The walk down South Bank

I’ve had the busiest week ever. And I loved it.

This week I managed to complete one of my year goals of leaving my city to visit at least 2 other places in England. As you may know, I decided to stay in my city of 8 years for university so unlike others, I didn’t have the chance to live in a fresh new city that you can call another home.

While living in the same city has its good points: saving myself a lot of money with more funds go into my savings, food (and support) from my family; it also has its less good points: same bus, same roads, same short cut down the same park (for over 8+ years!)

Though the familiarity is comforting, I feel like I’ve been missing out on the excitement of a new environment. So on my last week of Easter break, I planned out to go to the big city of London and Birmingham.

Red buses & fancy street corners

Arriving in London a little late than planned was definitely worth it. I love big, busy cities where everyone’s moving quickly to work or wherever they need to be.

I was so excited. I have been to London twice before with family and on a school trip but I felt like we went to just certain areas using the car or tour bus, it was actually quite boring.

There really is something about just walking around soaking in the beautiful buildings and pretending to be a Londoner and not a tourist (you failed there with your camera, Pauline.)

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The first place we reached was Hyde Park, we originally wanted to ride on the Santander bikes but we were carrying luggage (of course, I over packed) so the first priority was to get to the hotel in Archway.

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“Hmm, where are we? I wonder where the nearest underground is.” “Oh! Oh! We’re in Hyde Park” “Yes, Pauline. No shit.”
Premier Inn Hotel
Premier Inn Hotel, Archway.

The underground

Okay, I have to admit. When I first went underground to ride the tube, I was just thinking throughout: Get me out of here, get me out of here, get me out of hereeee. 

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But once I adapted to the: stand right on the escalator, the central line is red, arrows usually tell you where to go (face palm), cluster of people on a popular line then it wasn’t so bad. In fact, by the end of the day, going underground was probably one of the highlights of my trip.

I felt like a proper Londoner, even walking faster than usual – I’m known for walking at a snail’s pace usually (this is why I always have to be early to places) Next thing to master: the accent. Result: No.

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Lost

It’s not a break away unless you get completely lost. But I saw awesome sky scrappers, so it was worth it.

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South Bank

As we were only in London for two days, we planned a walk down South Bank to ensure we saw all the famous landmarks of London.

Starting at Tower Bridge and finishing off at Big Ben, I fell in love with the city again and again – literally falling head over heels for it as I almost tripped several times down stairs and flat pavements.

We also saw the sun set and lights turn on, it was really really beautiful.

Blue skies, Tower Bridge

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View from London Bridge

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Darker skies, towards Big Ben
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The struggle of deciding where to eat

Passing various restaurants that are familiar to me as they are in my hometown, I ventured off to try and find a different place to have dinner.

We were going to have dinner on a boat restaurant googled from earlier but unfortunately, we couldn’t find it and I was exhausted from all the walking. In the end, we went back and ate at the hotel’s restaurant — closer to bed, not-so-bad food and did I say it’s a lot closer to bed?

Next time, I will find you, restaurant-on-a-boat.

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A day in London — overall thoughts

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“Have you taken the picture yet?”
  • The underground is awesome
  • London is awesome
  • I want to live here, can I live here?

Next post will be on my second day!

18 responses to “The walk down South Bank”

  1. Girl this post is awesome ! I a so glad that you had good time. The food looks yummy… I yeah eating food where is always a big question for me 🙂 x
    http://www.ambiinwonderland.com

  2. Congratulations on knocking off one of your goals! Going out to new places is great, but staying at the same one isn’t bad either. Sometimes, you discover new things you didn’t know about before :).

    London looks amazing! I like how there are some historic buildings that are well kept, while having modernized ones up. Glad to hear that you enjoyed your time there! It’s awesome to see the underground tunnels built. If only we have them here XD.

  3. Sounds like a fun trip! All those pictures are lovely!

    I probably wouldn’t of ventured to go anywhere else honestly. XD I like familiar things!

  4. That is so awesome that you had the trip and got to see so many great places. Sounds like it was really worth it and the pictures are beautiful. 😀

  5. This looks so great! I feel the exact same way when I go to Melbourne. Even though I’ve been a few times I still find amazing new things! It’s such a beautiful city.

