Posts tagged United Kingdom

Another Letter from London: Somewhere Between Rain and Wind…

Adventure Life Lifestyle Tips Travel 4 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? I really hope that you’re doing great, because today I have a special post about London! I have not written posts on the blog for almost a month and I have to admit that this was hard time for me. Before I start with today’s post, I would like to take the opportunity to apologize for the unexpected break due to health problems and press trips where I was further “exhausted” so I failed to recover. For a month, I almost have a cold that I have not managed to heal completely because I was so active, instead of sleeping at my home and drinking some warm drinks like tea… Well, in the end, you never know why it’s good!

Many of you wrote to me on social networks and on the email when I will publish new posts and why I’m not active on the blog? All of you who follow my work know how much I love my blog, but sometimes some unexpected situations happen and I can not achieve everything at once. I promise that we will be hanging out more often this month, and believe me this pause on the blog may be good because you don’t know how amazing new interesting  posts I’ve prepared just for you guys!

Why did I get sick (again)?! Because in the past few weeks, I changed few countries, few totally different climate and time zones so I lost many hours of healthy “beauty” sleep and believe me it’s not good at all! Turkey, Russia, and England totally three different climates, time zones that it’s completely normal that if you’re getting sick on this trip, you just need to start praying to God that you can not return to even more sickness… What happened to me, of course, while I’m writing this post the best friends of mine today are the drops of nose, wipes and a tea. Great!

London was the last stop on this special European “cruise”, you are wondering why I did not start in chronological order like any normal blogger usually do… I think this time has won this little love for the English capital which I had the opportunity to visit in January of this year and I already knew that I’m going to visit again this year, but I did not know exactly when…

This time I had a little more time, full three days, so it’s much better than 48 hours! Believe me when you’re sick, 72 hours looks like an eternity to you. The worst thing that can happen to you when traveling is to GET SICK! The biggest damage is that you came to enjoy and discover something new, but your organism obviously has some other plans for you… Finally, my crazy personality won, so I cried in the room at night with the high temperature, and during the day I was playing a role of the real “Londoner”.

Now I have one “serious” question for you guys, listen up! When you are traveling, do you like to “put in” your schedule and Sunday as well or do you like to avoid this day? Usually people when they plan to travel, they tend to be from Wednesday to Sunday or Thursday to Sunday. Simply, just to have little time to get ready for a new working week. In my case, when I have possibility to arrange my trip, I like to spend that famous day in a certain destination.

Of course, for some it is not interesting at all, but a big metropolis like London, central core on Sunday is almost empty, I know it well because the true British people love to spend their free time at fairs, which are related to the lifestyle itself (food, sweets, teas and other deacons).

I spent this beautiful Sunday on the streets in the heart of London because I like to see nice things, no matter that in 90% of cases I have no financial opportunities to follow these trends, but I always like to see beautiful things and get some inspiration.  Sunday is my favorite day for me in London, because I have all the streets for myself, there is no crowd and I can pretty much look around the shop windows… Lucky me! 🙂

London is a city that is famous for its climate because of the rain and probably you will have more chances to see the Queen in the supermarket buying a bread, rather than a beautiful and sunny day. London as a city is very beautiful and does not bother me personally when it’s cold, rainy and even foggy because in London you can always do something interesting. The only thing I do not like is their obsession for renovating of the building, so every time I visit London always, but literally I always find some London symbol covered as it is being renovated, as you can see in the picture above… Thank God and the Germans do not like so much to renovate , otherwise I would be crazy already…

In the picture above, you can see the most visited place and best spot for the photos if you want to show people that you finally visited London! Who was not in London before, has the feeling that the Picardy Circus Square is so big and reminds a little of New York, but after that same person come to London and realize that this is a big misconception and that Piccadilly Circus such a small square, but that does not mean that it is not beautiful… You should not be blind and to believe to the pictures at IG, because you can disappoint yourself later.

Let me now return to the beginning of this adventure of my travels which started with a trip to Turkey where I had the opportunity to work with the world airline company Turkish Airlines where I met the culture of Eastern Turkey, once again I had an amazing ride with the train after the adventure in India, with a famous train in Turkey that received the label “Turkish Orient Express” – Dogu Express, I meet new colleagues, made some new friends from the Balkan and Eastern Europe region. After this adventure I went to Russia, and as you see, Turkish Airlines has followed me everywhere. I can not wait to share with you all my impressions from Turkey!

Well, I know well that I turned off the topic again, but what to do when I am too much creative and childish and always I want to share with you as much as I can, so I love to write! I like this part of London because I know that I’m getting closer to my most favorite building in London, located in Regent Street at No. 121… That’s the biggest Burberry shop, I like to say the biggest Burberry department store in the world!

The most famous British fashion brand Burberry has captured the hearts of their loyal fans around the world with their eternal elegance and classic trenches and coats, but also Burberry print also became synonym of England and the United Kingdom in general. A fashion story lasting more than 150 years continues to intrigue the world. That’s why, a few years ago, they opened a unique Regent 121 store where literally they have everything, but EVERYTHING! You need some runway model of trench? limited collection of scarves? This is the place for you! Each time I visit this store, my heart just wants to jump out because it would like to take everything home, but of course we come to the real border of reality and the dreams where you realize that if you succeed to buy just one thing, you will bring with you Part of England.

