18 days. 6 countries. 1 bag: London (days 1-2)

Outfit day 2. The only time we saw the sun. So far so good...but it's still early! My (p)leather jacket , brown striped shirt, and hat from Forever 21, Se7en jeans, and black biker boots (forget brand).   Bag: MZWallace

Clockwise from left: Amaryllis flower in Spitalfields market. Aerial installation of paper cranes in Selfridges. Neat clock idea using picture frames in a gift store in Spitalfields.

When I think of London I think of rain or gloomy overcast skies.  When we got to London we were greeted by spitting mist rain and gloomy overcast skies.  Surprise Surprise.  We had a few bright spots in our brief two day stay with our friedns in Shoreditch.   Great area by the way - I wish I had time to wander around Spitalfields market and it's a shame that even with it being literally next door, we didn't step foot inside the All Saints store (my wallet thanks me).  In any case, I can wrap up our visit with a few words: lots of pubs and good friends and food. What more can you ask for?

 Day 1:
Arrived super early. We took the Heathrow Express into London. Tip: As soon as you arrive into baggage claim, there are agents standing literally at the bottom of the escalator selling tix with a handheld credit card machine. The entire transaction took like 2 min max which made our entire deplaning process including customs to train platform a total of 15 minutes (bonus points for carry-on suitcase!) After arrival to our friends flat we crashed for hours lol then woke up for fish and chips at Poppies (prepare to step back in time into the 50s)  and a little neighborhood wandering and additional eating at Rosa's (Thai - affordable and delicious)

Go to Poppies for some gooood fish and chips. Can't believe I ate Thai food a few hours later lol.

From top: Yummy Thai food at Rosa's (photos from Rosa's website except our tablescraps from my chicken pad thai and some prawn dish my husband had.)  Bottom: dark streets - had no idea Jack the Ripper's stomping grounds was right around here!

Day 2:
I only wanted to do 1 cultural thing and that was visit the Tate Modern.  Beforehand though we had breakfast at the Luxe (spitalfields)  and then did some window shopping at Selfridges (chaos but saw a great sneaker collection in the shoe dept)  then took the tube to the Tate.  Met up with a friend at a pub afterwards then visited my college roommate for dinner at Zuma (swanky and good! sorry no pics!) in Knightsbridge. 

 

A visit to the Tate - liked this exhibit about the Guerrilla Girls.

Outfit recap:
Day 1/ Flight:  Maxi dress with a purple top and leather jacket, biker boots.  (see photo here)
Day 2:  Brown-striped cotton shirt, jeans, jacket, biker boots  (I was underdressed by the time night came around - ended up purchasing a scarf)