{london town!}
This past weekend I FINALLY took a trip to the land of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Spice Girls, TEA PARTIES, Angus Thongs & Full-frontal Snogging, Harry Potter, Austin Powers and swingin' 60s fashion: LONDON, BABY! I have obviously always dreamed of visiting the home of my most favorite things and am SO thrilled that I finally made the pilgrimage.
{a little chun-fun refreshment}
On Thursday night, three of my girlfriends and I loaded up on candy and mini bottles of white wine and hopped on the chunnel to London. Lots of Chun-Fun ensued, I can assure you. When arrived at the BU London dorms where we stayed for the weekend, our friends were already getting ready to go out, so we immediately threw down our stuff and changed into our party gear.
{complimentary champagne at jalouse. oui oui, s'il vous plaît!}
One of the girls we were with for the weekend knows a bunch of club promoters in London, so we spent the night dancing at this swanky mcswanky club called Jalouse, which had diamond-shaped lights on the ceiling and drinks with sparklers attached to them. We were treated to a VIP table and drinks, so needless to say we had a great time. A little too great, if you ask me. Ha! Oh boyyyyy.....
{pretty london}
The next day, Friday, a whole group of us walked the city to check out London's must-see attractions: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and Oxford Circus Top Shop. We also stopped for an authentic English lunch of fish, chips and mushy peas, which couldn't have made me happier.
{the tree inside waxy o'connors}
After grabbing dinner with some of the BU London boys, we headed out to spend our night at two authentic pubs. The first was called Waxy O'Connors and looked like a giant tree house with a real tree growing through the middle of the pub. The place was blasting oldies and we had the best time singing along and watching drunk foreigners dance. When the pub closed at 12, we headed around the corner to O'Neill's. Luckily, the DJ was playing fun party music and our scream-along continued well into the night. You better believe that I rocked out hard to JET's "Are You Gunna Be My Girl?" (my fave!).
{one of the many stands selling semi-useless nicknacks}
Saturday took us to Portobello Market, which was by far my favorite part of the weekend. Imagine a mile-long stretch of stands selling street food, fresh produce, antiques, hand-made goods, vintage jewelry and accessories, clothing, home decorations, and anything else you can think of. Not only are there the stands to choose from, but also Portobello Road itself is lined with adorable boutiques and cafés. I could have easily spent an entire week and all of my money at that place. I think I'll go back just to shop there again! I obviously couldn't leave empty handed, so I picked up a star-print passport cover and a British Flag pin cushion (so unnecessary but too cute to pass up) from Cath Kidston, a pair of vintage orchid clip earrings, and a thin gold chain bracelet with three gold stars (which actually broke on Olivia's skirt that night--must fix asap!).
{tea time with avery}
{atmosphere at the mandeville tea room}
When I was finally able to tear myself away from the market, I met up with my friend Avery at the Mandeville Hotel for "Fashion Tea Time." The little desserts were so cute and we were served endless cups of black currant and hibiscus tea-delish! The place itself was also very cool, with black and white baroque printed wallpaper, butterfly patterned china, overstuffed hot pink and orange chairs, and framed black and white photos of Mick Jagger and Audrey Hepburn. This place was totally my scene. After over two hours of playing catch up, I left Avery to meet up with the others for dinner at a local Indian restaurant. The food was amazing and we ate every last bite. We didn't finish dinner until 10:30, and until we digested and got dressed to go out it was 1 AM, so we hopped in a cab to swankalicious club #2: Vendome. Another VIP table, complimentary drinks, pretty people and awesome atmosphere. Oh the good life!
{vip room, baby! and that's just a straw in my hand :) }
{atmosphere at vendome}
Olivia and Cristina returned to Paris on Sunday afternoon, but I had booked a train for Monday morning knowing that I would adore the place too much to leave so soon. I spent the day with Avery seeing all of the things that I'd yet to see that weekend. We started the day admiring all of the designer goods at Harrod's and Harvey Nichols, drooling over everything we wanted but could never afford, like a DVF swing trench, Chloé blouses, Lanvin tshirts, Phillip Lim cocktail dresses and Miu Miu bags.
{warhol room at the tate modern}
We then walked past Buckingham Palace, waved to the Queen, and ended up at the National Gallery to see a photo exhibit on Twiggy. Our museum tour continued on to the Tate Modern, which was fabulous! It has a sick Warhol room whose walls are covered in bright yellow and pink cow-printed wallpaper. Totally got some forbidden pictures in front of it. Tee hee! All of the walking we did built up an appetite and we hopped on the Tube to Sheppard's Market for Turkish food at a restaurant called Sofra- recommended to me by my mom- where I feasted on this amazing curried fish stew with rice. After dinner, I returned to the BU dorms where I got to see some friends that had come back from their own weekend excursions! So good! I also decided that I didn't get to see nearly enough of London and must go back in April. Abbey Road, Camden Market, Victoria and Albert Museum and extreme vintage shopping, here I come!
Yesterday (Monday), I took the train back early with my friend Ali. Even though the train ahead of us broke down just as we were approaching Paris, we were still able to make it to our 12 oclock class only three minutes late. Minor miracle in our crazy European lives. Last night, the BU Paris kids went to see a play called La Canatrice Chauve (The Bald Singer), which was in the style of absurdity and made no sense, but was quite ridiculous and very funny. Afterward, we got crêpes from a stand across from the theater-- egg and swiss, yummmm!
This week is going to be crazy. Interview at Women's Wear Daily tomorrow, two exams on Friday, art history presentation outline due before the weekend, friends visiting from London this weekend, another exam on Tuesday and my art history presentation on Wednesday, not to mention planning Spring Break to Italy somewhere in there! Ahh!
Wish me luck, mes cheries! Miss you all so much!!!!!!
Paix, Amour et Néon,
Marisa
No comments:
Post a Comment