LONDON, UK!

LONDON, ENGLAND
27 March 2015

Okay so I had a mini exam that got out at 10.30am. After that, I ran home to do some last minute packing and hopped on the bus to catch my 3.50pm flight. I arrived in London Gatwick at around 5.30 and took the train into Victoria station (HUGE) to meet my cousin Janet! I met up with her in the station then we drove to meet the rest of my family who were eating at a really cool local restaurant called Chucked in the Harrow borough on west London.

This was my first time meeting my family in England and they were all so kind and warm and welcoming. The restaurant itself was pretty hip. I would definitely be there a couple times a month if I lived in West London. Anyway, everyone ate and at 9pm ish we headed back to my cousin Tracy's house (it was her birthday). There Janet introduced me to the rest of the family.

28-29 March 2015

My cousins decided the easiest (and cheapest) way of getting around London and doing some sightseeing was via the City Sightseeing Bus Tour. Ticket's were valid for 48 hours so we did that for two days. Some times we would get off at a stop and venture out to see what other cooler smaller attractions were nearby.

The bus tour also came with a free river boat cruise. That was fun. I recommend doing that to see sights from a different perspective and sit on the deck if you can!!! Views are limited down under

30 March 2015
I spent my last full day with my lovely cousin Lauren who showed me around central London! We met up at 2ish and headed out first to buy some souvenirs for my family. Then she took me to the biggest Top Shop I've ever seen, Selfridges, plus some other shopping hot spots. We also visited Chinatown. Finally, a legitimate Chinatown! They even have their own banks in Chinese! The food was amazing--large portions, low prices! Their bakery was a crazy, self serve store that was probably 2 meters by 4 meters big.

We also went to M&M World because why not hahaha. Believe it or not, those m&m's were the tastiest I've had. We went to this huge shopping mall called Westfield where we ran into Janet.

I'm sure we did more during the day but I can't remember. I had a lot of fun with her!!


31 March 2015
I woke up at 5 to catch my train to Amsterdam that left at 8.05am from St. Pancras Station

Eurostar check-in closed at 7.30am but I got there about an earlier to get eat, read + relax. The train went to the east end of England then through Channel Tunnel (underwater connecting the UK and France) to Lille, France where some passengers got off. Then it stopped again in Brussels, Belgium where I had to get off and catch a Dutch rail heading to Amsterdam. The station in Brussels was barren. I think it's primarily a cross-country connection station. There were barely any signs telling passengers where to go to catch their next train and the one worker I asked didn't even finish listening to what I was asking. He abruptly interrupted me, said 'I don't know' and walked off. Thankfully, I spotted this touch screen computer that had helped. It was a nifty little system that had you type in the city you're trying to get to then gives you a list of options based on the rail. For example Thalys, IC, SNIC, etc. I caught the IC rail heading to Amsterdam. Thalys wasn't an option because you need to buy reservations for that.

Anyway I arrived in Amsterdam Central Station at 3.30pm local time and was amazed by the station. It's quite a piece of art.

Read on for my adventures in Amsterdam!

-SX