Photo Diary: London Holiday 2014 [Highlights]

Yes, once again I made a trip back to London to spend the holidays with my parents. This time was a little more special than my previous trips because I also got to spend it with my boyfriend, who prior to this trip, had never been out of the country.

We took about 1000+ photos so I thought I'd just give you some of the highlights. I don't even have all of the photos because about a third of them are in his phone so I hope you enjoy the ones that I picked from my bunch.

(I know it's been months since I last blogged. Life and work have been beyond hectic.)

Oblig plane-sunset-from-the-window-make-sure-to-get-the-wing-in-the-shot photo.

First order of business. Always.

First time having mince pie.

When my mom went to the PI back in October, she got me some goodies! Never heard of Nichido so I was excited to try out a couple of their products.

My San Diego family and I did Secret Santa for Christmas, but since I was going to be away, I had to take my (wrapped) present and open it in front of everyone during a Google Hangout. In short, it was hectic and I couldn't really understand what anyone was saying because everyone tried to talk all at once.

If I'm being honest with myself, this is the reason why I come to London for Christmas. Mum's Christmas Roast, always delicious.

Another plus of being in England for Christmas is that I get to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special during its original airing.

I also participated in another Hangout w/ my cousins on the other side of the family. Everyone was hanging out from different parts of the world. It was pretty awesome :)

The first major sight-seeing trip for us was Stonehenge. My boyfriend really wanted to go and I was so glad he did because it turned out to be a great day trip.

It was probably the coldest day of the trip. I was a popsicle by the time we left Stonehenge.

After Stonehenge, we headed to Bath. This is the best picture I could take of the whole town as it was rather awkward trying to take a photo inside a coach. We were also on the lower deck so I couldn't see much.

Of course no trip to Bath would be complete without visiting the Roman Baths.

Everything was so picturesque. I fell in love with the place. Bath isn't very big and you can tell it has a different feel from the hustle and bustle of London. It was nice to experience something different and more mellow. I hope to come back and spend more than a day there.

At the city center, there were a bunch of shops everywhere. Some were the usual shops you'd find at any high street (am I using that term right?) and others were small businesses. We noticed that there were a ton of fudge shops. We ended up going to two and bought all different kinds of fudge. If you must know, yes we finished all of those and they were incredibly delicious. My favorites were the peanut butter and the salted caramel.

Homemade lumpia is always a highlight.

My boyfriend fell in love with the museums. We ended up visiting the Victoria & Albert museum twice because we didn't have enough time to see everything in one day.

I loved this room in the V&A museum. I even joked that I would "rent it out" for a special occasion, lol.

One museum that we really wanted to visit was the Natural History Museum, but the queue to get in everytime we tried to go was just ridiculous. I think at one point, you had to wait close to an hour and a half to get in.

Another first for me was watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. I usually never go just because there's always a big crowd. We actually couldn't even see inside the gates, but at least we got to take pictures of these guys. 

We headed over to Hyde Park after Buckingham Palace to check out Winter Wonderland, which is like state fair kind of deal that they have every year from December to January. Winter Wonderland is great, but I think they gotta improve their food game. How many burger and sausage stands does a place need? Where are the deep fried twinkies? Or the Jack Daniels infused churros? Haha. No pictures there because we were holding food the entire time =P

 Yes, of course we had to go! My boyfriend is a huge fan and I bought him a ticket for Christmas. He was so stoked on everything. Like my first time, it took him 3 hours to complete the whole tour. 

The last two installments were new to me. I'm not sure when they were put up, but the last time I was there the Death Eaters were just stood up in a line and Umbridge's office was actually enclosed.

Another new thing was that they served butter beer in mini tankards. 

He had way too much fun. :)

On my boyfriend's last day of sight seeing, I took him around town and ended the night at St. Paul's Cathedral, my favorite structure in London. 

I hope you enjoyed this photo diary. I know they aren't exactly "new" since I've posted similar pictures from past trips, but I thought I'd share anyway.

Now you know I wasn't leaving London empty handed, so stay tuned for my Boots and Superdrug haul!