The Blonde Ambitions: London's Calling

This past weekend the girls and I went to London, England to visit our friend Chelsea and have her show us around. London seemed familiar to me due to watching movies like Love Actually, Notting Hill, Harry Potter, and Bridget Jones Diary countless times. Despite my movie education on the city I was eager to see the sights in person.

Day 1 began with catching up with Chelsea before hitting Spitalfields for dinner. Spitalfields was an area right by where Chelsea lives filled with markets, shops, and restaurants. We ended up at Wagamama for dinner, an Asian stirfry type of place, which was a nice change of pace from all the Italian food.

Spitalfields Market

Later that night Chelsea showed Aly and I the London nightlife taking us to a "posh" club off of Oxford street called Jalouse. The night scene is varied in London filled with clubs, pubs, bars, and hipster hangouts, allowing everyone to find their niche. We sampled a bit of each, but the first night's location was definitely my favorite!

Jalouse

The next morning we started off with the ceremonial changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. The area was packed with people all trying to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. Unfortunately the crowd along with the palace's high gates prevented us from seeing much. If I go back, I will definitely try to get to the palace earlier to get a better spot!

The Changing of the Guards

Next we were off to all the big sights-Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. Unfortunately at this time the weather wasn't too kind, ruining some of the better photo opportunities.

Afterwards we hit Covent Market, one of my favorite places while I was in London. The streets are packed with all sorts of stores, bakeries, cafes, and restaurants, and was a place full of activity.

Of course we had to make a fro-yo stop!

Our last day in London was packed. Chelsea was an excellent tour guide, accommodating us all and left no major site unvisited. First stop was Borough Market for some breakfast. For all you food lovers, Borough Market is paradise. In my opinion it is a quainter version of Chelsea Market in NYC. The market is filled with tons of different food vendors, giving out free samples, in the hopes you buy their wares. We ate our way through the market sampling cheeses, exotic jams, caramel sea salt fudge, paella, and all other sorts of homemade goodies. A soy cappuccino, a box of blueberries, and a raspberry flax bar later, I regretfully left the market.

Next we went to see the famous Globe Theatre, the Millennium Bridge, and the London Bridge, followed by the Tower of London. At the Tower of London we visited the Crown Jewel Exhibit and the torture exhibit (I was a bigger fan of the jewelry). Next we raced to Notting Hill, a popular area of London filled with markets and food vendors. It was cool to see some of the areas that were filmed in the movie. After some walking around we took a break for high tea. We were served scones, jelly, finger sandwiches, macaroons, and an assortment of pastries (and tea of course). It was definitely a tradition I could see myself falling into. After tea we went to Harrod's the famous department store where we had fun window shopping. Our day ended with a trip to King's Cross train station to make our way to platform 9 3/4.