Eurotrip Part Two: Bath, Cardiff, and Weston-Super-Mare

If you read my previous post, you will know that I recently took an amazing trip to England and France! This is part two of my recent adventures in Europe!

After an awesome time in London, I was off to Bath with my sister Lexi. She is spending a semester abroad in Bath now, and I was excited to see the city she's living in and what her experience is like! Although I had been to London before this trip, this was my first time in Bath, and I ended up loving it even more than I thought I would! The city is on the smaller side, but still has so much going on there. There are a ton of great shops and restaurants, lots of history, beautiful scenery, and the people there were all so friendly!

Lexi and I got to Bath from London a little after midnight, so we just went straight to her house and went to bed. Then the next day, while she was in class, I met up with my friend Ben who lives near Bath! It was great hanging out with him again because the last time I had seen him was almost two years ago when we studied abroad together. On my first full day in Bath, we actually ended up heading to a completely different city—Cardiff! 

Cardiff is a city in Wales and is not too far from Bath by train. Cardiff had a totally different feel to it than Bath and London, but still felt very distinctly British! The first thing we saw was the Cardiff castle. We didn't tour it, because it was very overpriced, but even from where we could see it, it looked really cool! That's one of the many things I love about Europe—there are so many castles! After that, we got some lunch, walked through the city centre, walked down to the water, and walked though the National Assembly for Wales, which is where the Welsh government operates. Cardiff was so pretty and exactly the way I pictured a coastal Welsh city! And then on the way back to Bath, we had an amazing view of the Welsh countryside!

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff city centre

the Welsh seaside

When we got back to Bath, we met up with Lexi for some dinner. We found a Thai place that had such amazing food! I swear, out of everywhere I've ever been, England has some of the best Asian food, second only to Seattle. I got pad thai, which was sooo good! After dinner, we all walked around Bath for a bit, and then Lexi and I headed back to her house, and Ben headed to the hostel where he was staying for the night, because the next day, he and I were taking another day trip...this time to the English seaside!

The next morning, we hopped on a train and headed to a town called Weston-Super-Mare. I had never heard of it until Ben suggested going there, but I am so glad we went! It was a beautiful and relaxing town, and the weather was completely perfect on the day we went. For most of the day, we just walked all along the seafront. We saw the beaches, a big ferris wheel, and the pier. Apparently, the original pier in Weston-Super-Mare burnt down, and this one was built only a few years ago. At the end of the pier, there was food and lots and lots of arcade games! Seeing as we were at the sea, I felt it was fitting to order some fish and chips. And like all the other fish and chips I've had in England, it was delicious and so big! After lunch, we played a few of the arcade games. And I must say, I did pretty awesome at Guitar Hero :) We walked around some more that afternoon and just enjoyed being in the sun and then headed back to Bath that night.

view from the top floor of the pier

The views of the English countryside were so pretty from the train!

Ben took a train home to Wiltshire then, and Lexi and I tried something that I have always wanted to experience... a conveyor belt sushi restaurant! We sat right at the counter and watched all the sushi and food going by us. The sushi was pretty cheap, but I could see how someone could really overdo it, because it was so tempting to just take everything that went by! I got a couple different sushi rolls, a piece of sashimi, and some terriyaki chicken that Lexi and I shared. It was so amazing and such a cool experience, and I really want to experience another conveyor belt sushi restaurant soon!

The next day, I was in need of a more chill day after all the sightseeing I had done during the trip. So I decided to check out some of the British stores that we don't have in the US. First, I went to one of my favourites, Primark. If you don't know Primark, it is really similar to Forever 21, but even less expensive! And apparently, Primark is expanding to the US in 2016, and the first store they're opening is going to be a huge one in Boston! I ended up getting some great things from Primark during the trip. I also went to Superdrug to see the British makeup, Next, and New Look which I really loved.

And then after some shopping, it was time to head to the bus station to meet up with my parents who arrived that day! I was really excited for them to experience England and France, because before this trip, neither of them has ever been outside North America. They loved all the cities we went to, Bath especially! After dropping their suitcases off at the hotel, we went to Lexi's school to meet her when she got out of class, and we even got to see inside the school a little bit. It was totally different from the university I studied at in Lyon where most of the classes were lecture-style, because this had just one small classroom and each class only had about 10 people in it. It's really cool how personal it is, but I don't think I would have liked a class like that, because I always liked being more anonymous in classroom settings haha :) After walking around for a little while and introducing my parents to England, the four of us went to a pub for dinner and a pint. Lexi and I both got a shepherd's pie which was the perfect comfort food! Then I headed back to the hotel with my mom to get to bed early, because I was so exhausted, and my dad and Lexi spent the night hitting a few different pubs.

