The friends you haven't seen for over 6months, yet nothing has changed when you meet up, are the once you need to cherish.

Hallooooo!!

I know I know, this post is live incredibly late. Before I knew it the weekend has come and gone and I didn't have the time to write anything!

The reason why will be clear in the next post ;)

So, weekend of bank holiday and I had a visitor from Belgium! My dear friend Amal (who also has a blog: Hello it's Amal. She mainly writes about her interest in fashion, beauty and lifestyle. Check it out if that is your cup of tea ;)) whom you might remember from a previous blog post: Local tourists: Madame Tussauds, Abbey Road, London Eye,... :D Since we keep missing each other every time I'm in Belgium, she decided to come to London to finally catch up. It was about 6months since we last saw each other so we had a lot to catch up on x)

Saturday afternoon around 2 I met her at the exit of the Eurostar in London St Pancras. We had a little bit to eat at the Costa across the exit and started our weekend of talking. Before we knew it we sat at the Costa for over an hour :o Time to get moving! First stop: Leicester square. Yes, we had a schedule. We wanted to see a musical, so what better place to go to one of the boots on Leicester square? Next stop: Covent Garden.

At Covent Garden we wanted to see the Colourful Street. It's a tiny tiny street, alley really, between the large buildings in London. It really looked cosy, but very busy as well, so we walked through quickly. At least now I know where it is and I'll definitely go back. We also made a stop in Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue. A proper geek shop with all things memorabilia, clothing, books, comic book, collectables, bags, etc covering Star Wars, Marvel, dr Who, Harry Potter, GoT, the Walking Dead, etc etc. Right up my alley ^^ At Covent Garden we had a look at the art installation as well, of course.

After that we walked towards Piccadilly, as Amal wanted to go to a Boots and the one on Piccadilly Circus is absolutely massive. From there we walked towards Debenhams on Oxford street, passing Kingly Court, Carnaby Street and Liberty on our way there. After we did our shopping, it was nearly 8pm already! Time to eat. A hamburger at Byron's on Regent Street it was :)

Back home, we decided to watch the first episode of Outlander season 1. Amal wasn't familiar with the series, but she really enjoyed Reign (new to me!) which is about Mary, Queen of Scots, and she'd like to go to Scotland one day. So all that indicates she quite likes Scotland, so hey! Watch Outlander! :) Of course we ended up talking for a very long time, so by the time we actually came around watching the episode it was passed 11.30pm already. Whoops...

Sunday morning started bright and early as we wanted to do as much as possible during the day. It took us by surprise when we arrived at London Bridge 10min after we stepped on the bus at the bus stop at the end of my street. 10 MINUTES. Granted, it was Sunday morning before 9am, but 10 MINUTES!! That's all it took to get from home to London Bridge.

We wanted to buy some Krispy Kreme donuts at the little shop in the station, but it didn't open until 10am :( Not to worry, Breakfast Club it was ;) As we were so early, there was no queue. Delicious toast with poached egg and avocado. Yummmm. By the time we walked back out people were lining up all the way to nearly the corner of the street!oO Tip: go before 9am!!

As we were near Borough Market (FYI the market is closed on Sunday!), I took the chance to have a look at Bridget Jones's front door. I've passed that front door so often now, but on a 10m distance and I never realised it was the front door. So last Sunday, I grabbed the opportunity to finally snap a picture.

I know, I need to cut my fringe...

From London Bridge we walked up to Spitalfield Market, passing Monument and Leadenhall Market. I wanted to have a look at the little stall with all the books to see if there was anything interesting, but the stall was gone! In fact, all the usual stalls were gone! Instead all sorts of food stalls had popped up. I figured it was some sort of food festival. At least that is was hope it was! So our visit to Spitalfield market was short and from Liverpool Street we took the underground to Holborn to go to the British museum. Another place I've never been before...

Like all free musea in London, it was massive. I really like the fact that most musea are free in London. It's really encouraging to actually set foot inside. But like most huge musea, like Natural History museum, Science museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, etc. there is just too much and you have to make choices of which parts you want to see and we only had about an hour and half! By 2pm we had to be at Lyceum Theatre because we were going to see the musical the Lion King!!!

Photo by Amal

Honestly, amazing musical! I'd definitely recommend it if anyone would like to see a musical in London West End. Wicked is another one :) After the musical, which ended around 5pm, we were a bit emotionally drained... And I was starving. But it was still too early to have dinner and we needed a little break after that musical. So we headed to Green Park, bought ourselves a little snack and a drink and sat on the grass to enjoy the lovely weather. It was so nice :)

From Green Park we walked to Buckingham Palace were we sat on the steps of Queen Victoria's statue. We basically moved our asses from the grass in Green Park to the steps in front of Buckingham Palace, talking the entire time. We also did some people watching and analysing a random group's dynamic x) Really fun. From Buckingham Palace we walked along The Mall towards Trafalgar Square to see St James' palace where king Henry VIII has lived (and many other kings and queens). Not before snapping the below images...

"Please keep off the grass" .... People....

We then walked through St James' park and saw the cutest squirrels ^^

Amal wanted a picture with a red telephone box and she's right. I mean, last time she came to visit she didn't take one and you can't leave London without a picture with a telephone box!! So I suggested to go to Big Ben as you have a lot of telephone boxes in that area and bonus, you can have the Big Ben in the background. I managed to snap a few of her, but unfortuntely some really silly tourist couldn't wait her turn and basically drove us away. Ugh -.-

Then the dilemma of 'where to eat' rose. It was passed 7.30pm and I really really don't like to eat late so I wanted to find something to eat, and soon. Eventually we settled for Bella Italia near Leicester Square. At first I was very hesitant. Usually there are people standing on the street, trying to lure you in their restaurants. Something I'm firmly against. Luckily Bella Italia didn't have an employee trying to get you in their restaurant, so I didn't object. The food was really good by the way :)

Around 10pm we were home and we decided to watch the first episode of season 1 of Reign! I introduced Amal to Outlander and she introduced me to Reign. I'm currently on episode 6 and I really enjoy it :) It is loosely based on history and in my opinion more aimed at a young adult audience rather than an Outlander target audience, which is just full on for adults. Here's a trailer of the first episode of Reign.

I'm absolutely loving the costumes ^^

Monday morning Amal's train left at 11am, so she needed to check in around 10am, but we were at King's Cross at 9am so we waited in line at Platform 9 3/4 for Amal to have her picture taken ^^ Potterheads rule the world! :D

Here's a little maps to show where in London we've been x)

Wednesday after work, a colleague and I bought a bottle of wine and some crisps and we went to Regent's Park to enjoy the setting sun. It was a horrendous day at the office so that 2 hour chat in the sun was most welcome :)

And Friday after work I took the train from St Pancras to Ashford International to meet up with my parents! But that is for next week ;)

If you made it this far: congratulations and thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Wednesday