Edinburgh I

7th December 2014
I stayed in Edinburgh for a total of 7 days and I believe that later posts will simply be compilations. The weather was pretty good for the first three days however a "weather bomb" affected Scotland which brought strong winds, rain and snow!




I am not the biggest fan of Harry Potter, but for the famous cafe that J K Rowling visited, you would think they could have selected a better font. Seriously. Out of all the fonts.

Edinburgh Castle






The Christmas markets were very disappointing and seriously overpriced!

London III

6th December 2014
One of my favourite places on my last visit to London was Greenwich Park. For our last day in London, we stayed in a hotel in Greenwich and decided to catch the sunrise from Greenwich Park before catching the (disappointing) Virgin train to Edinburgh.










Super cool English canals.

Overall Thoughts
I enjoyed London a lot more on my previous visit. This time I realised it was just an insanely busy city. This feeling was probably further exacerbated by the Chritmas shopping crowds and the overall frenzy on the streets. It was weird transitioning from Paris where things closed relatively early to a place where things were open to 11pm (if not later) 7 days a week. Of course this was only really restricted to central London but I feel that it was kind of reflected in the suburbs.

Would I re-visit?
Not anytime soon. It seems that I am not much of a "big city" kind of person anymore.

London II

3rd December 2014

This was probably the second best morning I had in London in terms of weather. Last time I visited, I saw the end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. This time, I decided to see it; it's just one of those things that should be seen once ... I guess.






In hindsight, I wouldn't recommend it at all. It was so boring and long and I became frozen by the end of it.


How I felt too




The coolest thing in London during my visit was the Paddington bears that were scattered throughout London. There are 50 in London (more info here) to celebrate the release of the film, Paddington.




Christmas tree at Somerset House. The Christmas tree at Trafalger Square was so disappointing.


Near St Peters Cathedral


Also found Twinnings' Flagship Tea Store accidentally. It was very cool (I am a tea lover) but crazily expensive!

London I

2nd December


Last eclair in Paris
The Eurostar ride from Paris was very very boring and kind of painful. I can't read, watch movies or do pretty much anything on transport due to motion sickness and resorted to being bored for the entire ride. It was painful because of the change in air pressure in the tunnel. Ah well. I have to say that the UK customs/ immigration is one of the most difficult that I have experienced. Last time, the woman grilled me with all these weird quetions, "why are you travelling by yourself?" "Why are you coming to the UK if you don't know anyone", which at the time I thought was a little weird. This time round, the man was really cold. Well colder than the average immigration officer. The weird thing wa that he asked how many days we were also going to be in the Republic of Ireland (as we didn't include it in our total duration question on the form). In hindsight, the Republic of Ireland isn't even in the UK so I have no idea why it was any of his concern.

We stayed at the same place that I stayed at last time, near the Swiss Cottage tube station which is just outside Zone 1.


Regent Park



First stop was an early dinner/ super super late lunch at Bone Daddies, allegedly the best ramen in London.




Tantanmen 2

T22

They both tasted really weird. They weren't meant to taste traditional but the flavours were really really weird. The Tantanmen 2 that I ordered felt as though someone had poured an obscene amount of peanut butter with the broth. Not a very pleasant experience, especially with the compulsory service charge added (not happy Jan).

Regent Street and Oxford Street were insanely packed but also very very pretty with all the Christmas lights. I'm not the biggest fan of shopping and when I do shop, I shop with a plan. However we did pop into Hamleys on Regent Street which was opened in 1881. It is the oldest toy shop in the world and it has 7 floors of toys! The best part was definitely the employees who were trialing the toys around the store and also performing magic tricks.












Disney store!!

Paris IV

2nd December
It was another super gloomy day in Paris and it was also my last day. First stop was the Louvre and there were quite a few people at the museum compared to my previous visit.






Museums make me really tired for some reason. I also brought my film SLR and my BW film with me. Kind of worried about all the x-ray scanners that I have gone through/ still need to go through. Hoping for the best. The back of the camera seems to pop out randomly and I forgot to bring tape and ended up using bandaids to secure the backing. Awkward.

A. wanted to eat at Ladurée so we visited for dessert. I don't have much of a sweet tooth and had also never tried anything from them before. I settled on hot chocolate (what is a visit to Paris without hot chocolate) and a lemon tart to counter the chocolate sweetness.




Not the best to be honest.













Bridge from Inception. Aka Pont de Bir Hakeim



Overall Thoughts
I walked away from Paris with a more positive view than after my previous visit. I walked a lot around Paris, in the touristry areas and also the less touristy areas inadvertently since I got a little lost (nothing like Rome. I don't think anything will beat my experience in Rome).

Would I re-visit?
Not anytime soon. Unlike a lot of people it seem, I don't love the city (though I did enjoy it) and have had my fill for the time being.

Paris III

When researching for things to see and do in Paris, I stumbled upon information about La Petite Ceinture. This refers to the old railway line that runs around Paris. I thought it would have been as interesting as the Belt Line in Atlanta. I was initially on a mission to find a way onto the railway track however I later realised that it would be a time consuming process since I couldn't find any information about entry points on the internet/Google. In the end, I decided that it would be for another day (hopefully before they turn it into something else!) and settled on walking the Plantee Promenade. Plantee Promenade is a 4.7km walk that follows the old Vincennes railway line which starts near Bastille and ends at the Charles-Péguy Square. It is very similar to the High Line in NYC however the Plantee Promenade was inaugurated in 1993, which was 16 years before the one in NYC.


Visiting Bastille Markets first.


Freshly made churros for 2 euros!
It was a very cold day (4 degrees) and there were a lot of people running on the path.












The coolest thing ever at Jardin de Reuilly. A free sparkling water fountain!