London Town

On Friday my Mum and I took the train into London for a full day (and night) of sight-seeing - after all, it wouldn't be a proper visit to England without a visit to London.

 We had a really fun time strolling through the Burlington Arcade, which is probably one of my favourite places in London. It is an arcade full of the best antique jewellery shops, featuring pieces such as antique Cartier and Tiffany & Co diamond rings, plus the biggest sapphires and emeralds i've ever seen.

We then visited the British Museum and saw the Egyptian rooms. Amongst the collection were the Rosetta Stone, incredible sphinx sculptures and enormous statues (with an individual arm spanning over two metres in length). Some of the items in the collection were dated back to 2000BC - it's hard to get your head around time when something is that ancient.

 In the afternoon we headed towards another of my favourite endroits of London: Covent Garden. I think there is a really fun vibe to Covent Garden, with buskers always guaranteed to be performing. We were lucky enough to see a string quintet that danced while they played, as well as human statues in both bronze and gold. The buskers were great fun to watch, and there were also markets we checked out, which had fabulous Banksy artworks.

We then made our way to the King's Road in Chelsea, which is probably similar to Oxford Street in Sydney's Paddington. It's where Kate Middleton is often seen and it certainly had a very distinctive 'sloane ranger' vibe. Lots of nice shops and lovely buildings too.

After a nice, quick Italian dinner, Mum and I ventured over to the Victoria Apollo Theatre to see the musical Wicked. Most of my school friends in Australia had raved to me about it, my friend Sarah Harding in particular is a strong Wicked advocate (I think she's seen it three times). Fortunately it did not disappoint. Although we had the understudy as Glinda (the good witch), the performance was fantastic and Elpheba had an incredible voice. The costumes were really fun and the music was catchy. I can now join Sarah in thoroughly recommending it.

A really fun day was had in London and, although we arrived home after midnight, the long day was well worth it!