop into darkness and goes backward down a dark tunnel; Air- a rollercoaster where you are face down to the ground so it's like you're flying, and Nemesis- a super fast rollercoaster (this is the or that made us sick!).

The theme park is awesome. I'd definitely recommend it. Such a massive park with some crazy, exhilarating rides. I was so scared.

Here are some of our ride photos...hilarious!

 

 

Hampton Court Palace - England - August 2012

On Sunday we headed out to Hampton Court Palace. No royalty lives there any more so it's mainly used for tourism. The Palace was really nice inside, lots of medieval history. We had an audio guided tour to listen to but it wasn't great- too slow and too much talking, so we gave up on that and just walked around in our own time.

The best thing about this palace is the 60 acres of gardens. They are amazing. Very well kept and manicured. There was also a big hedge maze which was fun and pretty easy to get through.

House Hunting - London - August 2012

I've been house hunting for the past month with no success. It's really hard to find anything decent in London and rent is very pricey! I'm looking with my friend Hayley (who I randomly met at another house viewing)- we've both moved over from Aus on our own recently and have found jobs but no homes so decided we'll stick together in our search.

We've been trying to find something in Clapham Junction close to the station as we both can catch the train to work from there. So far what we've seen has been pretty crappy for the price we want to pay. London rent is very expensive! We found out we cant go through real estate agents as they charge you for reference checks, and asking around, we basically will both fail checks as we have no credit or rental history in the UK! So private rental it is.

Yesterday we headed off to look at a house share that has a few rooms becoming available. It is a big Victorian house, 3 stories, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big garden! Its the nicest place we've seen so far and in a good location. There were about 20 other people going through to look and all seemed keen to apply, but we were lucky enough to get the landladies interest and secured two of the rooms while we were there. She said we looked like nice girls, haha. I think we got lucky and had more of an advantage because we were looking together.

So woooo I have a home! No more student accommodation (which is getting rowdy now cos all the students are coming back from summer break soon).

I don't move in until mid-september but am looking forward to it. We met some of the housemates at the viewing and they seemed pretty cool too. It's going to be an experience living in a 6 bedroom house but hopefully it will work out well and it won't get too crowded! The house is huge so think it will be good. I'm just glad I'll finally have an address I can call home :)

A Royal Saturday - London - August 2012

I had a fantastic day out yesterday. Started off by meeting my new friend Hayley at Harrods for breakfast. We went to a fancy tea room there and promised ourselves we would get a group of girls together and come back for a day of shopping and high tea at some point in the future. Harrods is great- so huge! I've been there twice now and have got lost both times.

We went on to Buckingham Palace for our 11:30am appointment. They open the State Rooms to the public over summer, so we pre-booked some tickets to go have a look. It was amazing! I have never seen such elegant, decorated, hugely impressive rooms in my life. It was absolutely beautiful inside the palace. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos so it's just something you have to see for yourself. Well worth the £18 we paid to go in.

The tour lasted for about 90 minutes and we had an audio guide which explained what each room was used for and it's history. We were also shown the Queens jewellery including the crown and necklace she wore at her recent Diamond Jubilee.

The tour ended up at the back of Buckingham Palace, where the Queens Garden Parties are held. It was stunning. There was a gift store at the end and I was very tempted to buy a royal teacup set, however it was way too pricey! The good thing is we got our tickets stamped to come back for free, so I can make my way back again when another friend wants to check it out.

It just so happened that the Olympic walking race was on that day too, and the course went right past the front of the Palace. Hayley and I went for lunch and then headed back there in the afternoon to watch the Women's Walk. Go Olympics! I met with Nicole and Simone there too, and we cheered so hard that we even got a wave from one of the Aussie athletes as she powered on by.

After the race, 3 of us went to find our friend Ally (from topdeck tour) who has just moved to London! She's working in a pub in Holborn so we headed over there, found the pub and caught up with her for some drinks as she worked.  A great day out.