BLOGYSSEY: Love at First Sight

London, London, London. I could write a novel, no, a series of novels about how much I love the place. Even though I was only there for 3 days I managed to see so much, which only made me realise how much more I was missing. Though I made it to Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, I didn’t have time for the Camden Markets, Museums or London Bridge. If there is one thing I am certain of in my future travels, it is that I will go back to London.

I always knew my third blog would be about London, but I thought it would be a quick summary of it all. Now I realise my ignorance, and that quick summary and London should never be put in the same sentence, so I will only be able to touch on my amazing experiences of a beautiful city.

Streets in London

Many Christmases ago my sisters and I were given charm bracelets from our parents and were instructed to fill them with memories. Up until a month ago mine still had only 4 charms, collected over those many years. So since deciding to travel I had been incredibly excited to collect one charm from every country I went to starting with England. On my first day in London I headed off to Covent Garden in search of a jewellery shop and a charm. Little did I know it would be 5 hours before I would eventually find one! As much as I would love to talk about how beautiful Covent Gardens is, or how I could not believe how many people there were on Oxford Street, where I am actually going with this is the amazing place I got lost in on my way to find a charm. While trying to find the House of Fraser, I stumbled upon Bond Street. Now on the English Monopoly board we have at home, Bond Street is 4^th most expensive street to buy. And now I understand why! Walking further and further down the street, the shops became more and more beautiful, and expensive! I past jewellery shop after jewellery shop, every time too scared to actually go inside. The window displays showcased necklaces dripping with diamonds and other expensive gems, next to which beautiful gold and silver rings lay propped up on mini silk cushions. They were the kind of jewellery shops where there was no need to have a price tags, because if you were the type of person to shop there, price didn’t matter. I had always thought there was only poor, normal, and rich. Now I realise there is poor, normal, rich, and price-tag-not-necessary. By this time I realised there was no way I would be entering any of these shops, and even if I did, I couldn’t dream to afford even a charm. However, the magic and wonder of this street had me captured and I couldn’t help but to keep walking and keep looking. After the jewellery shops came the clothes shops. Ralph Daniels, Dior, Chanel and other designer brands I had never heard of. Each of these shops had beautiful double doors, each with its own doorman decked up in proper uniform, hat, gloves and all. The windows into these shops were purely to show window displays as behind the displays were walls blocking the actual shop from view. But the window displays were enough. Beautiful clothes were carefully matched and dressed on manikins who had been made to look as though they were dancing, or laying gracefully, soaked in wealth. Other displays were incredibly creative with entire stories in the space of one square meter. One that particularly caught my eye was an entire night ocean scene. Mice and men were sailing over rough waters in shoes, and atop a cliff stood beautiful leather gloves. I had never seen such an amazing window display in my life! Finally I reached the end of Bond Street, and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Though I could and probably will never be able to afford to shop there, something about the place made me feel incredibly happy and peaceful. Similar, I could imagine to how Holly Golightly felt about going into Tiffany’s when she had the mean reds; “the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it. Nothing very bad could happen to you there.”

Window Displays on Bond Street

England/London Themed Charm (I eventually found!)

However, as much as I love London, and it would be my dream to live there at some point in my life there were a number of things that made me realise just how beautiful, and clean New Zealand is. On my second day in London, which was filled with the London Eye, Big Ben, Neal’s Yard, lots of walking and hundreds of people, I began to notice the things that were in stark contrast to New Zealand. Looking at all the typical London landmarks in real life was incredible. Looking back on my photos now, I still feel like I am just looking at photos from We Heart It or Tumblr. I can’t believe I was actually there. Whilst walking I was constantly amazed by the size and beauty of the buildings that lined the road. In New Zealand, if I wanted to get from one part of town to the other, there would be open spaces, estuaries or fields in between each section, but in London you could walk for hours and in streets with buildings so high that all you can see are the streets, buildings and the sky. From Kings Cross to Covent Garden and Soho, there is no break for fields or open spaces. I loved how many buildings there were, and how tall and grand they stood, proud, old and strong filled with countless memories. But it also made me realize how beautiful it is to live in a country that has open land and waters, where it still feels wild, untamed and untouched by humans. Later I was again presented with a London/NZ contrast. I was walking over the Waterloo Bridge and I stopped in the middle to look out towards the London Eye and Big Ben. The weather while I was In London was spectacular with few or no clouds in the sky, however from the bridge which was not that far from Big Ben, I could not clearly see it or the surrounding buildings. It was as though I was looking at them through a hazy screen. And then I realised, that was smog. Looking up along the skyline, it also looked as though there was fog, yet I knew it could not be fog, and so must also be smog. And when looking up into the clear sky, it was not the blue that I often saw at home, but a light washed out colour like a pair of old, faded light blue jeans (I must say that if in any photos the sky looks a gorgeous blue, that is thanks to my lovely editing programme!). There were so many things I absolutely loved about London, but what I missed was true blue skies and open spaces that are found so easily in New Zealand. Though I know people say money cannot buy happiness, I figure if I was rich I could spend half a year in London with its beautiful buildings and spend it up in Bond Street, and half a year in New Zealand for the open wild spaces, blue sky and fresh air. And to be honest, that sounds like happiness to me!