Last week my Grandaddy came to visit me in London, all the way from Liverpool. He is pretty bad at making decisions and adamantly stood by his suggestion, 'Whatever you want to do Em' regardless of my objection that, seeing as I live in London, I can do whatever I want whenever I want, so it'd probably be best for him to choose and eventually we came to a bit of a stalemate and decided to just wing it a bit, which makes for a nice post full of advice for those tourists who are a little more disorganised.
We started off with a lunch of scrummy fish and chips at the Shakespeare's Head, a Wetherspoon pub on Kingsway near Holborn station, which I often frequent with the German lot from uni and would highly recommend. Next, we decided to wander down to Aldwych to visit my uni, walk along Waterloo Bridge (which in my opinion, is the best view of London you can get, day or night) and over to South Bank, as my Grandad loves his shows and it's always a safe bet for street performers. Sure enough we came across a group of Jamaican dancers/acrobats/contortionists who were really quite good. Seriously, the ways in which they could twist their bodies were pretty crazy! It also made a nice change from street magicians, not that they aren't talented, it's just that they are everywhere in London and as a resident it's nice to see something a little different from time to time.
This little girl was the cutest.
Sometimes it's easy to forget how certain times of year are super busy in this city, making a wander down the Thames a little more difficult than I originally anticipated, so we took a bit of a breather for a few touristy pictures.
A sneaky Grandad-being-pensive-in-the-sunshine pic
This looks like I was trying to be arty but in actual fact I literally couldn't fit any more of it in the frame...
Em and Grandad selfie, with a cheeky Big Ben photobomb.
On our eventual escape from the utter madness of South Bank, we hopped on the 453* bus to Oxford Circus. As I was after a game for a birthday party, we decided to have a gander in Hamley's toy store. As far as I can remember, it was my first visit and both Grandad and I got a little too excited by everything that was going on. My broody levels literally sky-rocketed. Of all the cool toys to buy however, I ended up buying ID twister (please don't judge me). They literally put those boys faces on EVERYTHING these days.
Clearly I love my friends very much to go through with buying this.
The rest of the afternoon was spent bumbling around Oxford Street for various things before heading back home for some home cooked sausage and mash. However, not before stopping off at Paul to grab some scrummy cream cakes for desert (FYI, their chocolate éclair is to die for). By 6.30pm we were all done and dusted and ready to accompany Grandad back to the train station; it just goes to show how much you can fit into a day when visiting London and still successfully have a lovely time. I even had time in the evening to head to The Barbican Cinema (which is always £5 on tuesdays for students, worth checking out!) with Gordon and Joe to watch Noah.
*When travelling around London, though the tube seems the obvious choice, I can't recommend buses enough. They literally go everywhere and most of them are 24 hour AND they're much cheaper than the tube. It's honestly no more difficult then getting a grasp of the tube system.*
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