london pick ups and take me back to london

Panorama of Buckingham Palace

London is a place that will never disappoint me, no matter how many times I'll visit. I can honestly say that the past few days I haven't wanted to leave - we did seriously consider paying more for another night.

On the first day, Charlotte & I ventured straight into Camden Town which, to sum up: is very surreal, even in January. I spent most of my time there quiet; just taking it all in! If you've been down, you already know what it's all about. I think you'll need an entire day dedicated to walking and exploring Camden to really realize what it's all about. There are so many knock-off stores you just have to love it, & the amount of people flogging their music on the street was pretty cool; you could tell how passionate they were and I spoke to one who seemed quite down to earth about his music - I just wish I had some cash on me to check out his music! I think it's a place where, the people who populate it are already aware of what they are & simply run with it, which I think is absolutely brilliant.

We decided to visit Big Ben at around 8pm that night - I really wish the photos were developed so I could post them. I was in absolute awe. Looking up at him, lit up and glorious made me feel oddly patriotic and humble. The architecture is fantastic and is really shown off in the night time. The rest of that evening was spent wandering around the Thames & Piccadilly Circus - which is one of my favourite places. London looked beautiful at night.

London Pick Ups

The following day we spent mostly shopping and 'fitting everything in' as we made a map on Google Maps of places we wanted to go, shared on our phones (which btw, Google Maps was a saviour with the London Underground) - so we spent a lot of time shopping around SoHo area. Originally went to Dover Street Market, which unfortunately was closed for the SS'13 swap over. Disappointed but, I was focusing on the bigger picture. As you can see; mostly shopped in Johnny Cupcakes & BAPE. The Bape store was pretty cool, the guy was nice and I'm going to be getting a lot more Bape this year, what with it being Year Of The Bape (#YOTB...). Other stores include the Candy Store, which I'm not the biggest fan of, but seemed slightly better than the Birmingham one and Supreme. The Supreme store was disappointing as most of the items left were S and XL, curse being a medium!

In terms of customer service though, Johnny Cupcakes is next to none. I've been twice and the guy who works there is just so easy to talk to and down to earth. I'd love to just be able to hang in there all day. I didn't expect to come back with so many Johnny Cupcakes items, but hey, 'Oliver Twist effect'. Also, as pictured. I couldn't resist buying a Picadilly Circus road sign from those tacky Britain tourist stores.

I think to really sum up, we didn't do any of the conventional touristy things; which would be cool but I don't know, maybe we're 'too young' to want to spend time doing that, but I had a great time taking my girl to London and experiencing it first hand. I'd absolutely love to go again very soon. This time, I think I'd take more money and have an extra day...