Travel Diary in UK : London : Last Day

So, we have come to my last day in UK. We are back in London. We had to make our last day in London since we would be returning from Heathrow.
Since it was the last day in London, our plan is to carry out our own self activity and meet up at night at Tower of London.
On that day, I decided to wander around Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and its surrounding areas.

I started out in Oxford Street where I spent most of my time shopping in Primark, Boots, Superdrug.
There was a sporadic rain at the moment, it was great that I was mostly indoors.

Then later in the afternoon, I took the tube to Charing Cross to explore the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square.

The weather was beautiful in the afternoon. The sky was so blue. It certainly does not look like winter, doesn't it.

Walking towards a bookstore opposite the road, Waterstones, I went to Costa which is located at the top floor for a nice cup of Caramel Macchiato to warm myself up for the later part of the afternoon.

Wandering around the Haymarket area.
Her Majesty's Theatre. Hoping to come back to London soon to catch a musical.

All I did was walking round and round the area and eventually stop by Tesco to grab myself some tea time snack. I think I walk for about 3-4 hours down the road. I don't even remember where I ended up.
At about 5pm, I left to Tower Hill for Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

The only photo I have with the Tower of London. I look pretty tragic over here but oh well...

Tower Bridge.

This sums up my UK travel in 2013. It is definitely a place I would come back to visit again and again.

Travel Diary in UK : Manchester : A day trip

From Edinburgh we took a night bus to Manchester. It is a day trip to Manchester, we will be leaving to Birmingham at night.
Clad in our last night's outfits and dirty unwashed hair, we headed to Manchester.

For my luggages, I left in a friends' house. She was studying at Manchester at that time.

First stop, is Manchester's Chinatown for some food hunting.
We were starving since the last time we ate was last night at Edinburgh.

What's better than a buffet. Free flow of food.
Good for the hungry wolves like us and it's a great deal since this will be our only meal for the day.

We were surprised by the selection of food in the buffet. There is just too many to choose from rice to noodles to meat dishes, vegetables, desserts varying from herbal jelly, cakes, fruits, tarts, also, soups.
This is one section of the food available.

My friend's meat platter

After our meal, we headed to Old Trafford for the Manchester United Arena.

We just had a quick photo session around the arena and did some souvenir shopping.

I got a metal tumbler with signatures of the current players of that time.

We head back to my friend's place after the arena visit for a quick bath and head to the bus station to Birmingham. 

Travel Diary in UK : Birmingham : A day in Birmingham

We stayed in the backpackers hostel in Birmingham. It was pretty hard searching for hostels in Birmingham, so this is our only choice.

The deco for the main hall is pretty but the rooms are average. The double deckers aren't comfy at all and the rooms look dirty. 

Free breakfast is included with this hostel. They provide bread and spread, milk, cereal, you know the drill. 

Heading out to the city center for some shopping. 

We head to the market for some cheap souvenir shopping. 

In the meantime, this is what me and my friend got. Some cheap watches. 

Despite being 2 pounds, this watch is still functioning till this very day. 

The famous bullring for more shopping. 

I got some Cath Kidston for myself from Selfridges.
I got myself a passport cover and also a bag. It was a good deal after the student discounts.

I shop way less than I expected. I just got the Cath Kidston items. That is all.
I would have thought that I might be breaking the bank with my shopping. 

Travel Diary in UK : Eating out Edinburgh : Golden Grill Cafe

In the bustling streets of West End, lies a small little cafe. There's nothing sort of unique interior that will attracts you into the cafe, it is very simple and clean. But what seems familiar to us, is that they serve homely meals, comfort food.

I happened to cross this cafe while searching for a breakfast stop. What attracted us was the fact they serve English Breakfast and Sandwiches, something we have been craving during our UK trip.

We ordered sandwiches instead since we felt like eating sandwiches, we needed carbs to keep us going since we traveled all the way from London the night before and arrived Edinburgh in the morning, pushing our luggages to the hostel. We were tired and hungry.