The next day was our last full day in Bath, and my parents and I really took advantage of that to see all the main sights. Ben came back to Bath that day and played tour guide for us, and Lexi joined too after she was out of class. We saw the Pulteney Bridge, which was in the movie version of Les Misérables, the River Avon, the Holburne Museum, Bath Abbey, the Circus, and the Royal Crescent. All of the architecture we saw was so pretty and it was so fun walking around and soaking it all in!

the Pulteney Bridge

my dad and Ben bonding outside the Holburne Museum

really pretty view from the Holburne Museum

the Pulteney Bridge

my mom and dad posing by the River Avon

Bath Abbey

the inside of Bath Abbey

the Circus

the Royal Crescent

That night, my parents, Lexi, and I did something that had been recommended to us by Ben and a couple of other people: the Bizarre Bath comedy walk. I absolutely loved this and would completely recommend it to anyone who goes to Bath! It starts off right in the centre of Bath, and it is very similar to a walking tour, hitting all the main tourist attractions in the city. But instead of just giving you facts and history, the guy leading the walk puts a funny spin on all the different aspects of Bath! There were too many funny things to even mention, but if you go to Bath, you need to do this comedy walk. I'm curious if that company does tours in other cities too, because I really want to go to another!

the Pulteney Bridge all lit up at night

And then it was our last day in Bath before heading to London. We had originally planned to take a mid-day bus, but after we were having such a great time in Bath, we decided to stay longer and take a late-afternoon bus to London instead. We walked around some more and met up with Lexi for another Full English Breakfast. This one was good, but it couldn't top that delicious one Lexi and I had in London! We went back to Bath Abbey, saw some street performers, and did a little more shopping before we headed to the station to catch our bus to London. I had such a great time in Bath, Cardiff, and Weston-Super-Mare spending more time with both Lexi and Ben, and I really hope to go back someday!

Full English Breakfast

the Royal Crescent

Eurotrip Part One: London

I recently took a trip to England and France and had such an amazing experience! I started off in London visiting my friend Ciela and spending the weekend with my sister Lexi. Then I headed to Bath with Lexi where she is studying abroad, and took day trips to Cardiff and Weston-Super-Mare with my friend Ben. Then my parents came to Bath and we all travelled to London together. And then finally I went to Paris with my parents before heading back to London to catch my flight to New York! It was definitely a whirlwind, but it was so great! I was so happy to be back in Europe, and now after spending more time in London, I am even more confident that it's the city where I want to live someday :)

My trip lasted almost three weeks, so I am going to break up my blog posts into several parts so it's not too ridiculously long. And I will start off with the first city I was in: London!

Me saying bye to Chloe since it was the last time I'll see her until Thanksgiving.
Based on her facial expression, she was obviously very upset that I was leaving.
Aw I miss my little puppy, but it's only a couple more weeks until Thanksgiving now :)

And I'm off to the airport, suitcase in hand!

Before I get into telling you about my time in London, I want to mention my flight because it was awesome! I flew on Virgin Atlantic, and it was by far the best airline I have been on before. As soon as I walked onto the plane, it just felt so cool because the lighting inside was all purple and all of the flight attendants were so friendly! And the food was great, the movie selection was amazing, and even the safety video was fun! From now on, I'm going to fly on Virgin Airlines as often as possible :)

My flight to London was a red-eye, so I arrived around 10am, completely jet-lagged and exhausted. I took the tube from Heathrow and met my friend Ciela at her work near Marble Arch where we were reunited! I hadn't seen her since June when she visited the US, so it was so great seeing her again! After meeting up with her, she went back to work, and I headed to her flat for a much needed nap!

Later on, Ciela and I met up again for a very exciting start to the trip. Her co-worker had VIP tickets to the Chelsea football match and invited us to go! We got a free three-course meal with unlimited beer and wine, and then we had box seats for the match. The food was amazing, and the match was so much fun! I will admit I started to fall asleep a couple of times because I was so exhausted and jet-lagged, but I still had a great time, and Chelsea won!

selfie with Ciela before the match

The next day, Ciela had to work again, but I had a fun day exploring. She lives right next to Hyde Park, so I spent my day walking all over the park, which was so nice and relaxing! My favourite part of the park was Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace which were both so pretty!

