LIFESTYLE

Hello London | Second week in London

Hello Lovely Readers, it has been already the second week in London.  So far, so good… Finally, the unpacking and settling in is done. So let see where London has taken us last week and this last sunny weekend. Very happy with the extra vitamin D last weekend!

So without further a due these are the things you must-see while visiting London.

These are the places we explored last week;

This place is near Leicester square, just behind the big M&M store. Chinatown always feels a bit like home, because in these Chinese supermarket you can find anything for the Asian cuisine. From simple noodles to divers Asian spices, herbs, fruit and vegetables. There are also a lot of Chinese restaurants, bar, cafés, entertainment and health and beauty related stores. Just check the website what you can find, eat or see in Chinatown.

 

I saw a busy line in front of this store. I finally realized that this was something I wanted to try because of the delicious pictures I saw before on Instagram. So still a must-see for me. Just check the website or their Instagram then you will understand what I am saying.

No words needed if you like to cook Asian cuisine at home. They have EVERYTHING!

 

Small nice sushi place where you sit around a conveyer belt and pick up the sushi you like. It is not a real Japanese restaurant, but the sushi was delicious and the Asahi beer was fine. Basic settings, but also intimate because you will sit quite close to each other with not a lot of table space.

Friday nights are always busy in the city, so it’s a nice thing to walk around this area or get a beer / cocktail in a bar or club. Some places we have been are;

  • Freedom bar 60-66 Wardour St, Soho, London W1F 0TA
  • Soho Zebrano bar18 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4DS
  • JAMON JAMON Soho 3 Caxton Walk, London WC2H 8PW
  • Really delicious tapas and great red house wine. Great location and nice place to sit outside.

This weekend we were lucky with the weather, so we went to wander around Little Venice for a nice walk near the canal.

On Sunday we went to Brick lane to go to the vintage market. (Finally!) Definitely a recommendation. The market is super vibrant, just like this whole area. A lot of restyled vintage clothing, designer brands and if you got time, go to the black and white picture booth in this market.

Next to this you have a sort of cultural food market with food / snacks from around the world. We went for the Sicilian Arancini… not the best, but it was quiet nice.

From this we walked around to see different markets in the neighbourhood and enjoyed the sunny weather here in London.

So if you are in London, I got more options for you to explore in this wonderful city.

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | First week in London

Hello Lovely Readers, I apologise, it’s has been a while since my latest blog due to moving abroad. I didn’t had time to blog, because moving by itself it’s already a lot of work. But we did it! I finally moved from lovely Rotterdam to Amazing London. YEAH!

This has given me a new idea for content to make for you guys. A series of blogs about living in London, called “Hello London”.  Not sure yet what it will contain, but probable about my experiences in this city and all the fun stuff I discover so far.

It is my first week since the moving, so this week I had to unpack a lot of stuff (also threw away a lot again). So this blog will be about the things we did with friends in London so far, because before I moved here, I had been travelling a lot back and forth to this city to see my boyfriend.

So without further a due these are the things you must visit while in London.

An area I enjoyed a lot is Shoreditch. There are lots of bar, restaurants, pubs and many more to visit in this district. I also have been visiting a gallery. We went to Brick lane and walked around the canals from Camden Town to St. Pancras and further.

These are the places we went and I also remember;

A bar, cafe and exhibition space in East London’s Shoreditch. Very nice to have drinks here, a bit crowded. 

  • The waiting room  175 Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, London N16 0LH

It’s a little venue / club downstairs. We went to Gatto Frito and I have to say the atmosphere and music were really nice that day. Check the link for upcoming events if you to party and more relaxed party’s.

  • Hanoi Café 98 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8DP, Shoreditch

This Vietnamese café serves home-style / street food inspired Vietnamese food. Everything looked delicious, but one of my favourite Vietnamese food is the spring roll. YUMMIE. You should definitely try this one.

  • Saatchi Gallery Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 4RY

It’s a gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public.  I liked the exhibition “From selfie to self-expression” because it’s a part of our society now. It’s funny to see how everyone is using their mobile phone as an art medium to express their self’s. Check the link to website to see if you still can see this exhibition.

It’s a place to go for breakfast, lunch and dinner It’s also nice just to have a drink here. Here you can see the spectacular fountains (I saw these fountains also in the latest movie of Bridget Jones). Nice area to relax or just for a nice walk.

It’s a huge vintage clothing market that I still need to visit. (But I already wanted to insert it in this list, so I won’t forget to visit this market)

A really vibrant area, with lots of street art, vintage shops and delicious food.  There is a Turkish shop somewhere around (sorry but don’t remember the name) where you can find lots of Turkish delicious food. I had the mimosa lamb and it was amazing.

Another nice thing we ate was a salty beef Beigel with mustard and pickles. I would definitely recommend this one.

  • Design museum 224-238 Kensington High St, Kensington, London W8 6AG

It’s a museum for contemporary design in every form. Check the current exhibitions in the link.  I went to a past exhibition which I liked. I liked that it was so divers. You had to see for yourself.

  • Regents Canal Walk: Regents Park to Kings Cross

Nice walk near the canal.

Wow… It’s a long list but all places I would visit again… So I would say if you’re around London and want to see more than just the highlights of London… pick one from the list and start from there.

See you soon with more things to explore in this amazing city.

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

LIFESTYLE

Hello London | Favourite museums in London | 2016

Last year I have been travelling a lot to London. The nicest thing in London is there are lots of museums that are admission free. YEAH! That means a lot of visiting different museums for me, because I love art, culture, history and learning new things.

My top 3 museums in London so far are the National Gallery, the British museum and the Natural History museum.

I will start with my favourite one; the National Gallery.