As far as I’m concerned, they could lock me up here to sleep, I would not be upset at all, I do not think I would sleep at all and I would suffer from chronic insomnia because of such nice things here… I think Burberry should consider my proposal to be the part of ” live “inventory of their fashion family and that would be my happy end for me!

During this visit to London, I thought at least a million times: “God, why my photographer doesn’t apply for a visa of UK!”. All this because of these almost half-empty streets that would be ideal for making some photos, but I didn’t have anyone to take some photos of me. On the other hand, how I was ill maybe at least I hid a little my “perfect” look at the moment because of huge fatigue and exhaustion.

The photo which you see above came from the need to try to take the photo of a gentleman who you can see on the other side of the street with red jacket because I liked the jacket very much and I was convinced that it was the same red jacket that I saw on the previous day at a sale in a department store, but it was not my size… Of course, when it was on 70% discount and when I wasn’t the lucky one to get it, but at least this picture turned out fantastic! As I wrote at the beginning of this post: “I believe that everything in life happens for a reason!”.

This building called Liberty House will always remain in my memory when I once was with a friend in London and when we found ourselves near this unusual department store I said that it would be good to check if they have the jacket from the brand that was on some big discount in another shop, she was so horrified and she just had strength to answer: “Marko, how can you look for a jacket in the museum, do you see that is a house in a famous tudor style ?! You’re crazy! “. A few minutes later she was convinced that it was an unusual department store so she did not want to talk to me for a couple of hours because she felt some sort of a shame. ?

My dear travellers once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! This post will be my first for this month and there are lot posts to come soon. See you next week, with some new interesting stories!

At the end of the post, I would like to thank my friends from the London City Tourism Board, my friends from Sony who have challenged me again to use new little monster Xperia XZ3, new member of Sony Xperia family. All the pictures that you saw today in this post were created with the help of my new little friend Sony Xperia XZ3 and I began to think that I no longer need to carry the camera on the trip with me. This was a unique opportunity to introduce you a little better with a lifestyle of the city like London and I hope I’m going to visit soon one of my favorite cities in Europe.

How do you like this post about London? Have you ever visited England or UK? Did you have chance to enjoy in the magic of the London? I would like to share with me your experience! If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

This post is sponsored by the London Tourism Board, with the unselfish support of other partners of the tourist organization. I also thank Sony for this challenge and I’ve made some amazing pictures with their new Xperia XZ3. I also thank Burberry Limited, in following posts you will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of their interesting creations.
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Letter from London: Centre of Hedonism in 48 Hours

Adventure Travel 6 Comments

Hi everyone, how are you today? Have you finished all the preparations for the weekend? As I promised you last week, today I will show you all the beauties of the capital of England – London. A couple of days ago, with the help of my friends from the London City Tourism Board, I was able to visit London and to spend an unforgettable 48 hours in the capital of Europe that never sleeps.

When someone mentions you a word – London , what is your first association? For me it’s raining, misty weather, beautiful architecture and, of course, iconic coats and umbrellas from the British brand that I really adore – Burberry. London is a city for hedonists, a place where it is simply impossible to be dissatisfied with the service or selection of brands or shops, because London is itself a center of true hedonism.

I visited London for the first time as a kid whom my parents made to go with them and I would rather stay in Belgrade to play with my “squad” from the neighbourhood. Tt was winter time, December just before the Christmas holiday. I cried all the time, until my parents took me to see the famous Harrods department store that you can not simply skip easily when you come to London.

When you’re in London for holidays it’s just not important, do you had the money to buy something, or just come as tourists to enjoy in the Christmas spirit. That department store was incredible, especially for a kid who no longer wanted to return home. New Year’s magic made irreparable “damage” in the heart of a little Marko.

I’m sure that you know that well-know fact that the symbols of the London city are famous callbox and red dabldeker buses and every time you meet one of these two symbols on the street, you know that you have come to the capital of England. The English people and all the other nations that are part of the United Kingdom are completely different from the rest of Europe. Mentality, the way of life, and even humor is completely different, and who has not spent time with them can not understand some of their actions, behaviour and ways of life for a long time. Their humor on the first sight is not recognizable, their jokes make no sense to us, but if you spend time with them realize that they are completely different and their jokes are one big true.

Walking along the banks of Thames is always relaxing, whenever I get to this city I have to walk around this river and visit the Hyde Park for unusual furry friends – squirrels that are just so big and adorable, because they are all fed by people, but they are so funny and sweet. Since this time I was not able to visit everything in 48 hours which I had available in London, I decided to visit my sweet furry friends next time.

