LNDN! Day 7

Hello again!

I spent day 7 doing walk 8 through Notting Hill!

MERIAN LIVE! Spaziergänge London

You start at Notting Hill Gate and then you start off walking through some neighborhood there, and then you basically walk through Portobello Road and its famous Portobello Market!

They sell lots of crafts, hats, and other nice things there!

I basically spent most of my time wandering through shops, stopping at almost every stand and I even found a vintage market further down the road!
..and people really looked vintage there.

Then I found a small stand and a nice cardigan for 5GBP (sorry, I don't know how to do the Pound sign on my mac and I'm to lazy to copy it from wikipedia right now haha..)!
So that's a good deal!

I actually went back right after I saw all of Portobello Market, so I didn't get to see Holland Park (but my boyfriend said it has a nice waterfall there). Oh well, there's always a next time!

Enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for the next walk :)
x J.

neighborhood I walked through...

cute china!

simple pastel colored houses

Noble pastel colored houses

loved the white roses on pink with a green background :)

Vintage Market

LNDN! Day 6

Buenas tardes!

MERIAN LIVE! Spaziergänge London

This is my FAVORITE WALK- walk 9 through Kensington!

You start at Knightsbridge and end at High Street.

Harrods

Getting out of the tube station Knightsbridge, you stand in front of the famous Harrods!

I went inside to see how it is, and it's -obviously- all about designer goods, gourmet food, and everything else that's expensive.

Harvey Nichols, a department store with a similar concept as Harrods'

Then, I went across the street to Topshop (I haven't been there ever since I got to London, so DON'T JUDGE!) and found a sweater that was kind of cute. I was already convinced I would want to buy this sweater, but checked if it would look better in a larger size...
And then I saw, what I was actually looking for: A half-fake-leather-leggings!

Half, because only the front is leather-ish and the back is a normal black leggings!

I put the sweater away, tried on the leggings and fell in love!

On top of that, they had a student discount on everything in Topshop, as long as you have your student ID with you. Luckily I got an international student ID just before I left for London, so I even got a discount! :)

my "new" leggings! (topshop.com)

The Berkeley's

Afterwards I continued the walk, and passed by "The Berkeley's", a hotel where famous people often stay, then a bit through a very noble area, where they had the buildings lined up to look like a crescent!

Cute little spot!

Then I also passed by Lady Diana's favorite Italian restaurant, and several designer boutiques and then I found two things, that I love!

Lady Di's favorite Italian (so it says in my travel guide!)

First: I found a shop -I forgot the name though..- where they sell second hand things from very decent labels, such as Joseph, Max Mara, and several other labels and they give their earnings to charity (I think for cancer, but I am not sure!).

There I found a beautiful dress from the Max Mara Sport Collection which I am wearing on pictures in my Berlin post (the black dress).

What I love about this shop (and there are several other shops like this in London!) is that you find clothes with a very good quality (and name) for a very fair price and you also do something for charity!

After buying this -in my opinion- gorgeous dress I happily continued my walk, which led me to the Brompton Oratory, the second thing I loved so much about this walk!

Brompton Oratory

The Brompton Oratory is a huge church, with a beautiful (and huge!) Virgin Mary statue with a very nice lace gown! The statue is really something special, and I think the only time I saw a Virgin Mary statue with such a beautiful dress was in the Philippines.

The church itself is also very beautiful, and was built like a church in Rome.

Sadly I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I highly recommend everyone to go there!

Exhibition Road

Afterwards I passed by the Victoria&Albert museum and other museums in the Exhibition Road.

I also passed by Imperial College, and I thought student's there must feel very happy and lucky to study there, for the area is soooo nice!! At least I would be happy if I were in their place hahaha

Imperial College

Next, I passed by the Royal Albert Hall, where they had an international ballroom dancing contest that "night" (ok it was maybe 4PM, so not really night..). Everyone there was all dressed-up, and I also wanted to go see the contest!! Oh well...

At this point I'd also like to mention how much I miss ballroom dancing classes! 

Royal Albert Hall

Albert Memorial

Well, then I just continued my walk, and I did not walk back to High Street, but I took a bus to Notting Hill Gate and then took the tube to Mile End and then back home.

So this was walk 6!

I highly recommend this walk, for -as I've mentioned earlier- this was really my favorite walk! 

Got to love Kensington!!

Stay tuned for the next walk,

x. J.

LNDN! DAY 5

It's been a while, for I am currently busy studying (actually that applies to most of the time during the semester..) but here we go, London, Day 5!

On Day 5 I did walk 10 through Chelsea.

MERIAN LIVE! Spaziergänge London

I actually didn't take a lot of pictures, and the reason for that might have been, that I had a huge back ache from walking around the previous days.

I took the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf to Westminster and then either the Circle or District Line to Sloane Square.

When you get out of the tube station, you're on Sloane Square (surprise).

Then you walk down King's Road and you also pass the Duke of York Square which is a nice little square with different shops! Then you pass by Saatchi Gallery and get back on King's Road.

King's Road is a street/road where there's one shop after the other! So another reason why I didn't take a lot of pictures that day might also have been, that I wandered through all of the shops (at least it felt like I did!).

I found a few cute stores we don't have in Germany (for obviously I'm not looking for the Zaras and H&Ms of London..): Jack Willis, Brandy<3Melville, Beauchamp Place (cannot remember anymore what shop this is...).

Jack Willis is a kind of "Abercrombie"-ish store, and they have nice clothes there with a fairly good quality! Also the prices are okay, considering the good quality.

Brandy<3Melville is a nice shop for girls who like crop tops (I felt everything in there was about crop tops!). I think they really only have girls clothes, but going for a cute and girly style. Also a bit "beachy" (haha not meaning bitchy here!)!

