Blogmas Day 4: Christmas in London

Yesterday evening myself and my lovely friend Seona decided to head into Central London and get (even more) into the festive spirit. Luckily, I remembered to bring my teeny tiny camera along, so prepare yourselves ladies (and gents), this one is definitely going to be a photo-happy post! So, after meeting in London Waterloo, both of us with Starbucks' Toffee Nut Latte's in hand, we headed to the epitome of Christmas in London. Of course, Harrods. 

We lost ourselves around the designer sections of the shop, admiring make up we couldn't afford and clothes we could never buy in our wildest dreams. Left thinking who on earth spends £35'000 on an aquamarine blue studded jaguar statue, we found ourselves in the toy section. And suddenly we were transported back to 90's Alice and Seona, and we just couldn't help ourselves... which is how I ended up buying Harry, the little toy penguin. 

From Harrods we found ourselves in various shops, and I finally bought my Christmas jumper! ...Although I will save its debut for another post. Until finally, we decided we needed energy to continue the rest of our evening and went in search of some food. We found Chiquito's, a chain restaurant neither of us had been to which served amazing mexican food and may now be my favourite chain restaurant. We even treated ourselves to Mango Daiquiri's!

Once full, we headed back onto the street and made our way through Leicester Square ready for Covent Garden. Because of the time, we knew there'd be little to no point going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, so we decided to take our time going round this part of London instead. Leicester Square had its own teeny funfair going on with a couple of stalls so that, and the smell of roasted chestnuts from all the stalls, get us in the Christmas spirit. We even took part in a game or two, despite knowing deep down we'd never ever win (and of course we didn't), but it was still fun none the less!

As we approached Covent Garden, we could hear busking going on and the girl was so talented we stopped and listened for a solid 10 minutes. I felt awful for not having any change on me despite listening for ages, but I looked up her name and it's Sammie Jay Music. She was unbelievably talented, I completely recommend you give her a listen. 

Walking through Covent Garden at night is a completely different experience to the day. In the day there's a hustle and bustle of typical city life, but it's one of the rare places in London where after about 9pm, it goes very quiet in comparison to its daytime self. There are a couple of bars open, couples sitting listening to music and the odd tourist family about -mostly taking photo's of the ginormous Christmas tree- but when the street performers have cleared and the market's been packed up, it's a very different place, and with the buskers in the background, I felt so utterly festive and fell completely in love with my country's capital, as I always do. 

The evening was full of festive cheer and basically everything I wanted when I planned to pop into London. If ever you get the chance to go, I completely 100% recommend it and feel so lucky to live so close! Where's your favourite Christmas city? I'd love to go to spend Christmas in New York one day, typical as it sounds, it's definitely on the bucket list!

Ciao for Now!

x