Europe Travelogue Day 1: London

You can read my previous post here:
Day -1

Day 1:

I woke up really early at 5am. Tried to go back to sleep and thought I slept for a long while but I only slept 1.5hrs so I was up again at 6.40am. L got woken up by me so we decided to head out earlier. Our airbnb place is near Edgware Road station, which is pretty convenient!

Selfie at the metro. My lips got really swollen probably cus I didn't drink enough water on the plane. For each flight I had a 500ml filled bottle but I guess it was still not enough. The condition of my lips will continue to worsen throughout my whole time in London :(

I like their tube cus it feels old and vintage-y, especially with the brick walls. Even though their metro is old, it's quite efficient. 

We bought the 7 day oyster pass from the station, which will allow us to make unlimited trips on the tube. It cost £31 + £5 deposit. The transport there is pretty expensive compared to Singapore cus it's 60SGD (exchange rate is £1 = 2SGD) for a week of transport compared to 20SGD (I think?) in SG. However, this is the best option. The night before when we were trying to get to our airbnb place, we had to pay like £4 each for a single trip of roughly 4-5 stops! I was in denial when we paid for the fare cus it's so expensive?! Better to get this and try to forget how expensive transport is in London.

We took the tube to Leicester Square to get cheap(er) theatre tickets. We bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera for the next day cus I have always wanted to watch it!! I think it was since secondary school. I remembered they came to Singapore but I was so young and didn't have enough money and my parents didn't want to spend so much for me to watch the musical.

We walked to Covent Garden from Leicester Square and waited and waited for Saudemann's walking tour to start. We were too early so we took a few photos.

Saw the iconic red telephone booths everywhere!

Brought my trusty monopod along!

The tour guide brought us to St James' Palace, which is where the Queen and the royal family reside. It looks like a simple house, with the castle type of walls. When we reached there, they were in the midst of a guard changing ceremony. The police there still ride horses!

 Guard changing ceremony

We then walked to Trafalgar Square! The place I have heard from Monopoly. It was just a big square with historical monuments.

 We walked to the Buckingham Palace after that and the guide told us the flag on top will indicate if the Queen is in the palace. That day, she was in.

Nearby to the Buckingham Palace is St James' Park. It's a very nice park with squirrels and a lot more pigeons.

 We had to leave the tour halfway as L made a lunch reservation for us at Pollen Street Social. I didn't really enjoy the tour cus half the time I didn't manage to get what the tour guide was talking about due to his accent (my fault). He didn't give enough time to take photos as well. I had to quickly snap photos and brisk walk to re-join them a few times.

We tipped the tour guide £5 each and left. To fully make use of our unlimited oyster, we took a bus to the restaurant, which was near Oxford Street.

Pollen Street Social is a one star Michelin restaurant with a reasonably priced lunch menu. £22 for a 2 course meal and £26 for a 3 course meal.

Some complimentary starters.

Photos of us with our food. I forgot their names but the food was really nice!

L had the 3 course meal so I got to share this dessert with him! It's pretty good. I want to eat it again!!

The exterior of the restaurant

With that, we headed to Oxford Street for shopping. First stop was Clarks, where L bought shoes for his mum. Clarks shoes are like half priced there compared to Singapore. Too bad, they are still too expensive for my budget for shoes. After that, we headed to Primark! Sorry no photos cus I was too excited! I have been anticipating going to Primark for awhile cus I have watched famous bloggers post their haul video and their clothes were really cheap! Even by Singapore standards. However, when I went there, I was sorely disappointed. The entire shop was a mess, clothes were strewn all over the floor, and there were so many people in the store! It wasn't a good shopping environment and I could only pick out a few pieces. Meanwhile, L bought so many things! The pants/jeans there was only £10 each and he bought like 2-3 pairs.

After that, we headed to Duck and Waffle, which is located on the 40th floor of Heron Tower. L made reservations 3 months in advance cus it's very popular. 

Their signature. Duck confit on a waffle with a duck egg on top. I love how crisp the duck confit is, but that's about the only thing I like about the restaurant. The rest of the food was so so only.

This is the reason why it's so popular. The view!! 

This is the end of Day 1 in London!

p/s: blogging this post made me miss London sooo much! I definitely want to visit London again!

Europe Travelogue Day -1: Traveling

Yay finally gonna blog about my Europe trip! Blogging is my distraction from job search.

Anyw, on the main topic. I had been contemplating about going to Europe for my graduation trip since end last year. The main factor pulling me back was the money. I wasn't rich and my parents weren't going to fund it (they funded me a little in the end, roughly 15%?). I decided to go for it since YOLO! I won't have the luxury of time once I get a job. In order to get enough money for this trip, I stepped up on tuition. I originally had 1 tutee and I took on 3 more to earn money for the trip. Even though I had lesser time for myself, I didn't regret this decision at all! Love my experience in Europe!

Then during a CO meetup near the start of the year, Huimin told me of promotions that Emirates and Qatar were having. Really glad she told me cus I was still contemplating then, and it was so coincidental there were promotions so I decided to go. L and I booked round trip air tickets to Barcelona at roughly $960! We chose Barcelona cus it was a cheaper place to fly to (in the end I kinda regret, but that's the story for another day).

