What a year!

As of today it has been exactly a year since I arrived in London. I’m feeling a mixture of pride, disbelief (that’s it’s already been a year!), sadness that half my time here has already gone by but also optimism for the year ahead. What a year it’s been; I haven’t travelled quite as much as I had expected/hoped to (London is a very expensive city to live in!) but I still managed to travel to Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Scotland and a few random places/towns around England so that’s not too bad.

First, a few pictures of what I’ve been up to over the holidays. In December, Dan and I went to Bruges with BritBound to see one of Europe’s famous Christmas markets. I was a little disappointed by the market since I had been looking at pictures of Berlin and Prague’s markets before going and Bruges is tiny but it is still a charming little town and we had a good time. Here are a few pictures of 1) the ferry crossing to France, 2) Bruges town square (where the market is) and 3) the best thing about Belgium: food (especially chocolate) and beer!

I love London at Christmas time – from the iconic Harrods all lit up to the cute shop decorations. It also turns out that London has its own Christmas market in Hyde Park (amongst many others) called Winter Wonderland. We went to this market and it is basically a Christmas version of Oktoberfest – it was great! I also used it as an opportunity to proudly display my Canada mittens!

I was lucky enough to have some of my family come visit me in London this Christmas and we went on a tour of Scotland (Edinburgh, Highlands & Inverness) for Christmas. This was a Haggis Adventures tour and it was really great: very well organized, fantastic guide/driver and all-around good fun! This is my second Haggis Adventures tour and I really recommend them for anyone wanting to visit Scotland in a fun and affordable way. They also have these cute little busses but sometimes, there are creepers on the bus (note: this may only be when my brother is on board):

So we started off in Edinburgh:

Then moved up in the Scottish Highlands through two national parks, around Loch Ness, stopped by the Culloden memorial site and up to Inverness:

And we had a lovely Christmas dinner at the Royal Highland Hotel (famous for its Royal visitors and the staircase that inspired the one in Titanic) in Inverness which included a haggis, neeps & taties starter (delicious!):

And we even got to visit some of my favourites: Hairy Coos!

It was a great trip with very scenic views and good Scottish fun. We eventually make our way back to London in time for the new year where my mom and I went for posh afternoon tea at The Dorchester:

And we celebrated New Year’s Eve in style after a visit to Nobu where I had the best meal of my life. I had delicious tuna tacos (not pictured), Wagyu beef and this chocolate tart for dessert that started out as a chocolate ball but after hot chocolate was poured on it (at the table), it melted into a tart – so cool! I have eaten at some great restaurants in my life but this is by far the best meal I have ever had. I now need to save up my pennies and go back soon!

Finally, since I have now spent a year living in London, I thought I would list my advice for the top ten things to do when moving abroad:

1. Get an iPhone

I have never been a big Apple fan but the iPhone has lots of great apps like CityMapper (which has saved me so many times), Whatsapp, Skype and FaceTime which make it easy (and free!) to stay in touch with people from back home. It was a big expense for me but definitely worth it.

2. Network

I am a relatively shy person and it’s hard for me to push myself to meet new people but this was part of this experience. Groups like BritBound and Meetups are the perfect place to meet new people when you move abroad by yourself and most people in those groups are in the exact same situation so I felt that this made it a little easier. I feel that it’s important to meet people or this experience wouldn’t be the same.

3. Make time to call home

It’s easy when your life starts picking up to forget to call your family/friends but I found that it’s been worth making the time for it (even though I’m still not doing it enough). Whether it’s for moral support, a good chat or, more importantly, to order more supplies of stuff only found in Canada, it is important and I will do it more this year.

4. Travel every chance you get

As I said before, I came here hoping to travel more but it’s important to continuously budget for holidays. While travelling within Europe may seem cheap compared to travelling from Canada, travel expenses still add up and it’s good to budget to make the most of it. I have started savings jars that I hope will help with more European city breaks in 2015!

5. Join discount sites

Shortly after I got here I signed up to free websites like TimeOut, Amazon Local and Groupon and started receiving daily email deals for restaurants, theatre tickets, tourist attractions, shops, etc. The discounts are usually very good and it’s definitely worth taking the time to scroll through a few emails every day.

6. See shows!

London is a great place to see theatre, musicals, ballets, operas, orchestras, etc. Using the websites I mentioned above you can easily find discounted tickets and I try to remind myself once in a while to go see some world-class shows! So far I have seen Les Misérables (a few times…it’s my favourite), Wicked, The Nutcracker and Miss Saigon. I missed out on seeing Richard III starring Martin Freeman (I heard mixed reviews anyway) and I’m determined to get tickets to Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch next fall. Coming up, I have tickets to the Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses and the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular which I’m excited for. I would also like to see another ballet and an opera too.

