This is not goodbye, London

So here I am in Gatwick waiting to board my plane. Having lived in London less than three months I've decided to up and move again (life of a traveller I guess) and I'm moving to a country that I've been dreaming of for so so long, that's right Italy, I'm heading your way! I'm not sure how long for but I'll definitely be back in London sometime in the near future.
Although I have lived in London for almost 3 months now and have done stuff like fallen asleep on the tube like a true Londoner, I'm not quite satisfied with how little touristy things I've done here so this here is a list of things I have to yet to do and will definitely be doing before I head home, someone please hold me to it!
-see Buckingham palace
-thoroughly explore Notting hill
-go on the London Eye
-ride a Barclay bike in Hyde Park
-go to the theatre
-go to Harrods
-try my darnest to meet Miranda Hart,I love her with all my heart! If anyone knows someone who knows someone who knows her please hook me up, it will make my life and I will love you forever!

I feel like there's plenty more I'll definitely be updating this tonight!

Xmas spirit in Oxford Circus

Underground 

Underground

My life in 3 bags 

All Blacks at Larrik Inn

Last of blog spree

So this is the last of my blog spree, after this my blog will be caught up to where I am with my travels.
So first things first, I have an exciting announcement. I'm leaving London for Italy! A few weeks ago I decided that I'm sick of working so much, not having any energy to actually enjoy London and all the while having to stress about making rent so I thought you know what? It's time to get out of London. One of the places I want to go most in the world is Italy so I found an au pairing job, with a family, who by the way seems like an absolute delight, in Genova and in 4 days I'm flying out! I'm not too sure at this stage how long I will be in Italy for, but I am determined to be able to speak a little Italian by the time I leave and be able to whip up a mean Italian meal, someone hold me accountable please!

Also has anyone been to Genova, what do you recommend doing while there? :D

I have the next few days off work so I'll probably do some last minute exploring of London so expect photos in the next few days and much shorter blogs. Well that's been my last 3 months, all caught up!

Til next time!
Flo xx

Ps. Follow me on Instagram @flolammy for more photos! I Instagram at least once a day!

Accidents

Yeah so before I left New Zealand, my good friend Georgia warned me about motorbikes and scooters and told me to watch out for them cause they're everywhere but you don't really notice them cos they're little. I laughed cause i was like that's ridiculous, who'll be silly enough get run over by a motorbike? Me, that's who!
So the other day I was just crossing the road in London cause I thought hey the traffic is standstill surely now is the safest time to cross, I get halfway and next thing you know I'm hit by a motorbike which funnily enough was driven by an off duty police officer. I'm a little bit bruised on the hips from being hit but aside from that absolutely fine. Makes for a cool story though :P

Lesson? Listen when your friend warns you about scooters and don't jaywalk. Also make sure you have travel insurance when you travel, I didn't need it in this instant but you never know when you do or what will happen. I never in a million years thought I'll ever be hit by a bike hahaha!

Halfway to 40

So while in London I turned 20 or as my friends and I call it 'halfway to 40.' To me it's the whole idea of, on one hand being like oh yup I'm twenty, whatever, it doesn't matter I don't know what I want to do with my life and on the other being like holy crap I'm halfway to 40 I have no flipping idea what I want to do with my life! Shusdbdgifnddiodb! Know what I mean? Seeing all this amazingness around me makes it a little harder to freak out tooooo much though hahaha

My halfway to 40 birthday itself was more perfect than I could hope for, as I'm not much of a going out and partying it up kinda person, i was really happy to have a nice chilled out day. I met up with a friend for coffee, wandering by the Thames, getting yelled by a security guard for trying to jump over some railings to get down to the river, wandering through a few parks and scaring myself with the idea of being murdered by randoms in the dark before going to check out a movie It really was the perfect day, despite being halfway around the world from my closest friends and family and I doubt he'll ever read this but if you do thanks for a great day :D

Barcelona!

On October 18th I left London for Spain, my first out of London trip and a few things really blew my mind.
A. It's unbelievable how cheap it is to travel around Europe! We booked flights and 4 nights in St Christopher's Inn in Barcelona, which by the way is a really legit hostel, I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking to go to barca, for just over £100!
B. The fact that I could go to Spain 'for the weekend.' Spain is only 2 hours away on the plane and I know that for a lot of people, especially those in Europe that its no biggie but coming from New Zealand it excites me so much!

Basically the weekend consisted of less sight seeing than I expected to do, eating a lot of really good food and a little more drinking than I thought hahaha.
I checked out Park Guell, which is absolutely beautiful and a definite must do, and was made even better by guys that decided to, on their day off to go impromptu busking, they had so much energy and and just seemed so full of joy that you can't help but to love them.
Wandered to Sagrada Familia, but couldn't be bothered waiting in line to get in so I decided to wander back to the hostel and instead of using a map like a normal person I thought screw that and ended up aimlessly wandering. It took me two hours to find my way back but I managed to find myself a few good bargains here and there in some cute little vintage stores in the back streets of barcelona, so good move Flo, good move!

Oh yeah and small tip for anyone flying Ryanair, they're apparently real strict when it comes to carry on luggage, I don't know how I manage to get both my flights, guess luck was on my side, that and a jacket I borrowed from my friend to cover half my bag to make it look smaller but yeah make sure you check bag sizes and such!

Retracing my London journey. Part 5.

I've always said, especially back home that it's absolutely ridiculous to get all festivey and Christmassy by the beginning of November, CHRISTMAS IS STILL A FLIPPING MONTH AND A HALF AWAY! That's pretty much like one sixth of the year away! It's so silly! In New Zealand, Christmas decorations in the public are a little tacky and with the giant Christmas trees in shopping malls, giant bobbles and Christmas carols playing everywhere and all the while the sun shining bright outside I've just always felt that they don't really go. In London on the other hand, I find it absolutely enchanting! I don't know whether it's the fact that I'm walking home from work at 1am and is crazy tired or the fact that its freezing cold leading me to put on about 4000 layers of clothes on, but to me it feels like London has the whole white Christmas, ice skating in hyde park kinda dream down. I know its probably so far from the truth but hey! a girl can dream right? Even in November, the Christmas decorations seems to really belong and it honestly feels like Christmas is just around the corner (even though it kinda isn't hahahah) guess I better start Christmas card writing soon!

Retracing my London journey. Part 4.

One of the greatest things about London is that no matter how poor you are there is still so much you can do and see. Now I'm not gonna lie, I haven't done as much touristy things as I had hoped, I guess I just thought that seeing as I'm here for a year I've got plenty of time to see the sights! In the first month of me being here, on my days off, which tended to be a Sunday I went to Camden markets, Tate modern, London museum and the British museum aside from that I hadn't done much mainly because of the fact that I found I was too exhausted after a whole week of working to actually enjoy London.

I finally got round to going to check out Westminster abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and London eye after being in London for 2 months. Coincidently I went to see the Houses of Parliament on Guy Fawkes , with a friend and found that there was a massive protest outside the building. It was amazing and the vibe was absolutely incredible!

As for shopping, a favourite pastime of mine, it isn't so great when you can't afford rent let alone shopping but wandering, especially aimless wandering in London is absolutely amazing if you're easily amused and amazed like me. The place you find down back streets are so beautiful and unexpected you can help but just to fall in love and with London, I swear no matter how long you spend you just can't get enough and will constantly keep finding treasures.
Ooooooh vintage lovers! London is incredible when it comes to vintage as I'm sure you all know but I found that a lot of vintage stores are quite expensive.