Sister Weekend!

Our friends decided that they were going to Germany for a weekend, and since we already planned our budget for which countries to travel to, we stayed in London. So... we had a sister weekend! We hadn't really done any shopping since we got here, so we decided our first stop on Friday would be Topshop on Oxford Street. The store had a lot of fun clothing and was super packed. It also had frozen yogurt and a cupcake stand inside of it. We tried on a few outfits, but didn't end up getting anything since we were on a search for a bargain (like we always are)! We then decided to walk to Chinatown to get some Chinese takeout. In doing so, we walked through Carnaby Street and found a store called Monki that had really good deals. I ended up getting a purple knit sweater for 5 pounds and Cailin got a silver and black sweater with geometric designs on it for 8 pounds! Deal! By the time we made it to Chinatown we were starving, but there were so many restaurants to choose from that we just kept walking and looking at all the menus. When we picked a place, we ordered Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Special Fried Rice. It was so good and tasted really fresh and more authentic than American Chinese food. 

The next day, we wanted to get up and ready pretty early so we'd have enough time for a full museum day! We decided to go to the Victoria & Albert Museum and then Harrods after! They're both in the same section of London, more specifically, Kensington, so it made sense to tackle them both in one day. However, the V&A was huge and took a pretty long time to look through. We spent a decent amount of our time in the fashion section (Tara's favorite!) and saw how the styles have changed from decade to decade. I loved the vintage Givenchy and of course the Victorian style dresses are always fun to envision yourself in! 

After that, we looked through the section filled with statues, and preceded to the  areas devoted to different Asian countries. In the Nepal and Tibet section we were surprised to see there was a statue of a goddess named Tara! 

Along with seeing interesting things from so many different countries, we saw Raphael Cartoons which were huge and took up full walls! The V&A definitely has something for everybody and if you're in London you should go see it... but be warned, you'll need at least half a day! 

After grabbing a quick lunch at our favorite cheap, little restaurant, Pret-A-Manger, (which can be found all over London) we went straight to Harrods. I had heard from friends that they had an animal kingdom, a Disney section, and tons of food aside from the beautiful clothes, so we wanted to spend a good amount of time there too. 

Really Harrods is just for admiring all the gorgeous things in it, and as I've heard people say, it really does seems more like a museum than an actual store. We did end up buying a few things though... in the food section of course!

I was amazed by all of the food there. Everything you could possibly ever want to eat in your life was there, including my favorite, macarons! Just the chocolate and pastry section could have easily emptied my wallet. We had some self-restraint though and "window-shopped" through the gourmet chocolate section despite wanting the best flavors of truffles I have ever seen!

The Animal Kingdom was also really cool and had fish, reptiles, hamsters, puppies and kittens for sale! How cool would it be to say you got a pet from Harrods?! We also loved all of the clothes and are planning to go back again and try some things on just for fun. After a full day in two "museums" we were so tired and headed back to our dorms, but felt really accomplished that we got all of that done in only a day!

Ofzcourse it wouldn't be a sister weekend without our favorite activity (thrift-shopping!) so the next day we planned on going to a vintage store in Highbury and Islington. We had never been to the area before but since the Overground train we normally take, goes straight there, we didn't think it'd be too difficult to maneuver. The store is in North London and since we're in South London it took a good 45 minutes to get there but it was worth it! Islington is a borough of London, and is filled with a lot of businesses and has a college town vibe. Since London Metropolitan University is in the area, there were a lot of college kids around, and stores that reflected what college students would like. After looking through some really cool vintage clothes and trying on many leather jackets (but knowing we shouldn't bring more clothes home since our suitcases were huge enough), we found a place called iShake and decided to get... of course, shakes! They had really cool flavors and Tara and I both ended up getting one that had Ferrero Rocher, Aero chocolate, and Oreo crumbles in it! 

Our sister weekend extended a little longer into the week and on Tuesday while our friends were in class, the two of us went to the Wellcome Collection's Death Exhibit. Although it may sound creepy, I actually loved it! Yes, there were skulls everywhere and some aspects were more morbid than others, but it showed a lot of paintings, drawings, and scupltures that were really unique. The curator of the show also did a great job and organized the exhibit into different rooms. Every room had a theme and there was a specific order the viewer had to follow. The colorful skulls from Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) were definitely my favorite! The Wellcome Collection is housed in a cool space as well. With a cafe that had tons of seating and delicious looking food, the place seemed like more of a hang out than a stop-by art gallery. It's been really fun discovering new things in London and finding places that we like. Since Tara and I are interested in many of the same things, it's even better to explore the city with my sister!