Subsequently, we planned the itinerary (actually L did most of the job) and booked our accommodation and travel within Europe.

Our 23 day itinerary goes like this:
Barcelona --> London --> Paris --> Rome --> Florence --> Venice --> Barcelona

For accommodation, my budget was $50 per person per day. It was difficult to find such prices for some places so we had to use BnB.

~

On the actual day I was soooo excited. The flight was at 1+am. I HATE OVERNIGHT FLIGHTS, but no choice.

My passport and my air ticket. Love the passport cover my sis got for me from BKK!

Selfie with our passports and air tickets. 

I couldn't fall asleep at all so thank god for the entertainment system on board. After a 7 hour flight, we transited in Dubai airport and had shake shack, which cheered my spirits a little!! Then it was another 7 hour flight to Barcelona. After we reached Barcelona, we had to wait 3-4 hours before we took our flight from Barcelona to London. I wanted to die!!! We literally spent 24 hours traveling. Plus I didn't have much sleep at all so I was freaking tired and sian about the trip when we touched down in London. I just wanted to go to our BnB and crash.

We finally reached our London BnB at like 9pm! It was alright for the price. We had to use a shared bathroom though. I was so so so glad to see it!! We had instant noodles and crashed for the night at 11pm.

End of my travels

Yesterday, I landed back home at 10+pm and that marked the end of my two month rendezvous with traveling. I felt sad cus it's finally time to start looking for a job for full time!

The two months of traveling have been fun and I have broadened my perspectives a little.

Europe:
Europe has been eye-opening (as usual) cus it's so different from Asia. The people there are so much more laid-back and I feel like they know how to enjoy the finer things in life, like having a multiple course dinner and drinking red wine, people-watch. The type of sights are different too. In Asia, it's mostly temples, night view of the CBD area but for Europe, it's churches and preserved architecture. I love it! Too bad it's freaking expensive and far :(

Taiwan:
I have to admit I was quite apprehensive when I went to Taiwan cus I didn't have a good impression of the trip we took four years ago. I remember I was so sick of shopping and eating 夜市 food. But you can't escape 夜市 cus it's a quintessential activity of Taiwanese people. If we don't go, we also have nothing to do at night. In the end, I'm glad to say I really enjoyed the trip!! We went out of Taipei and in my 8 day trip, I was only in Taipei for 2 days. I enjoyed myself more in the places out of Taipei, especially Kenting & Hualien (which Debra and Fang concluded that it was cus we hired drivers).

HK/China:
I was very relieved when I came back from China!!!! I realized one thing there, if you wanna buy cheap stuff, you gotta compromise on your wellbeing. Overall, I am glad that my parents brought me on this trip, cus otherwise I don't think I will ever go? I don't think any of my friends are interested in going to China lol. I was amazed at how cheap some of the things are. Monopods were selling at less than 3 SGD each, iPhone screen protectors (those shatter proof glass that sells for like $20 in SG) at $4, transparent iPhone case at 80 cents, egg tarts at 20 cents, a meal for three at less than $5, sunglasses at $2 (those nice ones I have seen selling for $8- $10 in HK/TW) and a piece of clothing that I bought in TW for $16 was selling at $8 (ARGHHHH). My family just went crazy over shopping! But then I think my wellbeing was severely affected. The toilets are quite dirty and I keep seeing people spitting on the floor! At the end I was always looking at the ground to make sure I don't step on the spit. FREAKING 噁心!!! I cringed every time I hear people spitting. People also smoked in air-con even though it was prohibited. Really puts me off sighhh. That's the price I gotta pay for cheap shopping. I also got to see the wholesale scene in Dongguan & Guangzhou! China is really a land of opportunities. They sell soooo many things, and there's stiff competition there so you'll definitely get a good price. But you just gotta tolerate all those things.

So this is the end of my general reflection for each trip. I will try to blog more about travels in the next few weeks!

Oh bring me back to the start

I came back from Taiwan two days ago, feeling emo. Just one more trip before I start fully on the job hunt. I hate job hunting, maybe cus I am not good at it. Going to interviews always mean more rejections for me. Rejections hurt my ego (is that what you call it?). Rejections makes me feel bad and makes me doubt my abilities

<Am I that lousy?>

<Why can't I pass one single interview?>

Things like that... I wish I could be better but I am just not. Hoping that I will improve with more practice, but before that I need to steel myself for such rejections and thoughts.

When my Taiwan trip ended, all I wanted to do is to rewind the tape. I want move back in time, just right before I left for London and re-do my whole Europe trip one more time. Trips are so fun and tiring at the same time! For awhile, I can forget my insecurities and responsibilities back home and just enjoy myself. But these times are over :( Just one more trip to HK and China before I start fully on the job hunt. I dread it so much... Because once I get through and get a job, life would be monotonous. Each overseas trip would be super precious. I really really wish I don't need to get a job and just travel, but that's impossible. & it's only the gruelling and boring work that I would find overseas trips fun? Haiya, life and its opposing forces.

I hope to travel to all parts of the world before I die. The next two places I want to go are Japan and Middle East/Turkey! I have seen my friends' photos of Turkey and it looks awesomeeeee. Please let me find a job and earn the money to go these places!

I hope to start blogging about my Europe trip in the next few days!