And sadly I forgot about Beauchamp Place... Maybe that's also only on my list by mistake.

Bourton's Court

I also went to the gate of Bourton's Court and Ranelagh Gardens (which is funny, because I used to live near the "Jardin de Ranelagh" in Paris), where they set up a place for the English Veterans to live there with their families.

Then you basically go down King's Road, and I saw a nice little boutique with lovely ballerina flats, so I went inside.

They had really nice flats, but I couldn't find the prices, so I just asked the sales lady.

She looked at me and said: "Oh, well, we don't put prices our products, but they range from 65 to about 200£."

HAHA WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? Who do they think they are?

200£ is not what I call cheap, but it is not the most expensive shoe in the world!

Geez, I think I might even have more expensive shoes than that and people weren't pretending to be something special by hiding their prices!

I just laughed, thanked her for the information and left the store.

I'm not going to ask for every single price, or even better: just pull off a "Paris Hilton" and just buy shoes without even knowing the price (well, at least it's max. 200£.. HAHA).

After this ridiculous stunt, I went down to the original shop of Vivienne Westwood, and it's so tiny, that I didn't even realize I already passed by!

I didn't go inside though, because I was pretty tired and -as I've already said- my back ached.

St Luke's church (I went there, but it was nothing special..)

A dentist with a pink door! I would definitely go there!

At some point -after walking down most of King's Road- you walk to the river Thames and then you walk up the Chelsea Embankment. There I also passed by Cheyne Walk, where they said (in my travel guide) that very famous people live there (like some(one?) of the Rolling Stones!).

Short before reaching the Chelsea Physic Garden (a garden of pharmacy students (as far as I remember from my book)) I decided to take the bus back.

Love the architecture in London!!

This walk was fine, but I'd rather recommend it to people who want to go shopping, for the walk itself was not very impressive (from my point of view). 

Stay tuned for the next walk,

x J.

"Ein Prosit der Gemüüütlichkeit!"

I actually wrote this post 3 weeks ago, but forgot to post it ...
So a little late: Here's my short post about the "Uniwiesn"

On Oct 10 we had a kind of Oktoberfest-ish Party for all Freshmen, and everyone else who enjoys a good Party!
So my friend Ronja and I decided to go there really last minute (for the tickets for the party were sold out!), and eventually we met our other friends, who were there with their freshmen group (they were their mentors!).

Here's just to give you a few impressions of what was going on there :)

My Octoberish outfit!

There was also a Photo Booth, and the photos come out with an interesting ad, which we only found out when the picture came out of the machine!

What better way to give an impression than with a video?

x J.

LNDN! Day 4

This was my first day "all by myself".
Domi left for work at 7 AM, which was too early for me to get up, and so I slept until about 10 AM.

Then I got up, made some breakfast and talked with Carlos before preparing myself for my first walk around "town".

I bought the weekly top-up for my Oyster Card, so I was good to go, first on the bus, and then I took the Jubilee Line from Canary Wharf to Waterloo and then the Bakerloo or Northern Line to Charing Cross, where my walk started.

from my travel guide MERIAN LIVE - SPAZIERGÄNGE IN LONDON

The travel guide provides a small map with the directions with each walk, so you always have an overview where you're about to go.

I chose Walk #1 for my first day (actually I wanted to start at the end, but then my inner self was against it, for I normally love when things are done in the right order!).

The topic of this walk was "Monarchy & Power" and it goes through Westminster City.

Very brief description of my walk:

You start off at Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery.

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

Video I took in St Martin's Church

Then you walk down Whitehall, where you have different buildings, such as e.g. the Banqueting Hall, the Horse Guard's (building). You also pass famous Downing Street, but it's all locked up, so there was not much to see. After that, you go to Big Ben, and you can see the London Eye (but you only look at it from afar when standing on Westminster Bridge), the Houses of Parliament.

Horse Guard and random woman

Downing Street 

London Eye + London Aquarium

Then you pass Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church (which is very beautiful!), the Jewel Tower (which is tiny..), Dean's Yard (with the private school... very cute kids there!).
Afterwards, you walk through St James's Park, a beautiful park with lots of squirrels, geese, ducks and they even have pelicans!!
After leaving St James's Park, you see (and go to) Buckingham Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Finally you take The Mall back, seeing Clarence House (where Prince Charles and Camilla live (or used to live?)), the Admiralty Arch, and back to Charing Cross.

St James's Park

Buckingham Palace + Queen Victoria Memorial

Soulja Boyyy.... YOUUUUUU

Westminster Abbey

This was quite a lot to take in on my first day, for I haven't seen ANYTHING of London until that day.

If you only have a very limited time in London, I'd suggest you do this walk, for it covers a lot of the typical sights everyone knows all around the world!
However, if you're not very athletic, then keep in mind, that it takes quite some strength to walk around for 3 hours, so take you're Nike Airmax, or any other comfortable shoes with you, for I only had shoes with me that are too big for my feet (never really noticed it though, but you do, once you're forced to walk around for 3 hours!!).

I had such a huge back pain in the evening, but well... that's what happens when you rarely exercise... ok who am I kidding: NEVER exercise!

In the evening I went to good old Lidl in Limehouse, and for that I took the bus from Mile End.
There must be a huge number of Indian/Pakistani people in that area.. at least that's what I felt! So again: A whole other atmosphere there!

In Lidl I bought some "typical German Egg Spätzle" (this is what was written on the packaging), and those are "noodles" which are often prepared in Southern Germany.

For dinner I made Spätzle, diced chicken breast, cherry tomatoes and champignons in a self-made cream sauce.

Cooking

Not even Instagram could make it look more like it did in reality (it looked delicious!!!) :(

So that's basically it!

The next episode might take a couple of days, however: Stay tuned!!

x J.