London to Paris

SO!

It's been a while!

Sorry about that. I haven't been doing absolutely NOTHING, but I didn't want to bore with stories about me at various museums.

(I am going to do a post about all the great free things you can do in London. As my money depletes, i'm stretching my imagination to ways I can entertain myself without charge.)

The past week has been interesting. My boyfriend has flown out from Australia to meet me and join in some travels. Tomorrow we fly out to Paris, the first stop on our Eurotrip.

Our itinerary: Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Zurich.

We're gone for just over a month so it's a whirlwind tour. 

Besides Paris, I've never been to any of these places before so I'm pretty excited. AND it will give me something interesting to write about.

It's nice to be on the move again and about to experience some new places. I know this month will fly by.

Here's some London snaps I've taken cruising around Embankment...

á Paris

xxx

St Pauls Cathedral

Had to find my boyfriend a skatepark

Spent the day at Southbank 

Somewhere above the River Thames

I’ve never been afraid of heights until I was 10 metres above the River Thames in a transparent pod suspended on a zip line.

Besides being a little scared I really enjoyed it. It is really quick, probably not even 10 minutes, so by the time I realised I was a little bit shaky, we were on our way back down again.

It’s cheap (£3.20 with an Oyster Card) and you get some killer views of the city. I think of it as the London Eyes cheap half sister.

It was a classic overcast London day but luckily the rain held off.

Here are some snaps.

West Ham vs Stoke

I'm no football nut but I've always enjoyed watching a good game here and there.  Having lived in Australia for the past eight years, I can now really appreciative being back in London and having the choice to go to a premier league matches IF I FEEL LIKE IT.

People always have a dig when I say I support West Ham BUT in my defence, they are my home team.

BUT... today they were RUBBISH (queue onslaught of abuse from Hammers fans everywhere).

I should probably have waited at least 24hrs before writing this post to cool down. Watching them play was frustrating as all hell. It's like none of the players actually play to win, none of them have any fight left. As soon as Stoke scored, West Ham fans literally started to leave because they knew we would never recover.

But the highlight for me was definitely fans hauling abuse at each other, people getting removed and the football chants.

I think it's fair to say, if nothing else, West Ham has the best football chant. Nothing like being at your favourite teams home game singing along, 'I'm forever blowing bubbles'. The weather was lovely too.

N.B. Don't go to the football if you don't like the c bomb.

That is all.

xXXx

Game day madness

Upton Park

SUCCESS

Finally got me some samosas!

They were tasty

With love, from London

Sorry for being MIA. It was a hectic last 2 days in NYC.

On our last day, there was an Indian parade in NY celebrating 66 years of independence.  I've been craving a samosa ever since.

I made it to London in one piece despite some hard core queueing at JFK. 

It's really surreal being back.

For those of you who don't know, I was born and bred in East London until I was 14 (2005) then I moved to South Australia, where I've lived for the past eight years.

Since I moved, I've been back twice.

I'm loving being close to my family and spending time with my dad and sister.

And it's actually warm! I was dreading coming from NY because I thought I would freeze my socks off but it has been lovely. London is truly a great place to be in the summer.

I haven't really done any touristy things so I don't have any pics but i'll do my best to check some stuff out.

Love, love

B  xxx

India's Independence parade

I'll miss this bridge

And this skyline

New York- Say 'hell yeah'

Could Union Square be any flipping cooler if it tried?

We went again tonight and it was the best free entertainment EVER. There were some amazing dancers and we also witnessed some rappers battling it out. Just the best place.

We've been indulging in our love for all things TV recently.

We went on the Gossip Girl tour today. It was surreal walking on the same ground that Ed Westwick's precious feet have blessed. Naturally, most of our day was spent in the Upper (Upper) East Side.

On Wednesday, we did the Sex and the City tour. Although I'm not that familiar with the show, it was a cool way to see New York... and the Cosmo at ONeil's didn't go a miss.

I can check another state off as well. We went to Hoboken in New Jersey to visit Carlos Bake Shop... where they film the reality TV show 'Cake Boss'.

It is our last full day tomorrow. I literally feel like I live here. We're friends with all the people that work in the hotel, the coffee shop knows Bec's order and I really cannot fathom what my life is going to become without Cafe 28. The thing about New York is that ANYONE can come here and feel like they belong. Any nationality, culture, religion... what ever. It doesn't matter. This city just works and everyone gets along so harmoniously. It's incredible. 

I don't want to leave really. I will definitely be back... in fact I cannot wait until I return.

After New York I'm heading to London. Not looking forward to being cold but getting really excited to see my family and friends.

xoxo

B

Waiting in the rain

Cosmo on the SATC tour

Met Steps snap

Empire Hotel

Grand Central Station... where S is first spotted

New York- Concrete Jungle

I just had the coolest experience at Union Square.

It is a total hub. There are people dancing, skateboarding, playing chess, double dutch, writing poetry on demand. There is so much going on and it's a Monday night. Imagine what it would be like on a Friday (we're going to go on Friday to find out). It was very exciting and I got a poem written about the experience but i'm want to double check with the author before I post it up here.

What else have I been up to?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art- Largest museum in the US and absolutely impossible to see in one day. We went to a really cool exhibit called Punk: Chaos to Couture. It was really good. Saw a couple of Monets and a bit of the Egyptian collection as well (largest outside of Egypt). Cool Museum. Choose what you want to see wisely.

Liberty Cruise- Took us right up to Lady Liberty herself. We were able to get some great shots, not only of the statue but of the Manhattan skyline.

Brooklyn walking tour- Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge which was pretty special. Then hung out in DUMBO for a while (Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Bridge Overpass). Lovely area. I actually love Brooklyn. Every time we've gone there I felt really drawn to the place. When I return to New York, I think I will stay in BK.

Water Taxi- We took the water taxi across the river. This particular company has really funny, colourful tour guides. Spent most of the journey cracking up.

9/11 memorial- I think the memorial sight itself is really well thought out and is respectful of what happened on that tragic day. High security and lots of tourists. It's really busy so it is a bit hard to sit and contemplate but it was good to be able to pay my respects.

9/11 Tribute Centre- Just spent to whole time trying not to burst into tears. It's really touching and quite emotional. If you're going to do it, do it towards the end of your trip or at the end of the day. 

That's a quick run down.

Tomorrow we're going to Hoboken, New Jersey to visit the original Cake Boss store.

The Met

An Egyptian exhibit at The Met

Skyline

Statue of Liberty

Brooklyn Bridge

Typical Street in DUMBO

BK Bridge

View from the pier in Brooklyn

The new World Trade Centre

9/11 Memorial

Light shines through the survivor tree