Welcome back, my literary friends!

My first week in London comes to a close, and what a week it has been! I played the resident, the tourist, a local and was even asked for directions at one point! I met up with a dear friend, made a new one and got to know this vibrant new city.

I also had the pleasure of ticking off a few bucket list items this week too including;

• Attending The Cursed Child on West End

• Taking a tour of Tower Bridge

• Visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum

I am not going to lie; one of the highlights of this week was attending Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the West End. I was lucky enough to get very good last-minute seats and saved quite a bit of money in the process. It was an absolute delight! There were aspects of the performance that were quite literally magical!

One thing I’ve come to learn about London is just how expensive everything is! I knew it was bad, but when factoring in the Australian dollar (about 1/2), everything hurts more! The best way to explain it is that pretty much everything in London costs about the same as it does in Brisbane, except that you’re paying for it in pounds, not dollars, so double it. A gin and tonic, for example, £12, when converted, costs just shy of $24 AUD. So when contemplating a menu and noting that mains cost £30, you will essentially be paying about $60 AUD for that dish.

On days that I wasn’t working, I walked around the city, only occasionally catching the tube. This is both a great way to achieve incidental exercise but also to save money. I was blessed with the most magical weather this week, so seeing London on foot was a delight.

I visited the Sky Garden, a beautiful glass building adorned with a garden and rooftop cafe with envious views across the city (it is free entry but tickets must be booked online for a designated timeslot). Then spent the afternoon walking the trendy ‘brick lane’ and visiting the huge Spitalfields indoor Markets where my friend and I enjoyed mulled wine and hot macaroni and cheese whilst perusing the wares.

The next morning I was up early to walk to Notting Hill, checking out the Blue Door and the book shop renowned for the film of the same name. I also walked to Portobello road, enjoying the brightly painted facades of the flats. Once I’d concluded my sightseeing in that corner of the city, I walked through Kensington Gardens, admiring the beautiful palace and sprawling lawns beneath a radiant sky. To conclude my very energetic day, I made my way to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which to my surprise, was entirely free to enter. There I saw historical artifacts from across the globe, jewels from throughout history, including two priceless tiaras of Queen Victoria’s. The V&A museum was magnificent, and I could very easily have spent an entire day there. I couldn’t fathom how such a big collection could be sustained with free entry for visitors.

This week I also walked by Big Ben, strolled the gardens of St Paul’s cathedral, paced one of the largest cemeteries in London, Brompton Cemetery, visited the Harry Potter store at Kings Cross Station, ate my first Yorkshire pudding, and saw the ‘thinnest’ residential building in London.

x A