Hey everyone! Today's blog post is all about my short trip to the amazing city London. This trip did take place nearly 9 months ago but as usual, I've been really busy and haven't got round to writing a blog post on it and now it's nearly a year later! However, I had the most amazing time and so I still really want to write a post about London.
I felt like such a kid again, I had butterflies the night before I left to go to London. I was so excited to finally be going somewhere on an aeroplane but I was slightly nervous because I didn't know what to expect! All of these 'what if's' were running through my mind! (I'm such a worrier! I never stop thinking about what might happen or what could go wrong!) - 'What if I miss my plane, what if I don't know what to do when I get to security, what if I get lost in the airport?' - The list was endless!
Turns out there was no need to be worried! I hadn't forgotten anything, seeing as I packed my bag weeks before because I was so excited and I had only checked it like a hundred times to make sure I had everything I needed. Also, I live in such a small city, I should have known that there was no way that I could get lost in the airport! Inverness Airport is so tiny! I can't even describe to you guys how small it is! As soon as I walked in the entrance, I could see the whole airport, there and then! I literally took a left, put my bag in a box, put it through security and sat down and waited for my plane! It was that simple! I was worrying over nothing!
My first experience on a plane was amazing! I found it so fascinating to see all of the land from a birds eye view. I found taking off a little scarier than I thought it would be. It kind of felt like I was on a roller coaster - there was that same kind of feeling in my stomach. It felt like we were in the air for 10 minutes, when in actual fact it was an hour and a half! I should also mention that I was travelling with my dad and it was also his first time on a plane too! He enjoyed it just as much as I did and it was so great to be able to share the experience of flying for the first time together.
When we landed, I was just so excited to be able to say that I had done it. I had been on a plane! We then got a bus from Luton Airport to Baker Street and from there we went straight to Madame Tussauds! And what an experience that was!!!! We did have to queue for over 3 hours just to get in, but it was worth it in the end. I have always wanted to go to a really big wax museum, I just find them so fascinating! I remember going to a wax museum in Blackpool when I was really little and I just thought it was the most magical place ever!
Madame Tussauds in London exceeded my expectations! It was absolutely massive and when I thought I had seen everything, I turned a corner and found hundreds of more wax figures! And of course I got to see Zoe Sugg and Alfie Deyes' wax figures, which I had wanted to see ever since they were made! They looked so realistic!!! If anyone is ever thinking of visiting Madame Tussauds in London, definitely do it! I had the time of my life taking selfies with all of the celebrities (pretending they were real and that I had actually met them! Haha!) Sitting next to Harry Styles was the biggest highlight for me! I remember just wishing it was the real Harry Styles but I knew that was the best I was ever going to get! The Spirit of London Ride was another really cool attraction! My dad and I sat in a little black cab which took us round 'the streets of London' teaching us about the history of the Capital! I just wasn't expecting something like that to be inside Madame Tussauds! I also got to go to my first ever 4D Cinema which was just unbelievable! There is no way to describe how incredible it was! The cinema room was shaped like a dome and when I sat on my seat, the chair was leaning back and so I was facing upwards, almost towards the ceiling! It just felt so realistic! We watched a short 4D Marvel Movie and it was so incredible! Every time one of the superheroes landed in a puddle, water splashed me in the face, air blasts came out of my chair every time Spiderman spun a web and when they were fighting my seat vibrated and the back of my chair moved to feel like someone was punching into my back! I just couldn't believe how amazing and realistic it was! It just felt like I was really there with the superheroes!
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| THE VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL |
We then had to make our way to our hotel. We stayed in the London County Hall Premier Inn which was so lovely. Anyway, before we got there we had to get on our first ever tube! I just thought it would feel like being on a train but boy was I wrong! The tube was so full, we were literally packed like sardines and it went so fast. I was literally holding on for dear life, it felt more like a roller coaster than an underground train ride! I definitely couldn't do that every day like the Londoners that I saw getting the tube to and from work! Once we finally found our hotel and checked in, we quickly dumped our backpacks in our room and then went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. Of course I ordered pizza! And it was absolutely delicious! It was the best pizza I have ever tasted - topped with onions, mushrooms and bacon! As soon as we were done of eating, we headed back out! Our hotel was in such a beautiful location, situated right next to the London Eye! We literally stepped out of our hotel and turned the corner and there was the London Eye!
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| BACON, ONION AND MUSHROOM PIZZA! |
Just a little warning, if you are ever thinking of visiting London, be prepared to queue for hours for absolutely everything. We waited in a never ending queue to get onto the London Eye, but pretty much like everything in London, it is worth the long wait! I have never seen something so magnificent as the view you get when standing at the top of the London Eye! The view was just breath-taking and truly mesmerising! It honestly felt like a dream come true! I had always wanted to visit London and see the beautiful city all lit up and I was finally getting to see exactly that - the city in all its glory! We also went at a really good time because on our way up it was still light and on our way down it was dark outside and so we got to experience two completely different views from the London Eye! And it was also an excuse to take even more pictures than I already had!