At one point, there was a swarm of hundreds of pigeons, swans, and geese.
I'm afraid of all three, so I was feeling pretty anxious! There were some people
that were actually trying to pet and feed them though. Those people are crazy!

the Princess Diana Memorial

the Prince Albert Memorial

Kensington Palace, followed by the beautiful Kensington Gardens

After a day of exploring the park, I met up with Ciela when she got out of work, and we went for a classic English experience: afternoon tea! We went for tea at the Royal Horseguards Hotel right in central London, which was such a beautiful hotel! Ciela used to work there, and her friend was there to greet us with champagne when we arrived! For tea, I got chai, and we got lots of amazing sandwiches and desserts to go with our tea, and scones at the end of the meal. It was really fun, and I'm so happy I got to experience an authentic London afternoon tea!

a scenic ride to our afternoon tea sitting in the front of the double decker bus

 Then that night, we decided to go out! Ciela knows a club promotor who got us into the opening of a new club in central London. The club ended up being kind of boring, but there was amazing free food there! We were brought sushi and dumplings which tasted so amazing! After that club, we headed to one of Ciela's favourites: Maddox. We met another promotor there where we got some free drinks and had a really fun night hanging out and talking to a bunch of new people!

sushi, sashimi, and cocktails... YUM!

And then it was Friday, and Ciela was heading home to Holland for the weekend. (I was originally supposed to arrive in London a week later, but after I was offered the position at L'Oréal, I had to change my flights and come earlier, and unfortunately Ciela had already booked her flights home for her mom's birthday.) But on the bright side, Lexi was coming to London that day with her study abroad program, and she decided to stay in London with me for the weekend! Lexi's program went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre until about 4pm, so before meeting up with Lexi, I explored some more of London!

I started off by taking the tube to the Financial District (I just gotta say, I spotted some major hotties walking around that area haha ;) I literally spotted about 50 contenders to be my future husband haha). Along with all the eye candy, I saw the Gherkin and then made my way to the Thames. I walked all along the river all the way down to the Tower of London and walked over the Tower Bridge. Then I walked along the South Bank, seeing the HMS Belfast, City Hall, the Shard, Borough Market, the Millennium Bridge, and then finally the Globe Theatre. I met up with Lexi after her show got out, and then the sister weekend had begun!

the Tower of London. All the red poppies are a tribute to World War I since it started
exactly 100 years ago. The memorial surrounded the Tower and looked really incredible.

the Tower Bridge

the Financial District including the Walkie Talkie and the Gherkin

the Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

reunited with Lexi!

 After dropping off Lexi's suitcase at Ciela's, we headed out for dinner. We went to a UK chain called Wagamama that does Asian fusion, and it was delicious! I had heard great things about Wagamama before and it definitely lived up to my expectations! I got a chicken and shrimp teppanyaki, Lexi got some ramen with lots of good stuff in it, and we got some chicken dumplings to split. Just writing this is making me crave Wagamama so much, and I really wish we had it in the US!

Wagamama dinner... so delicious!!

 Then we were craving some cocktails, so we decided to go to an amazing place called Giraffe that I had been to the first time I was in London. Giraffe is a chain, so I'm sure there are locations all over the city, but we decided to head to the one I had been to before in Belgravia, and walking from Marble Arch, it ended up being a lot further than we had thought! But at least we got a nice little tour of the city along the way :) We walked down Oxford Street, through Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square where there was a Malaysian festival going on, then we saw the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and then finally, after about 3 hours of walking, we finally found Giraffe! I got two amarettini cocktails, which were just as delicious as I remembered them!

Piccadilly Circus

Three London icons in one shot: Big Ben, the London Eye, and a red double decker bus

Big Ben

our cocktails from Giraffe! They make the best cocktails ever

 After getting our cocktails, we made the wise decision to take the tube home. But, while we were on the tube, I started feeling really sick and almost fainted! Luckily when I started feeling really bad, we were just getting to Ciela's stop, so we sat down for a few minutes, and I realised that I must have been really dehydrated. I usually drink a ton of water, but I guess I forgot to drink enough that day because I was so excited about being in London. Then on top of that, I walked for hours earlier in the day and then hours with Lexi at night, and I had a couple of cocktails. So after that, I made sure to drink a ton of water throughout the rest of the trip!

