London bridge is NOT falling down!

Well, after an easy 4 hour bus ride from Manchester we were in the big smoke.

Trafalgar square

With so much to see, and about a week to do it all, we didn’t really know where to start! So we decided to kick off our time in London with yet another free walking tour, around Royal London. We saw sights like the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace (no, sadly we didn’t see queeny ), Trafalgar square, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

Me in Green Park (called green park because there is no flower beds )

Arvi next to one one the queens massive guards 

Big Ben

On a rainy, wet day (normal weather for London) we headed to Camden market and got ourselves lost in the hundreds of stalls selling everything from punk leather outfits and piercings to furniture. The amount of food stalls was amazing too, with every cuisine you could think of!

Camden markets

even the shop fronts were all funky

With London being the home of Arvi’s favourite football team, Chelsea, or course we had to fit in a visit to check out the grounds… And their official football store! We also tried to fit in all the other sights of London like the street art in Brick lane, the river Thames, London bridge and London tower bridge.

CHELSEA!!

around brick lane 

Street art, Brick Lane

We even fitted in a little date night to see Wicked the musical after a yummy dinner in China town. Even from row W we really enjoyed the show and the atmosphere.

nose bleed section at Wicked

We broke up our stay in London by heading to Brighton for the weekend, a 2 hour bus ride south. When we arrived at our cute (and cheap!) BnB in Peacehaven, we were greeted with actual summer weather for a change and spent the afternoon sunbaking on the beach and reading books we bought for 50 p at a second hand store that afternoon.  We also sampled the buzzing Brighton nightlife, which is a favourite among English stag and hen parties, who travel to Brighton to get messy, very messy.

Brighton beach (not much sand)

 The next day was much colder and we spent it visiting the famous Brighton Pier and exploring town. Before heading back to London, we went for a morning run along the beautiful coast at Peacehaven, which featured the Bastian stairs or, as our BnB host called them, ‘The bastard stairs’. The 187 step, steep staircase leading up the cliff from the water certainly gave us a workout!

Tea time in Brighton

Fish and chips with mushy peas next to the peer (yes, I am  choking on a chip but it was the best photo)

Board walk in Peacehaven 

Beautiful weather the first day

Overcast weather the next

Some fountain in Brighton

Lots and Lots of stairs

When we arrived back in London we decided it was time we caught up with some of our many friends who are in London. I caught up with my friend from uni Emily, while Arvi caught up with his old school friend Liesel.  Then we met for a drink with our friend Katie, who has been living in London for years. We were also joined by Tiina, who was on a holiday in London. It was good to see some friendly faces.

Arvi, Leah Katie and Tiina

The next day we decided we needed some culturing so we visited the Museum of Natural History. It was a huge museum in a beautiful building with lots of interesting exhibits but lets be honest, we were only really there to see their awesome dinosaur exhibit! 

Arvi with his closely related Ancestor, the sloth

T-rex

Museum of national history

My amazing impersonation of  a puffer fish

We topped off our stay in London with an amazing night seeing one of our favourite Australian artists, Flume, with Karla and Holly. It was so cool to see him play over the other side of the world but we felt like we were back home with lots of Aussies in the crowd. 

FLUME!

always classy! on our way home from Flume

- Leah