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| STUNNING VIEWS FROM THE LONDON EYE! |
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| THE LONDON EYE ALL LIT UP |
We only stayed in London for one night (because it's so expensive) and so we wanted to cram as much as possible into the short time that we were there and I think we did a pretty good job at that! The following day, we got up extremely early and had a scrumptious cooked breakfast - bacon, egg, sausages etc. We checked out of our hotel and took our backpacks with us and set off to explore as much of London as we could. We ended up walking over to Big Ben and along the river and then we did the hop-on hop-off bus tour which I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to see all the main attractions in London but is a little tight for time. It was absolutely fantastic. We could get on and off the tour bus at any stop we wanted to. So every time, my dad and I saw somewhere we really wanted to go and explore we would hop of the bus and walk around that area for a little bit and see all of the sites near there before hopping on another tour bus at another bus stop. We ended up seeing so much - the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, the Shard and so much more. We also hopped off the bus in Oxford Street, where we saw the Marble Arch and I made a super quick stop in Forever 21! Oh how I wish I had more time in London. I could have done some serious damage to my bank account in the shops on Oxford Street. But I was with my dad who absolutely hates shopping and so I didn't want to chance my luck by asking him to go to any more shops and plus I knew we didn't have much time left before we had to head to the airport and so I'd much rather see more of London than do a little bit of retail therapy.
We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring London on the Open Top Bus, but by this time the traffic started to get really bad. It was great in the morning because it was so quiet and not many cars were on the road, but in the afternoon, I soon realised that people are telling the truth when they say they are stuck in traffic for hours in London. That was literally the case! We ended up not moving at all! And then like every 20 minutes we'd maybe move a couple of centimetres! It was absolutely ridiculous! So we ended up having to run out of the bus and quickly go to the nearest underground station and jump on a tube to Victoria Station. We then ran to the Victoria Coach Station and made it to our bus just in the nick of time! It was all a big rush and we were very close to missing our bus to the Airport. At the Airport, Dad and I had our dinner at Frankie and Benny's which was honestly the best burger I have ever tasted! We then had a smooth flight home which again felt like it lasted seconds! It still amazes me how fast a plane is! Just wow!
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| FRANKIE AND BENNY'S!!! |
I did take a lot of pictures from such a short trip, and I mean hundreds, HUNDREDS of photos! But it's just because it's the first bit of proper travelling that I have ever done and travelling is something that I have always dreamt of doing! And so going on this trip to London, which is a beautiful, busy and vibrant city, was me taking one small step towards making my dream of seeing the world come true! Because I had never really travelled before this, it just felt so amazing to see a different part of the world and especially seeing as it's London - a city that I see advertised everywhere! When you dream of doing something for so long, it just doesn't seem real when it happens. I remember when I was in London, I was just thinking this is too good to be true!
Seeing as I have a big family, I have never been on holiday, apart from a school trip when I was about 11 years old. We went on a ferry to Amsterdam which was such a wonderful experience! It seems like so long ago and although I had the time of my life in the Netherlands and I am so grateful that my primary school gave me the opportunity to get my first taste of going abroad, I feel like I was so young then and I didn't document the trip as much as I would do if I were to go again now at the age of 18. I can still remember the places that we visited in Holland but can't remember much else and that's why I think it's so important to document the things you love and want to remember every minute of. I wish I had taken more pictures and recorded little video clips every here and there. And that's why I took so many photos and video clips whilst I visited London! I never want to forget any holidays and adventures that I have and so any travelling that I do in the future will be recorded and I will ensure that I just keep on snapping away and capturing photos because a camera is a save button for the mind's eye!
Most people will probably question why I was, and still am, so excited about this trip. Most people who live in the UK wouldn't get as excited as me about visiting London, but when you're like me and have never really travelled and have sat in your bedroom for hours and hours each night researching all the places you'd like to visit one day, just hoping that one day you'll get to go on your first ever plane and see somewhere different other than your tiny little city, a trip to London is such a big deal! It was my first taste of travelling and my first time experiencing the life in a big, well-known city as well as being the first place I travelled to by plane. I am so excited to see what happens in the future now as this little trip to London has made me even more eager to see as much of the world as possible and to go on so many more adventures and experience what life is like in so many more cities and countries!
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post. Sorry again that it is really, really late! I do plan on writing blog posts more regularly because I really enjoy blogging but seem to never find the time to do it! But I will make time to write blog posts from now on! If I am ever absent on my blog then just check out my
Youtube Channel as I post videos on there almost every day! Thank you so much for reading!
Lucille Xox98
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| ENJOYING THE VIEW FROM THE LONDON EYE |
