London Diaries

Tripoto
28th May 2014
Photo of London Diaries 1/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Trafalgar Square
Photo of London Diaries 2/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Harrow Street
Photo of London Diaries 3/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Metro @ Londonn
Photo of London Diaries 4/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Late Evenings
Photo of London Diaries 5/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Pretty houses
Photo of London Diaries 6/9 by Anamika Bharucha
The greens :D
Photo of London Diaries 7/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Beauty at its best!
Photo of London Diaries 8/9 by Anamika Bharucha
Swaminarayan Mandir :)
Photo of London Diaries 9/9 by Anamika Bharucha
An Indian Restaurant in all it's aura :D

I was going for a packaged tour to Europe, covering 9 cities in a short span of 15 days. But luckily, my family decided to leave for UK 3 days earlier than the trip started and we stayed at a friend of my dad's. And that's what I'm going to talk about in my little article here. London, not through a bus the tour took me in, but through my own eyes, the way I liked it and the way I believe it should be traveled.

The journey began when we reached UK around noon. We reached home, had lunch and spent some time resting to give the jet lag a break. Evening crept and we left with my uncle. We walked towards harrow street. It was a beautiful way surrounded by greenery and the prettiest houses ever. 

Not even half an hour around that area and I was already telling my mom that I wanted to settle back here someday when I grow old. That's the magic of that place. British houses can make you fall in love instantly. You can walk for hours and not get tired, that's how beautiful and soothing the weather is. It doesn't get dark till 8pm or 9pm there. It even goes onto 10pm at times. 

We then took the local bus and went to Wembley, the Indian area.The local bus is the best way to travel around nearby locations. There's a well maintained mobile application that tells you where exactly a particular bus is and which bus you could use at a particular moment to travel from one location to another. It is very very easy and completely user friendly. You enter Wembley and you can see lines of Indian food stalls, even a stall for Pani Puri

It instantly caught my eye and I went straight up to grab a plate. I was conversing with my mom in Gujarati and turned out the owner understood it, cuz he was a Gujarati too. The happiness of finding someone from your home state in a foreign land is inexplicible.

The 2nd day began with some really delicious breakfast prepared by my aunt. In London, there are houses where there a number of rooms and each room has a different family staying. They use a common kitchen though. This way, it isn't hard to find accomodation in London. My father told me about an early morning stroll he went on, around 6am, when I slept peacefully. The coffee shops were open and he began with grabbing a quick coffee and then walked to the nearby park. The park had a few gyming equipment kept and a lake nearby had a bunch of beautiful swarms.

We started the day by taking the metro that day. Public transport in London is very easy and user friendly. There's a pass that you take, and you can use the same pass to travel in a bus or metro any number of times for that day. That day we went through the busiest streets of London. Trafalgar square, Oxford street, all of it. Trafalgar Square hosts a lot of street artists performing various gigs to earn money entertaining the public. You'll see someone doing a summer sault one side and a human posing still as a statue on the other. 

There's a long row of shops, every big name you've ever heard of. From a Guess to Forever 21 to Zara. There are huge sports malls hosting merchandise from famous football teams to personalized shoe makers. You can spend the entire day there and still not see everything. You'll find small cute souvenir shops too at little distances. We spent the day there and then took the train to another of my uncles place to meet him. A good dinner with my family was the perfect end to Day 2.

We decided to rest a little on Day 3 and started a little late. We went to the nearby shopping market where one could actually find reasonably good stuff to shop. I'm a shopping lover so a trip without that is incomplete. We shopped for a few little things here and there. We decided to visit the famous Swaminarayan temple of London in eve. It was one of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen. Building such a huge and well kept temple in a foreign land is commendable.

Day 4 was mainly packing up our stuff and getting ready to transfer to the hotel. We had Lunch at an Indian restaurant there. I fail to remember the name though I'm trying, but I do remember the way they had made the place from the inside. One step inside and you would completely forget you're in a foreign land. It is like visiting a Shahi restaurant in India, the waiters donning traditional attire , the tables and chairs being covered in India styled cloth. It was a complete Indian-feel restaurant. And the food was no less.

We then transferred to the hotel and began the 15 days packaged tour across Europe. Though i visited 9 different countries in those 15 days, these 4 days still top my list cuz these are when I truly felt the essence of London. London is best seen strolling through the streets, empty or busy, travelling in the everyday bus and metro and living in a bed and breakfast house rather than a 5 star hotel.

A beautiful street to walk through on a perfect London evening. Perfectly surrounded by the prettiest houses and most beautiful flowers and trees.

One of the busiest places in town!

Indian temple in London :)