Exploring London!

Recently I travelled down to London to visit my boyfriend who lives there and as I am going again this week I thought it was time to write about my first trip! My boyfriend has just recently moved back so this was my first of many visits.

Right off the bat I made a massive mistake; I drove. Never ever again will I be driving down to London. He lives in South London meaning not only did I have to travel all the way down the M1 which was actually ok, I then had to drive through central London and it was the worst experience of my life. It took hours to get virtually no where! It was so so frustrating being that close but it taking so long. This was me being a bit too confident and not listening to the advice I was given to not drive! Well lesson learnt and the train is going to be my new best friend from now on.

The drive did put a big downer on the start of my trip as  arrived frustrated and about 2 hours after I thought I would but luckily it did improve!

That night I met his family for the first time and we had a family dinner, which was a little overwhelming as my boyfriend has a family of 6. Meaning it was a lot of people to meet and talk too!

 On my first full day there we went into the centre of London! I have visited London several times before with school, my parents and an ex but always with a set plan for example school trips. So it was nice just to wander, I had no idea what I wanted to do so we started off at Buckingham Palace and just walked around from there. 

We went down the mall to horsegaurds parade as I am an avid horse rider and owner and for those of you that have read my other blogs will know I went to live in New York for 3 months to teach horse riding. 

We then had a mandatory pub stop before going to Trafalgar Square. There where several bike races happening that day so the roads where cordoned off making it a little more difficult to get around than it usually would have been. However later on the bike races did pay off for us.

On out way to china town we stopped for the most amazing lunch! London is expensive so when we saw a lunch menu at Steak & co for £7.95 we didn't think twice! My boyfriend had the steak which you cook yourself at the table on a hot stone and I had incredible chicken and bacon mac & cheese. We then had pudding as well in total it was under £20 each which is a bargain for 2 course and drinks in central London.

Loving the identicalness of these 2 photos including my boyfriends hiding behind his drink in the background 

We then headed to Leicester square and went in the Lego shop and M&M world, I have never seen so many different coloured M&Ms the walls where lined with them! 

We finally made it to China town where we had been heading before lunch where we saw the famous bubble wraps which I definitely plan on going back for on my next visit, then to another mandatory pub stop.

As mentioned before there where lots of bike races happening and as we entered Piccadilly circus the final 3 laps of the women international was going so we stopped to watch the finish! I know nothing about cycling but it was fun to watch and the atmosphere was great!

Our last stop was green park to sit and relax for a while before heading home! Overall it was a really nice day, very relaxed and it being sunny and warm helped as well!

Have you visited London? Any ideas of what we should do next time i'm there? I'd love to visit the natural history museum