The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square. If you like art like me, you probably will like this museum. There are over more than 2,300 painting dating from mid- 13th century till the 1900.  Renaissance art is for me the main reason I like this museum. Especially the Caravaggio paintings. Last year there was an Caravaggio exhibition held from 12 October 2016 to 15 January 2017 which I attend to.

 

The next museum I love going to is the British Museum.

The British Museum is located on Great Russell Street.  In this collection you can find human history, art and culture. In the collection are items of Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, the middle East, Prints and Drawings, Prehistory and Europe, Asia,  Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Coins and Medals, Conservation and Scientific Research  and Libraries and Archives.  Usually if I go to this museum, I will go just to one department at the time. My favourite departments are the Ancient Egypt and the Rome and Greece departments. This museum is huge so there are always new things to discover in here.  My latest discovery is the Rosetta stone.

 

Last but not least is the Natural History Museum.

 

In this museum you can find life and earth science specimens within 5 main collections; botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology.

This museum is located on the Cromwell Road. You can learn a lot about different specimens. I love the mineralogy collection they have and this is the first museum for me where I saw Dinosaurs. There is a room where you can see animals in real size. Amazing how huge a whale is in comparison to an elephant.

Probably I am going to see more museums in and around London in 2017, so if anyone has a tip which museum is also very nice to visit, please let me know.

For now go explore the London museums when you are in town 😉

Till next time

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja

TRAVEL

Hello Glasgow | Edinburgh

Finally another travel blog from me. Hopefully this year I can travel as much as last year and so far so good. I really like travelling to different places on my birthday, since I barely celebrate my birthday. I think making memories on those days are far more precious than a big birthday party with lots of acquaintances. Except when you are at the your big 30 or 35 and so on. I am halfway this year with the big 33! So nothing special for me expect making lovely memories.

So this birthday weekend we went to Scotland. Never been to any place in Scotland before. We went to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Our flight was from London to Glasgow. It did not take too long and also easy to go from the airport to the city centre. We were in Scotland from Saturday morning till Monday evening, so almost 3 full days.

First day we stayed in Glasgow. The second day we went from early in the morning till night in Edinburgh and on Monday we had a whole day in Glasgow before we went back to London.

Like last blog I am going to tell you what we saw, where we ate and where we slept in both cities. Also some pros and cons If I can think of any. Hopefully this can be useful to anyone who is going to these wonderful cities.

What did we see in Glasgow in 2 days

With the hop on – hop off bus you can see a lot and it’s only 14 pounds. You will see all the high lights from the East End till the West End to the city centre.

  • George square
  • Riverside Museum – free admission
  • Kelvin grove Art Gallery and Museum – free admission (amazing if you love art like me. There’s a Salvador Dali painting in this Museum – a must see)
  • Buchanan shopping street
  • Sauchiehall street with restaurants
What did we see in Edinburgh in 1 day

Also in Edinburgh we took the hop on – hop off bus just to see the highlights and we used it as a transportation bus that took us to a lot of places. Price for this bus was 15 pounds per ticket valid the whole day till around 5 PM.

We started from Charing Cross station in Glasgow to Edinburgh Waverly station. Right in front of the station (Market Street) you got a small alley going up to the streets. In between you have the smallest pub from Edinburgh called halfway house.

  • Giles’ cathedral
  • National Gallery of Scotland – free admission
  • Edinburgh castle
  • National monument of Scotland (on a hill with a beautiful view of Edinburgh)

You can buy real nice cashmere scarves in a lot of shops in Edinburgh (I regret a bit I didn’t get one)

Where did we eat in Glasgow (1 to 5 stars   5* is super delicious)

I am only going to mention the nicest food we ate. Of course we ate more, but too be honest I already forgot about it… because it was just junk food or something small.

The only place I remember and it was really tasty is Café Andaluz on the corner of North Court. A bit expansive but really delicious and special.

Where did we eat in Edinburgh (1 to 5 stars   5* is super delicious)

In Edinburgh we had a really nice Scottish breakfast/lunch. I don’t remember the name of this café, but it’s on the top of the alley from the station to the market street. (Halfway house pub is in the middle of the staircase) Sorry guys, you have to be there then you will find it.

This lunch kept me going till the evening because it had a bit of haggis. This was really heavy on the stomach. I couldn’t eat some dinner in the evening because of it.  It is typical Scottish dish I really wanted to try and it’s not as bad as it looks.

Where did we sleep

We only slept in Glasgow at the Ibis hotel. Great location in the centre. Great staff and clean room. Free Wi-Fi. We didn’t take breakfast at the hotel because it is lot easier just to go out and find a nice café to have breakfast at. Easy check in and out.

  • Hotel ibis Glasgow City Centre ***
  • 220 W Regent St, Glasgow G2 4DQ, UK.
  • +44 141 619 9000
  • From Charing Cross rail station to Edinburgh Waverly rail station +/- £25,-. Take approximately sixty minutes.
Advantage:

Both cities were beautiful, but if this would be the first time to Scotland for you, I would say try Edinburgh first. The castle and all the buildings are just beautiful to see. Because it’s on a hill you will have lots of great views on the city. Glasgow is in that way less impressive but in Glasgow I really liked the museums, especially the Kelvin grove art gallery and museum. I love art and I like that it’s for free. Makes it accessible for everyone. Oh and you can pay with pounds, so easy peasy if you from the UK.

Disadvantage:

Not a lot of disadvantage to be honest. Maybe the weather, much much colder than in London or the Netherlands. But with the right clothes you will be just fine.

Sorry for my inconsistency, I try to work on the blog more often for you guys. My goal is to blog once a week but as you have seen, I am still working on this.

Hope this blog is useful for those who are going to Scotland

 

Till next time

 

Ciao! ♥ Miss Widjaja