I’m so excited to finally share this post and kick off my series of Europe posts!
If you follow me on Instagram you might have saw that I went to Europe for two weeks in August. One of my closest/longest friends got married in France (check out the Mehndi celebration I helped throw her here) and I was lucky enough to stand in her wedding. My husband and I have been wanting to plan a Europe trip, so it was the perfect timing to extend the stay and explore a few other places while we were over there.
We began our trip and ended it London. I had been out of the country before but this was the longest flight I had ever taken, so I was a bit nervous about how I’d deal with jet lag. We left the USA at night and landed in London at 6AM, and shockingly going and coming back I experienced no jet lag! When we arrived in London, we headed straight to the hotel to drop off our stuff. We stayed at the Avni Kensington Hotel and while the hotel was pretty standard and nothing fancy (although our room came with a HUGE balcony!) it was in such a great location. We took the train everywhere which was right around the block. Since I didn’t know how we would feel, I planned nothing for us that day and had our second day booked, but we happened to feel great and decided to walk around until we were tired – which turned up into us walking EVERYWHERE.
Our first stop, and one of my absolute favorite things we did in Europe (and one of my favorite memories from 2017) was at The George Inn Pub. We grabbed some beers, talked with the locals, and got to explore the historic pub (hello, Shakespeare!). From there, we walked off our buzz over to the Borough Market where we shopped and then over to the South Bank where we watched people build sand art by the Thames and skaters at the park. From there we walked to Big Ben and then over to Buckingham Palace. The next day we spent hours walking Hyde Park and making our way into Kensington Gardens – it was the the perfect weather to spend a day in the park. While we stayed in that area, we grabbed quick breakfasts at La Liaison, which had such good sandwiches, and had grabbed burgers that first night at Byron for a quick meal. That night we flew to Italy, but we made our way back to London at the end of our Europe trip.
When we got back to London after our trip, we stayed in Soho at the Z Hotel Soho – another great affordable options in such a great area. One of my bucket list items was always to go down to Apple Studios and take the cliche Abbey Road Beatle’s photo, which I got to do! I’m a huge Beatles fan but nobody compares to my mom and her love for the band. When my mom was 17 she traveled to London to have the ultimate Beatles experience and actually worked her way into Apple Studios (and has some original Beatles memorabilia to show for it). I loved hearing those stories as a kid, so it made going there extra special. You can see her picture from when she was 17 above mine below! We also had to try fish and chips at Poppie’s.
That night we had one last European celebration at Sketch – the most instagramable restaurant to exist. And you know I had to get a photo of that bathroom. Everything was delicious and the decor was perfection. I also plan on purchasing the tea set from the website! After dinner, we found ourselves roaming the West End and Carnaby.
My husband and I absolutely loved London and I’m so glad we got to begin and end our trip there. We found navigating the city so easy and their public transit so much less complicated than Chicago’s and New York’s.
Next up is Rome!
x Jill