The sandwiches here are nothing of the ordinary. They are just very homely prepared sandwiches. Fresh from the kitchen.

I like how they have a variety of sauces prepared in sachets on the table. There were the clasic mayonnaise and mustard, apple Sauce, tartar sauce and HP sauce. I love the apple sauce.

Service was fast and great. The staff tries their best to make every experience a good one.
I wanted panini but it was on the lunch menu and it was still breakfast time. The staff nicely accepted my order and made it a special for me.

My panini is served. It is cheese and ham panini.
Every melted cheese taste like heaven in the mouth. Such comfort food./

Overall, I recommend this little cafe to get some comfort food if you do stop by Edinburgh.

Travel Diary in UK: Edinburgh: Along the streets of Royal Mile

Rise and shine , Edinburgh. We started our day strolling from our hostel along Princes Street for some morning shopping routine. One shouldn't miss out Princes Street if you love shopping. No street is better for shopping in Edinburgh other than Princes Street.

Along the way, we bumped into the Scott's Monument and snapped a few pictures of it. Such a majestic and beautiful monument.

We headed to the Old Town and stroll along their alleys. Edinburgh's Gothic architecture flavour just makes you feel like you are in the 18th century Medieval English times. It just feels so surreal to walk and stroll along the alleys and enjoy the city.

Going through the alleys, we found our way back to The Royal Mile and climbed through the streets up to the magnificent Edinburgh Castle.

The Edinburgh Castle. We didn't enter the castle as the entrance fee is too expensive for our university student budget. So all we did is just snap lots and lots of photos outside of the castle.

The panaromic view from the mountain top is photogenic.  I could see snow mountains from my side.

Arthur's seat can be seen from Edinburgh Castle. We didn't manage to go there as it is really far by feet.
We traveled the city Edinburgh by feet and we do not plan to use the public transport to save some money.

Just a few blocks down the street in The Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle is The Scotch Whiskey experience. We took a look in the shop and bought some souvenirs.
There's a great selection of whiskey in the shop from every brands famous to unknown and sizes from gigantic to cute little collectible miniatures.

Along the streets of Edinburgh, I also found out my new favourite confectionery - Fudge. I like the buttery vanilla sweet aroma from this confectionery.
Definitely a very Scottish thing and one of the things that must be tried in Scotland, besides haggis.

A shot with St. Giles Cathedral.

Edinburgh is a wonderful, beautiful and lay back city. I would love to come back to Edinburgh someday again.

Travel Diary Day 5 in UK : Eating out Edinburgh : Deacon Brodies Tavern

On our first night in Edinburgh, we had our dinner in a pub/restaurant, The Deacon Brodies Tavern along The Royal Mile.
This restaurant is really easy to spot at The Royal Mile. It is a striking 1700s-1800s era looking little pub-restaurant along the corner.

The menu.
The food is traditionally English/Scottish which is great because I have been up for something English or Scottish for my meal since I am in the UK where better to get their local food.

Deciding on what to eat.

Settled on a traditional Scottish dish Haggis , Neeps and Tatties with Whisky sauce.
Oh wow, I love the whisky sauce, the scent of the whisky is strong but not too overpowering and it blends well with the haggis, mashed pumpkin and potato.
Besides the fact haggis is made up of ridiculous ingredients, it actually taste really great. It is not for the faint of heart, better not ask your waiter/waitress what's in it and just enjoy this delicious Scottish delicacy.
Scotland, watch out, I will be back for more haggis

What is traditional English cuisine without the Fish and Chips.
I know I could get them at a takeaway but we just wanted to have them and enjoy them under a restaurant atmosphere.
Since our visit to the UK, we have grown very fond of fish and chips. It has become our comfort food to go.
I quite like the Fish and Chips here, the batter not too thick and it is not very oily. 

