Ciao! This week I ate a lot of good food and took a weekend trip to London! Come read about what I did and my tips and recommendations for visiting London. Check out my London highlights here.
Monday
Mondays after weekend trips are are my reset days. On Monday I tried a cute cafe on my street called Ghibellina Bakery and got myself a cappuccino. Then I spent my day planning my trip to London for the weekend!
Tuesday
On Tuesday in my cooking class we made swordfish and I did not like it at all. I was proud of myself for at least giving it a try. Then after class I headed to the Piazzale Michelangelo steps for sunset. This is definitely the best spot in Florence to watch the sunset in my opinion. I recommend getting there 45 minutes before sunset as it does get crowded pretty quickly. After sunset we went and got frozen margaritas at I’Margaritaio Cantina Messicana.
Wednesday
Wednesday I went to La Ménagère to get some work done and passed the Duomo on my way there and it was so nice out this day. La Ménagère is a good place to get work done in Florence but is a bit on the pricerier side for food and drinks. I was feeling pretty tired after getting homework done so then I went to Rosalia and got a salad.
Thursday
On Thursday I did fashion market analysis for a research project and went back to La Ménagère to get more work done with friends. Afterwards, I did laundry and packed for London. I also found this hidden gem kebab place called Pizza & co Thursday night.
Friday
On Friday we woke up really early to catch the train to Pisa for our flight to London. When flying out of Italy, I recommend using google flights in a private browsing window and checking departures from Pisa, Bologna, Rome, Florence, and Milan and seeing which is the cheapest to your destination. We usually fly Ryanair out of Pisa late on Thursday or early on Friday for the cheapest flights. The train to Pisa takes about an hour and then you take the tram from the train station to the airport. We flew into London Stansted Airport.
There were 8 of us on this trip to London so we decided to stay in a hostel. We stayed at the Generator London which was a decent stay overall.
Click here to book the hostel I stayed in.
Covent Garden, Opera House, and London Bridge Rooftop Bar
After checking in on Friday we grabbed lunch at O’neills, went to the Harry Potter Store in Kings Cross station, and ubered to Covent Garden. O’neills is a great pub to grab a quick bite to eat. The Harry Potter store is pretty small and we wanted to go to the Platform but it cost €20 which wasn’t worth it in our opinion. Afterwards, we took an uber to Covent Garden (we definitely could’ve taken the metro but we didn’t have it figured out yet). I highly reccomend a trip to Covent Garden in London. Here we went to the Opera House and saw the view from the rooftop bar. Then we explored the shops and stumbled across a store called Whittard where we sampled different teas and hot chocolates for free. Then we headed to the main square and watched some street performances.
Friday night we checked out the London Bridge Rooftop Bar. The bar is a bit pricey and doesn’t have the best views of London in my opinion but was still a fun place to grab food and drinks. I will say that it was really really cold and the heaters were not working, so take that into consideration before you go.
Saturday
Saturday was our first full day in London. We started out the morning by checking out all the famous red telephone boxes, followed by bagels at B Bagel. I cannot say enough good things about B Bagel; I was craving a bagel so badly and their bagels are so good. We went everyday we were in London and got the everything bagel toasted with chive and onion cream cheese and a large mocha. My friends said the bagels were no where near as good as a New York or New Jersey bagel, but I still thought it was pretty good. It was also super nice to eat American food.
Portobello Market and Borough Market
Afterwards, we took the metro to Portobello Market. I thought the Little Italy market in San Diego was big, but let me tell you this market is HUGE. We easily could’ve spent hours here. They have everything from fresh produce and pastries, to flowers, perfumes, vintage clothing, postcards, and street food. Definitely plan to spend a good 2-3 hours here to fully enjoy it. I got a postcard and a pair of earrings. We had already planned to go to Borough Market after so we didn’t grab food here, but all the food looked incredible.
London Tower Bridge, London Eye, and Big Ben
A must see in London is Borough Market. Borough Market reminded me of Liberty Public Market in San Diego but 10x bigger. Since we went on a Saturday it was really crowded but still worth it. They have almost every kind of food here. I was really craving Asian food my whole time in London so I got chicken wontons from one of the stands. When in Borough Market be sure to hit the famous chocolate covered strawberry place. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I liked the chocolate covered strawberries in Switzerland better. The ones at Borough Market are good but the chocolate hardens pretty quickly, and the line is done in an assembly line fashion so you feel rushed and not fully able to enjoy the experience. I think we paid 8 euro for a full cup which could easily be split between two people. Another thing to note is there is not a whole lot of seating here to be prepared to eat standing up.
After Borough Market we went to made our way to the London Tower Bridge. It’s free to go on the main level of the bridge. The bridge is fairly close to the London Eye and Big Ben so I recommend doing all 3 at the same time. After the bridge we went and saw the London Eye. We opted to not ride it just because the weather wasn’t great and we didn’t think it was worth 30 euro. After the London Eye we went and saw Big Ben. If I could do London again I would probably make a plan to see Big Ben during the day as it is kind of hard to see at night.
Megan’s Restaurant
After sight seeing we went to Megan’s restaurant. I’m kind of a food snob when traveling so I usually plan where we are going to eat and my friends plan the activities. I saw so many good things about this restaurant and knew we had to try it out. They have really good seasonal and weekly deals as well. Megan’s is a super cute Greek Turkish fusion restaurant. They have many locations throughout London. I ordered the open chicken kebab and it was amazing. Truly one of the best things I’ve ever had. Everyone said the food was some of the best food they’ve ever had.
Something I love about London is how many different types of food you can eat here. I was tired of Italian food at this point so it was really nice to be able to eat all different cuisines. Many people told me the food in London is bad, but I had some of the best food here. Something I also wanted to note about London is that they are extremely good about food allergies. everywhere we went asked about food allergies and made accommodations to ensure I was safe to eat the food.
Saturday night we tried to go out in Soho. I am not a fan of Soho, it reminded me of Vegas. If you do end up going, go earlier around 10:30pm and go to O’neills or Simmons Bar.
Sunday
Notting Hill and Buckingham Palace
On Sunday we checked out the colorful houses near Notting Hill. It is worth noting that there are multiple streets with colorful houses all in different parts of the city so if there is a particular street you want to go to be sure to research where it is beforehand.
Afterwards we went o Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. We got there 45 minutes early and it was still packed. There are also a lot of pickpockets here so if you go be sure to keep all your stuff secured. In my opinion the changing of the guard was not very exciting, but it’s still cool to see at least once, just pretty uneventful.
Honest Burger & Harrods
Sunday afternoon most people left to go home, but my roommate and I opted to stay an extra day. We moved into a 2 person private room at the Generator London and it was very nice. Then I met up with one of my best friends from San Diego who is studying abroad in London for the semester. We met at Kings Cross and went to Honest Burger for lunch. This place was sooo good. I got a fried chicken sandwich and fresh homemade lemonade. Afterwards, we went to Harrods, a luxury department store. We walked around the store and the city a bit more. Then Sunday night my roommate and I grabbed more Asian food at this grab and go place (I don’t remember the name of it).
Sunday night we met up with some friends and went to a different Simmons Bar location. It was dead, but still fun to hangout in. If you’re in London my friend recommended downloading the app “Dusk” where you can see where has free drink promotions around the city. I tried it back in Florence, but I think it only works in London. We took a red bus back to the Hostel Sunday night.
Monday
Monday I went back to B Bagel, got some homework done and packed up to go back to Florence. This was my first Friday to Monday trip and I definitely prefer doing Thursday to Sunday trips so that I can have Monday to reset.
