London, baby!

It was finally time to go to London! After postponing it a couple of times I decided now was a good time to go. You can buy the tickets online and I saw that the times that I wanted to go (you have to reserve your spot on the bus) only had 5 seats left. Click, click, click. Payment time! But euh... I have some experience with using my debet card in a different country and it sometimes doesn't work. It often requires a creditcard, which, for obvious reasons (shopping!) don't have. So after being set on hold for over 10 minutes I finally got someone from National Express on the phone confirming what I already expected; It will not accept my card details.

Now what? My family was busy so I couldn't 'lend' some money so I basically ran to the bus station to order my tickets. It's a 15 minute walk and you néver know what will happen in those minutes so hopefully I would still have a spot. In front of me were people trying to get tickets for the 26th... good, good. Take those. I don't mind. Just don't take the 25th ones. The girl on front of me tried to get to Victoria Station, which the bus goes. But it constantly repeated that there weren't any tickets available. Very strange. She gave up and I tried. Also no tickets to Victoria Station. Maybe I should just try London and it will bring me to Victoria's anyway? I tried that and *bleep* there were the options. And yes! There were still tickets available! I would arrive in London around 10.50 and take the bus back at 18.30. That should be enough right?

So, after waking up early (the bus would depart at 8.20 and I don't want to be late) I had a nice little spot near the window in one of the leather chairs. Strangely enough, you have to wear your seatbelts in English buses and although you have quite some space for your legs, after a while you might want to stretch them a bit.

We got in a traffic jam, which was predicted due to the commuter traffic and at 11.30 we arrived at Victoria's Coach Station. But apparently this isn't exactly Victoria's station. It is still a couple of minutes away from the real station so I had to remember that it was this little side alley where I had to go.

Then came the real question. Day card, or no day card? I knew from experience that you can walk quite a lot and a few single cards would work fine as well. But I didn't know how much I would travel yet I decided to take a day card. Twelve freaking pounds. Can I just say that we complain in the Netherlands that a daycard is €7,45 or something? And to give an indication; the complete return trip from Southampton to London cost 15,-.

Anyway, apparently my card didn't work at the machine so after waited 10 minutes in line there I had to wait another 5 minutes to get my tickets at the service desk.

I decided that my first stop would be Picadilly Circus. After the required selfies I discovered that Regent Street was there as well. I actually planned to go to Oxford or Bond street since I wanted to shop but I discovered that the street that I had in my head was actually Regent, so that was superconvenient! But that street is lóóóóng! Especially when you are walking in and out of stores.

To make my trip also a bit usefull I walked inside the Brooks Brothers store, for my essay about The Great Gatsby. Brooks Brothers delivered all those nice suits, yes, even the pink one, for the movie and I wanted to get in contact with someone. 'Excuse me, I'm writing an essay about The Great Gatsby and I was wondering..' 'I'm sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid we're sold ou-' 'No, no, I'm not looking for the clothes, I'm looking for someone to ask a few questions about the collaboration?' After he walked around for a bit I received a card with a phone number of their Resource Manager. Caching! Piece of cake! I was superproud of myself!

By the time I reached Oxford Circus (Yes, with Oxford Street) it was already 2 o'clock. I had a little salmon sandwich and took the metro to King's Cross. It's been a while since I saw the Harry Potter wall and wanted to take another look, just because I could.

At that time, the wall they are going through is actually platform 1 instead of 9 and nowhere to be found (It is more hidden than platform 1 in Amsterdam Central Station) and no signs what so ever. It even bugged me more to discover that, 2 days áfter I went there they would actually shoot Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix there. I was so close!

Anyway, they apparently noticed how annoying it must be to direct young boys and girls to the right place the whole day so they moved it to the hall near platform 9. A half-disappearing cart and a long queue. Wait.. what? A queue? For what? King's Cross thought they could get some extra money out of Harry Potter and so it was that there was a photographer, some barriers and a person that would put a scarf around your neck of your favorite house and hold it to make it look as if you are moving.

I first walked away the moment I saw that queue but returned minutes later finding myself in that line waiting for a damn picture. I was here now anyway and it was time for an update of the photo that was taken from me 6 years ago. Now, I have to say; I am actually a Ravenclaw. But a blue and grey scarve isn't as noticable as a Gryffindor scarf so I betrayed my house for a sec. The photographer screamed at one point that it was a free service that he would take a picture but you could take a picture with your phone as well. Since I never trust those people and was all by myself I walked towards the first adult man I saw standing around the barriers: 'Would you please take a picture?' He probably didn't want to by the look of his face but I was already in position so he basically didn't have a choice. The picture that the photographer take would be in the store next to the book store. Woah! A whole Harry Potter store! I wanted éverything, but everything was expensive! That scarf was apparantly almost 40 pounds! You can get a Ralph Lauren scarf for the same price (Some product placement right here). And it turned out that the photographer was indeed working for free. But, if you wanted your picture you could pay 10 pounds to get that. No wonder King's Cross got a nice little renovation.

I then wanted to go to Harrods since I usually have Biotherm daycream but that is impossible to get here anywhere so I thought that, if it would be somewhere it should be there. After confusing directions and getting lost a few times in the building I discovered that they didn't have it as well. But it was time to see if I could get Prada (who delivered all the clothes for the female roles of The Great Gatsby) for my essay. I was so close of getting it, but the manager told me that they didn't have those contact details in the store. Bummer.

I browsed a bit more in the stores around Harrods, but decided around 5 o'clock that it was time to head back to make sure I would be there in time. Victoria's station had a huge deparment filled with food and.. HEMA! I didn't expect to feel so emotional at that moment but I was so happy to see something familiar that I immediatly bought the lipstick and powder I usually have from HEMA. But, I couldn't escape the swindlers here. They changed the euro-sign for a pound-sign for all their prices. So it's like 40% more expensive. Echt HEMA.

But my feet hurt so much by this time and I was in desperate need of food I couldn't even care anymore, took some McDonalds (What do you mean you don't have any mayonaise? Sweet/Sour then, please) and casually read the newspaper, that I received at the underground.

Now, here is a funny thing about the underground in London; All kinds of people gather around. There was this stylish girl with a Louis Vouitton scarf and Armani bag and simply looking proper sitting opposite of me. And next to her this girl plopped down with a supershort dress with cleavage the Himalaya would be proud of, porn-blond hair, black drawn eyebrows, holes in her thights and a tigerprint bag. The contrast couldn't have been any bigger. So I had to make a picture of it so that explains that picture if you scroll through it.

An hour later I started walking to the bus station, which wasn't that far away as I first thought. And 10 minutes before the bus would leave the doors opened and we could enter. I found a row for myself and could stretch my legs a bit. I was so tired of all the walking that, upon arrival, I considered taking a cab for that one mile back to my house. Saying to myself that that would be ridiculous I walked home, fell on the bed and didn't move anymore until my alarm went off again.


P.S. For the people that want to know this stuff; I bought a shirt dress from &Other Stories, but I will only show this after my birthday, upcoming Tuesday!