    In my mind London has a bunch of old Victorian style buildings but your photos show a very different perspective and that it is actually quite modern. There’s so many glass windows!

  6. Oh, wow! Love your photos, girl! Makes me really want to visit England . . . heck, makes me want to visit Great Britain, period! Ooooh, the double-decker buses and the Tube!!! Ahhhh! I want to go!

    Like you, I chose to not go away for uni, so I stayed in Seoul. However, like you again, I’m trying to explore and visit more of the places outside of Seoul while I can . . . but I’m not doing so well on that like you seem to be! 😀 I really should make a trip to Busan one day . . .

    Thanks for sharing your trip, and kudos to you for checking out new places! ^^

  7. Beautiful photos! I kind of wish in my city there was more to see, but alas, it’s no where near as big as London, I’m telling you. Those older cities always have the richest stories, for good or bad.

    Glad you got to explore so much of it! You’re very beautiful and so is that sky you took pictures of.

  8. Wow. Sounds like your having a good time in London. I hope to visit there one day. It look so beautiful according to your photos. We have those double deck buses here. I felt like they copy cat London. Nothing compare to London.

  9. Ah how fun! London is definitely on my list of cities to visit. My knowledge of London is only from books and movies though. But I’m sure I’ll love it!

    And congrats on accomplishing one of your goals. I have such a long list of places to visit…time to starting working through the list!

  10. Looks like you had a lot of fun – really lovely photos! Ahaha I’m always in such a rush when I’m in the underground but do often notice a few confused faces, it’s as though I forget not everywhere in England has an underground that as huge as in Central London.

    Can’t wait to see your video!!

  11. It’s amazing that you set yourself a goal to go outside of the hometown to see the country. My goals this year is to go outside of London to other cities. I’ve not been to many other towns or cities in the UK.

    Holding a camera totally isn’t tourist. You can always pretend you’re a local photographer, bloggers or journalist thats doing a piece 😉

    Next time you’re in London and you’re looking for somewhere to eat, please let me know. I can
    definitely recommend you a few places that you can try out 🙂

  12. MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE I’M A LONDONER, THAT I LOVE LONDON TOWNNNNN~

    Huhuhuhuhu, that first picture is near Marble Arch, right? AMIRITE. I’m pretty certain. Lol. Calm down, Chynna.

    Let me tell you something about the tube. Don’t ever stand on the left because then you will get disgruntled Londoners huffing and puffing behind you. Don’t master a London accent. I sound like a right tool. Hahahaha. Oh, hello – that looks like it’s near Warren Street Station, but I could be wrong.

    Love all your pictures. Making London look hella fine 😀

    Duuuude~ I’m looking forward to your video. I’m reading this post and feeling hella proud! I can’t wait until you come back and we get to meet up 😀

  13. I’ve always wanted to visit London and your photos further convince me!

  14. Awesome! I’m sure you had such a great time since you now want to live there. Lol. Hope to see London someday!

    http://www.jeannechristinemarie.blogspot.com
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  15. I love London! I’ve been on a few holidays there, and it just has so much more than everywhere else in the UK. I live in Leeds, which is quite a big city in itself, but it’s nowhere near as big as London. I’m always amazed by the amount of things to do there. I love it.

    I got lost the last time I went to London. I was trying to find a Wetherspoons for some cheap food, but the map on my phone just didn’t help at all. London’s so big that everything that looks close on a map actually isn’t close at all. I’ve had a lot of long walks between different areas that I thought were really close.

    Some great photo taking skills there! The food looks particularly amazing.

    Can’t wait to hear about your second day!

  16. Did you go on the London Eye though?! ? I am making that a must for my trip – I am obsessed with ferris wheels and I know London Eye is pretty big. It looks so pretty at night.

    I don’t think I have mentioned this to you before, but I feel such a connection with London. I know I haven’t been there before but so many of my interests tie in with it, I’ve been told I have an English accent at times, and I drink tea all day o_O;; I feel like I will fall in love with it like you did. (I also like cold weather LOL)

  17. I love London. I hadn’t been there much when I was younger but seem to have gone every year now since 2009 in some way, whether that be comic con, sightseeing or to the theatre.

    There’s so much to explore and so much I haven’t seen or done yet.

    I’d definitely love to live there in future, even for a short period.

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