7. Write about your experiences

I have found that writing entries in this blog can be therapeutic but it also reminds me of all the things I have done. Even this entry now, if I wasn’t taking the time to write this, I wouldn’t have fully realized how much I have done over the past year and how amazing it’s been! It can also be nice to re-read some of my past entries which brings back memories of what I was going through at the time.

8. Pack light

London has everything and more that you can every need. I think that there is no need to pack things like towels, laundry bags and random accessories as some blogs/websites suggest. It’s easier to arrive here with a lighter bag and buy everything you need once here. There are affordable places like Primark and Argos that have very low prices, even in London. I now regret dragging my super heavy suitcase around everywhere when I first arrived.

9. Talk to the locals

I have found that people love to talk about their neighbourhoods and things that they love. It’s easy to start up a conversation with “I’m not from here, do you have any advice on what to do?” since people almost always have something to say. People often volunteer travel advice/things to do when they hear my accent and realize that I’m not from around here so it’s also a good way to meet people.

10. Just do it already!

This, I think, is my best piece of advice. Stop being scared of what could go wrong and take the plunge. I believe that, as long as you keep an open mind, this type of adventure can only be a success. To cap things off, as always, a quote that touches on this last point:

Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.

Eleanor Roosevelt

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It’s been a while since I last wrote and fall has come and gone in London. While this typically means more rain (and then lots more for winter!), it was still wonderful to see the fall colours around the city. Here are a few pictures of autumn:

What have I been up to these past few months? Well, September was a busy month as my friend Jen visited and we went out exploring quite a bit. First, we went for fancy afternoon tea at Brown’s Hotel. It was very luxurious and everything tasted amazing – definitely worth the expense.

Second, we went on a day trip to Oxford, Stratford (where we visited the house Shakespeare grew up in) and Warwick Castle. It was great to get out of London for a day and see the English countryside. I think living in London has made me forget that there is so much to see and do outside the city.

Third, we travelled to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest. That was quite an adventure and great fun. I definitely recommend everyone go at least once in their life. It’s a rich cultural event and not only about the drinking (although the delicious beer and food are a big part of it). We also had an opportunity to visit the former Dachau Concentration Camp while we were there and that was a very solemn and somewhat overwhelming experience. Again, this is something that everyone should do. We all learn about war and other atrocities in school but it’s quite a different thing to see it in person. It definitely made me realize how lucky I am to have been born in Canada and made me appreciate even more the rights and liberties that come along with it (I love you Charter of Rights and Freedoms!). On a happier note, this was my first trip organized through BritBound and I was very impressed. Everything was very well organized and we had a blast. I will definitely be participating in future BritBound travels (including the trip to Bruges in December!).

October was a bit of an emotional month for me as there was a tragedy in Ottawa which made international news; a soldier who was guarding the war memorial was shot and killed and the gunman then terrorized the city for hours while he hid in the Parliament. I was glued to the news for a couple of days as I watched the events unfold and it was difficult to be far away from home when something like that was happening only a couple of blocks away from where I used to live and work. I’m happy and grateful my family and friends are all safe and hope that something like this never happens again. I saw this the day after the shooting and just have to share it because I think it’s simply amazing:

In October I also moved into my new flat and I’m happy to say that it’s going great. Here are a few pictures of my new neighbourhood: Finsbury Park. I definitely find it more “British” than where I used to live. As a side note, it is unbelievable the amount of stuff I have managed to gather (hoard?) in my short time here. I’m also including a picture of Dan looking less than impressed at all the stuff he has to help me move (this is only some of it!).

November has really flown by. A quick yet quick visit from my friend Breanne

and I also had a chance to see the poppies at the Tower of London which was a great experience. This was in honour of the 100^th anniversary of WWI.

The fact that winter is coming (insert corny Game of Thrones joke here) means that Christmas isn’t far off either! I love Christmas and I am especially excited for Christmas this year as it means that my mom, my brother and his girlfriend are visiting and we are going to Scotland. While snow isn’t very common in London, there is a (small) chance that there will be snow in the Scottish Highlands for Christmas. I have to say, I will be a little disappointed if there is no snow on Christmas eve/Christmas morning. Speaking of snow, it snowed for a whole 2 minutes this week. Like all of the other people on the street, I snapped a picture as quick as I could (after I stopped squealing with delight and running around like a person who’s never seen snow before). While we got a few flurries here, people were quick to send me pictures of what it looked like back home – I definitely don’t miss that!

My next post will likely be after Christmas since I will have pictures of the Bruges Christmas Markets and Scotland to share. London has already started to “Christmasize” which is getting me really excited. The smell of hot cider and mulled wine is in the air and there was even a real reindeer in Covent Garden the other day!

So, for those of you reading this: Merry Christmas and thanks for reading along as I wrap up a wonderful first year living in the UK. It has been an amazing year and I look forward to another great year ahead. As always, here is a quote to end the blog post:

Ho Ho Ho

Kris Kringle