The next day, Lexi and I decided to check out an area of London that neither of us has been to before: the trendy area of East London called Shoreditch! Shoreditch kind of has a reputation of being really hipster, like the way Williamsburg is in New York. It was so cool! There was a ton of awesome graffiti all over Shoreditch and we came across a few vintage markets that had some really cool things.

After exploring for a while, we headed to King's Cross Station to see the sight that was probably at the top of both of our London bucket lists: Platform 9 and 3/4! We are both huge Harry Potter fans, so we absolutely loved seeing this! We got our pictures taken "running into the platform", Lexi as a Gryffindor and me as a Ravenclaw. It was so awesome :)

Hogwarts, here I come!

 After going to Hogwarts, we walked through Covent Garden where there was lots of good food and street performers, and then we went back to Ciela's to rest a little bit. Our feet were killing us from all the walking, and I was especially exhausted after three days in a row of constant walking. After sitting in bed, planning out where we wanted to get breakfast the next morning, and massaging our feet a little bit (TMI?), we went over to Paddington nearby to meet up with Lexi's friend for a drink. Two of Lexi's housemates in Bath were also in London for the weekend, and we went out to a pub with her friend Abby. We all got ciders and just had a nice chill night. That was fun because pub culture was an aspect of the UK that I hadn't really experienced yet!

Cheers!

 The next morning, we went out for something we had both been wanting to try: a traditional Full English Breakfast! We found a restaurant near Ciela's in an area called St Christopher's Place that ended up having amazing breakfast! Our Full English Breakfasts came with eggs, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, beans, toast, and tomatoes (which neither of us likes, but they looked good for tomatoes)! The breakfasts were so delicious, and even after having a few more Full English Breakfasts throughout the rest of the trip, I think this one was the best one I've had!

 That night, we had a bus booked to Bath, and before that we decided to go back to Hyde Park. Lexi had never seen it, and I loved it before, so I was happy to go back! We saw Speaker's Corner, where there were a bunch of guys preaching about Jesus, haha. The park was pretty full compared to when I had gone a few days before, but it was still nice and relaxing. After walking through the park, we walked through Kensington a little bit before getting dinner and heading to the bus.

I am going to live in a house like this someday

Before heading to the bus to Bath, of course we had to get some London phone box pictures!

For dinner, we went to an Asian restaurant called Inamo that was probably the coolest place I've ever gone for food. The table was completely interactive. You could look through the menu, including pictures of all the food, and then place your order all through a big touch screen on the table. There were also games you could play against someone else at the table, see a chef's cam in the kitchen, shop, order a cab, and so many other things. The food was delicious too! I unfortunately didn't get any pictures, partially because I was distracted by how awesome the restaurant was, partially because I was completely exhausted, but trust me that it was the coolest place ever :) 

I had an amazing first leg of my trip in London! Check out the next post to hear about what I got up to during my time in Bath!

Exciting Announcement!

Recently, I took a trip to New York City where I was invited for an interview at a really exciting company. While I was there, I realised that I absolutely loved both the company and the city. I could completely picture myself working there and living in New York.

And then, less than a week later, I was contacted by HR... and I was offered the position that I had interviewed for! I was completely ecstatic because out of all the companies and positions I had been looking into, this was by far my number one. After returning to New York another time, I could also confirm that I really love the city and would love to live there. I had been starting to feel pretty discouraged and was definitely experiencing some post-grad depression earlier in the summer, but now I am finally starting to get an idea of what my future may look like, which is an amazing feeling!

I won't mention the name of the company quite yet, but I am so excited to announce that I will be working with the Customer Marketing team at a major company in the beauty industry! Anyone who knows me will know how passionate I am about beauty and makeup, so I can't think of a more perfect company for me! I will be starting on October 13th, so I'm currently working on figuring out where I will live when I make the big move to New York City. 

I can promise lots of exciting posts in the near future. First off, I am going to Europe for two and a half weeks starting on September 23rd. I will be visiting friends in England for a week, then my parents will come and we are going to visit my sister in Bath, then travel to London, Paris, and Lyon. And then on October 11th, I fly into New York and start working two days later! It will be a whirlwind for sure, but I am extremely excited for what the next few months will hold!