Filled with laughter, many chats and shopping.
Remember last year when I met up with friend A? Even though we live far apart, we do our best to meet each other every year. Sometimes it works out, but we had plenty of years we couldn’t meet. She is from the States and I am from the Netherlands, so we aren’t exactly closeby to meet for tea. Although, I do have to say we are close in many other ways. Anyhow, we both love travelling. So meeting in another country every year seems our way to go. Also we both have so much love for the UK and adore spending time there, that’s why for this year we met for our second year in a row in London. She made a whole holiday out of it, and I made a trip for the weekend.
After almost seven years I got back on a plane. Normally I take the train since I enjoy the journey. But due to work it simply was not possible this year for me to do so. Flying was the answer to being much quicker.
Friday, January 30
Fun fact: I have been to England plenty of times, but I have never flown to it! So it was my very first time arriving at Heathrow. I deliberately picked this airport since it would be an easy ride to get to the pub in Hammersmith where I would be staying at for the weekend. Once at the pub and being shown to my room, I unpacked quickly and got an evening bag ready. My friend picked me up an hour later, since we had big plans for the night. But not before we laughed so hard. Our rooms were right next to each other! The odds of that happening in a pub are not exactly low, but still… we were surprised. It felt like a grown up version of a friend’s sleepover. Honestly, this couldn’t have been more perfect to celebrate our tenth year of friendship.
Our night was already off to a great start and also still young. On the tube we shared stories we were planning for months to tell each other once we would meet again in person. After a short ride we arrived at V&A. We had tickets for the Marie Antoinette Style exhibition. I am glad the museum gave credit to Marie Antoinette for how influential she has been and still is. To be fair she has been even more influential than the exhibition had time to cover. Just a short dive into her history will show so much about how she shaped not only the past but also the future. Did you know the croissant is everything but French? The queen, being an absolute sweettooth, brought that and many more pastries from Vienna to Paris.
I digress, the exhibition is mostly about her fashion sense. As a visitor you will walk through multiple rooms that show Marie Antoinette’s life in France. The last room is dedicated to how fashion has been influenced in our current decade by the fashionable and ill-fated queen.
In our haste to get to our appointed ticket time at the museum, we had no time for food. Luckily in the neighborhood we stayed in we found the kitchen of Sodo Pizza to still be open when we walked in minutes before ten. After a delicious pizza we got back to the pub for a pint to fill the rest of the night with stories.
Saturday, January 31
Rise and shine! We had a long day ahead of us so we had to start our day off right with breakfast at Pret A Manger before we headed to Oxford Street. Our first stop was The Body Shop to check out the latest collection or actually something they brought back from the 90’s. I got some products from that range as well as some other things. I stocked up since you’re now allowed to travel with two liters in your cabin luggage if you fly from Heathrow.
Selfridges was our next destination. We spent some time at the toy section and at the jellycat pop-up where I bought the can of soda, a London exclusive. We checked out some second hand bags before we made our way to the perfume section. I have been eyeing this perfume since the last time I visited the store, Bitter Splash from Dries Van Noten. Right now, I got the 10ml to check it out if I truly like it enough before I commit to the big bottle. I also got two other scents that are totally up my alley.
For lunch we had a sit down at M&S where we chatted for a very long time. Once back outside we walked into many stores on Oxford street – like Pandora, Uniqlo, HMV – before we took a turn to Marylebone. At SpaceNK I stocked up on my favourite Rare Beauty items. A few doors down we found ourselves at Daunt Books. We only checked out a small section before we headed out again. It was super busy and neither of us were in the mood to check out everything. We were both tired and had an appetite. We landed on going to The Veg Box Cafe for dinner.
That night we decided to not hang around in the pub, but to go for an early night in. Neither of us slept well the night before. Luckily, spoiler, we did sleep amazing that night!
Sunday, February 1
We started our day with brunch at Another Brother. Afterwards our shopping expedition continued at Harrods. From there we took the bus to Piccadilly Circus to spend some time with books in Hatchards and Waterstones. For snacks we grabbed some at Boots. Very touristy of us, but we ate the snacks during our walk to Soho where we explored many boutiques and other kinds of shops that are unique to London.
The day went by in a blink of an eye and we headed for our dinner reservation at Tofu Vegan. For one last drink and chat we headed back to our dear pub, Prince of Wales Townhouse. Neither of us wanted to say goodbye, since we never know for sure when the next time will be that we meet again. At a certain time it was time to give each other a big hug, a good night and a hopeful “see you soon”.
Monday, February 2
From Hammersmith I found my way back to Heathrow. In case you’re wondering what I do on those travel days as a freelancer… Well, I work. On Friday I worked on a project for a publishing house, but on that specific Monday I found myself in multiple meetings as a Community Consultant. Never a dull travel day.
Love,
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