Travel Diary Day 5 in UK : Edinburgh

From London Victoria Coach Station, we took the National Express to Edinburgh at night time, so we could sleep over in the coach, save a day and arrive Edinburgh in the morning.

In Edinburgh we stayed in Westend Hostel, it is a walk from the city center but it isn't extremely far but still considerably far if you do not have the energy to walk, it is about 15-20 mins walk.

What amazes me about Edinburgh is its architecture. The city is a mixture of gothic architecture design from the old town and modern from the new town.
The city is pretty lay back too.

Since we couldn't check in till 2pm, we left my luggages in the hostel's luggage storage area and headed out for breakfast and some walk in town.

We headed to Golden Grill Cafe which is a small and cosy cafe down the Haymarket road.
It serves all day breakfast and the prices is pretty good.

I opted for paninis since I never had them before but they weren't for breakfast and later on, the waiter said it was fine and he could make me a panini.

Bacon & Cheese Panini.
It was lovely and delicious. The cheese is the highlight of the meal, it is very cheesy and flavourful.

After our hearty breakfast, we headed down the Princes Street Gardens. The grass is so green and beautiful. It is considered a 'present' for us the see greenery considering where we are, winter is always monotone, black and white.

The whole park is really photogenic. The green of the grass translates very well on camera.

Edinburgh castle from the bottom of Prices Street Gardens.

We has a good chat with a university student here. He told us that he had never entered Edinburgh castle because it is a tradition for them to visit the castle when only they graduate as a graduation gift from Edinburgh city.
That is a very interesting fact to know.

3, 2, 1 Cheese!

We couldn't possibly miss The Royal Mile. We had a short walk over there because we plan to head back to the hostels, get ourselves wash and freshen up for dinner in The Royal Mile area.

The Royal Mile is definitely a beautiful street to walk along and take lots of photos.
It is also a good place to get souvenirs, just walk down the streets, the prices gets cheaper further away from Edinburgh Castle. There are also many restaurants to choose from this street.

The beautiful St. Giles Cathedral.
We didn't manage to go into the cathedral this time but we got a couple of beautiful pictures outside of the cathedral. 

Travel Diary Day 4 in UK : London : Eating out Wasabi, British Library

After our wonderful and delightful trip in the world of Harry Potter at the Universal Studios, we headed back to Central London.

St. Pancras International Hotel. 

Such a beautiful hotel. The architecture and design in London is so wonderful. Almost every building is so beautiful designed.
Couldn't resist taking a picture with the hotel. 

For a quick bite, we had 'Wasabi' at King's Cross.
It is a great place for a quick bite and take outs. The food is pretty delicious for its affordable price.
It was really cold in the station because it is almost turning night. The seats are metal do not help us to keep warm at all. 

While waiting for our soup noodles to be served. Booked a place.

Salmon soup noodles.

Nice amount of salmon and vegetables in the soup. The lemon added a flavour of zest to the soup. Making the soup more fragrant and appetizing.
It was pretty delicious. I guess because it is so cold, a hot soup would just turn any situation for the better.

After our meal, we walked a few blocks down the road to visit the British National Library.
I know it is impolite to be all touristy in the library and taking pictures but we did do everything as quietly as possible, not to distract anyone. We have been good which proved from not being chased out from the library.

I have never been to many libraries in my life. When I was in secondary school, I always stop by the national library located near Dataran Merdeka where we would often hang out there, read some chic-lit. This is probably the only library I ever visited in my entire life besides my university's but it does not look like a library for me to actually call it a library.

When I step into this library, I am wowed. The tall array of antique books behind the glass window. I couldn't take my eyes of it. Books possibly dating back to the 15th century till the early 19th century nicely arranged behind those glass walls.
It just amazes me.

Behind those glass walls...

That pretty much summarizes our trip in London. We will be back to London they day we leave back to Moscow.
The same night, we headed of to a beautiful city in Scotland, Edinburgh.