Welcome to my travel blog! Plus things seen so far in London.

The beautiful interior of the department store, Liberty.

I decided that keeping a public written record of my trip would be the easiest way for friends and family to keep up-to-date with my travels, as writing and re-writing lengthy, descriptive emails gets a bit tiring after a while! I will also have a Tumblr account which I’m currently in the process of getting started (i.e. when I can be bothered connecting my camera to my computer) to publish extra photos or videos I may have taken, so that this blog is more about the written entries as opposed to being bombarded with zillions of pictures.

Anyway! I’m currently in London, staying in Acton at my cousin Jo’s apartment. It is a bit after 9am, and I have been awake already for 3 hours (oh the glory of jet lag!). Yesterday I caught a train to Perivale to go to the Tesco shop there, which for those NZers that don’t know is basically like Pak n Save on crack, with a food section, electronics section, pharmacy and mobile phone store all rolled into one. I went to the one in Perivale as not all the Tesco’s have mobile phone sections and I needed to get a sim card for my phone – I think its safe to say that that is probably the first and last time I will ever visit Perivale (the Tesco’s and the train station seemed to be the main features of the suburb). I then gladly hopped onto a train and headed into central London, getting off at Oxford Circus amongst the masses of tourists all out to get cheap deals at the clothing stores spread along Oxford Street. I’m embarrassed to say that I spent no less than two hours inside the 5-story Topshop, ogling at the seemingly endless variety of clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories, and spotting even a few cafes on some levels. After all of that I ended up just getting a pair of shoes, as unfortunately when I converted all the prices in my head to NZ dollars everything didn’t seem so cheap at all, especially when all the dresses were made out of polyester and manufactured in China! Unfortunately this appeared to be a common trend with all the clothes on offer down Oxford Street, so sadly I feel as though I had a slightly wasted afternoon raking through racks of over-priced Glassons gear amidst hoards of pushy females and impatient shop staff. So I’m looking forward to going to slightly less touristy areas today, possibly down side streets of Soho or Covent Garden, undecided yet as a lot of places I want to see are all in walking-distance or at the very most a short tube trip away. Heres a few photos I’ve taken on my phone so far and also a short list of oddities spotted on my travels up til now:

1. Someone shopping in TopShop in their pajamas, complete with a dressing gown AND slippers

2. 3 H&M’s within 1 kilometre of each other in and around the Oxford St area

3. Every driver coming up to a corner stopping to let pedestrians go first – not so much in the centre of London, but this never happens in Auckland!

4. Public transport that ACTUALLY arrives on time (again, this is a rarity in Auckland)

Anyway thats it for now folks, check back later and hopefully I will have another blog post and my Tumblr up and running! Chur!

Shoes purchased from Topshop. 

Liverpool Street Station.

Kingly St.