London is a city which welcome all of its visitors with open heart, it is not important whether you are a traveler with a limited budget or a wealthier traveler who has dropping diamonds out of the pocket, London is always here to welcome you. The only thing that is a bit harder for some countries, for example for Serbia and the surrounding countries of the region is Visa! Getting a visa for England is once an impossible mission, my friends have been denied twice, they simply do not know why, but they got a visa for the third time …

Not even today, none of us can understand why. The other thing is the price of a visa that changes from time to time, I did not pay the visa this time, so I do not know what its current price is now, but I know that the cheapest price is always over 100 British Pounds (B. Pound is significantly stronger than the Euro) .

What shouldn’t miss in London? My top 10 sights which you just can’t not miss!

  1. Big Ben Tower Clock
  2. Buckingham Palace
  3. London Eye
  4. Tower Bridge
  5. Trafalgar Square
  6. The oldest public opened museum on the world – British Museum
  7. National Gallery of London
  8. Hyde Park
  9. Walking around the Thames river
  10. St. Paul Cathedral

If you decide to buy a flight ticket from low-cost companies on time (2.3 or more months in advance) or take advantage of the action with low-cost airlines Wizzair, Easy Jet or some other low-cost airline company you can visit London for some really small amount of the money like 30-50 euros for return flight tickets per person. The only thing you should pay attention to is the location of the Luton Airport (where the Wizzair company operates) or other airports like Stansted, Gatwick, so you have to calculate that you will have to travel around approximately additional one to two hours, sometimes more to reach the London city. This is a little advice for all adventurers who choose this way of coming to London.

Is it possible to visit all the major attractions in London for 48 hours? It depends on you, primarily what you want to visit in London. For all the famous attractions in the city, sometimes there is a big line, and if you have only two days available to see the city, then it’s better to choose one or two attractive sights and come early in the morning to stand in line and pray to God as soon as you get to your goal.

London is an imposing city by itself. There has always been some sort of rivalry between Paris or London, which city is more beautiful, which city is more interesting… I can say that every city is beautiful in its own way, Paris is more charming and melodic harmony, on the other hand London is an urban centre and modern with completely different culture of life.

Cities such as Rome, Paris or London do not change at all, they are only maintained and slightly improved; these are cities that do not change their appearance and perhaps it is precisely in this interesting fact hides the magic of their popularity that simply does not turn off with time. London is the center of culture, art and all possible and impossible major events. It’s simply a city that does not sleep and where everything is possible.

London is also a great center for all gastronomy fans. Whoever likes and knows how to enjoy this kind of art, food for me is a pure art. Of course, we all have to cook something on a daily basis, but when we go to a special restaurant or want to feel the magic of some new cuisine or exotic tastes then each one of us likes to go to enjoy and the food then comes out of standard frame of everyday life and turns into a new dimension of art. If you want to enjoy the kingdom of countless unusual kitchens, London is the perfect place for you.

Of course, whoever loves shopping must immediately know that you have come to a real little paradise for shopaholics. Depending on your budget, London can offer you products from just a 2 pounds to some of the prices that normal people can just imagine about. That is London and in this city it’s just impossible to be dissatisfied with the choice, but you can always find nice things depending on your options. Of course it would not be bad if you go to see what the famous Bond Street and New Bond street which are just a real delight in luxury fashion world.

Of course, around London there are outlet villages, whole small towns where you can buy things at discounted prices. I would just like to mention that for this satisfaction you need a little more than two days stay in London, because in these outlet villages there you will spend almost one full day, and on the other hand, the offer of brands is mostly middle class and luxury premium brands that can be bought at reduced prices. There are also a handful of cheaper street brands in their offer, but it’s not really worth paying you 20 pounds for the bus shuttle ticket to the outlets to save 15 pounds for a thing you would normally buy in the city. If you are planning some nice shopping it is really worth to go there and I’m sure you will definitely find something nice for yourself.

London is a well-known fashion center, and Fashion Week – London Fashion Week is held every year, and separate collections for men and women are distributed all year round (4 fashion events for 2 fashionable seasons). Then on the streets you can see real fashionistas and London becomes one big catwalk. It’s pretty interesting to see, but as a blogger I have not yet had the opportunity to go to this unique event, I think that my time is coming soon!

My dear travellers once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! This post will be my first post this February and there are lot posts to come soon. See you next week, with some new interesting story!

At the end of the post, I would like to thank my friends from the London City Tourism Board, my friends from Sony who have challenged me to test the possibilities of the new Xperia XZ3, new Sony family member. All the pictures that you saw today in this post were created with the help of my new little friend Sony Xperia XZ3 and I began to think that I no longer need to carry the camera on the trip with me. This was a unique opportunity to get to know you a little better with a city like London and to visit again one of my favorite cities in Europe.

How do you like this post about London? Have you ever visited England or UK? Did you have chance to enjoy in the magic of the London? I would like to share with me your experience! If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

This post is sponsored by the London Tourism Board, with the unselfish support of other partners of the tourist organization. I also thank Sony for this challenge and I’ve made some amazing pictures with their new Xperia XZ3. I also thank Burberry Limited, in following posts you will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of their interesting creations.
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