A month ago, I had a business trip to London which I was lucky enough to tack a few days onto and explore my favorite city. About a year and a half ago, I started working full time for a company based in Northern Ireland. It’s a global hairbrush company that attends several events every year in both UK/Europe and North America, so I knew when I joined there would be a possibility for traveling with work once it was safe to do so.
In late April, my team had a couple of events to run in London. The events were on a Monday morning and evening so the group of us running things were expected to come Sunday and leave Tuesday. Luckily, I was able to go a day early to beat the jet lag a little (London is 5 hours ahead of Boston so a 9am start time would feel painfully like 4am).
I flew a red eye that left Friday night and landed Saturday morning. The key is to sleep as much as you can on the plane and then POWER THROUGH that jet lag the next day. I got to Heathrow at about 9am, but I got to the hotel around 10:30-11am. Check in was later so I stowed my luggage and freshened up in the hotel restroom. I plugged my destination into Citymapper and ventured out for my excursions.
KEW GARDENS
My first leg of the day was spent getting to Richmond, south-west London. The tube includes some above ground stops where I got to admire the wisteria and Thames from the window. Once I reached my stop, I walked over to Kew Gardens. If you’ve had a conversation with me about London, it’s likely that I have told you the best £8 I’ve ever spent was my entry to Kew. For those unfamiliar, these are the royal botanical gardens in London, 500 acres of pure beauty. Grab yourself a map and wander around the grounds – there is definitely no wrong way to go but I encourage you to check out all the greenhouses and Palace.
Once I got there, it hit me how hungry I was getting, so I decided it was time for my first meal of the day: ice cream. There are no rules on meals when you’re jet lagged and in a beautiful place in a foreign country. I got a double scoop of caramel ice cream to enjoy as I snapped photos of the Bridgerton-esque landscapes.
The royal gardens have every flower and plant you could imagine (the largest collection in the world) and they’re huge so you could spend days making your way through it. If you get the chance, I recommend going during spring time when everything is in bloom. The houses on the street leading up to the gardens are also gorgeous, filled with flowers and home to exotic cars. I imagine the houses hold fabulous stories.
WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE
After a couple hours, my feet started to feel the pain, so I headed back toward the tube and grabbed a seat for my ride back into central London. I decided to pay a visit to my old neighborhood from when I lived there for my semester abroad. I put on Mac Miller’s Swimming album which was my go-to back then, and walked the exact path in Earl’s Court that I used to walk every day for 4 months. It was nostalgic and exciting to see what was still there, what had changed and especially to reflect on how different I am now. For an early dinner, I decided to stop in at the local pub we used to go to down the road called The Bolton. I grabbed a pint and a burger and enjoyed an evening of people watching and reflection. Once I felt rejuvenated a bit, I went back to the hotel.
It was about 7 when I got up to my room, and I will say if you can force yourself to stay up you absolutely should. I made the mistake of “I’ll just sit for a couple minutes” which led to laying there in limbo for two hours before giving in to the sleep I so desperately wanted. Luckily this meant I was well rested and able to get up nice and early the next day.
NOTTING HILL GATE
I knew if I had the time, I wanted to go to Portobello Road and Notting Hill Gate. I was thrilled to navigate my way there by memory and immediately hit with nostalgia as I entered one of my favorite areas of London. It is touristy but for good reason – brightly colored buildings sit side by side, wisteria climbs houses, and gorgeous families offer you a glimpse at a life you wish you had. Portobello is home to a market full of vendors selling chachkies and jewelry and lots of souvenirs. I grabbed a scone to eat for breakfast while I walked up and down the streets and took photos to look back on. At the end of the market there’s rows of food from every ethnicity and stalls full of people selling vintage clothing and accessories. After a little bit of poking around, I ended up falling in love with and buying a gorgeous coat and then heading to my next destination.
HAPPY ACCIDENTS
I accidentally went a little too far on the tube and ended up in Shoreditch, an old work place of mine. After some accidental nostalgia, admiring the graffiti and feeding off the energy of streets littered with interesting people, I rerouted and met my coworker and her friend in Spitalfields Market for some much needed lunch – personal pizzas and refreshing cocktails. Once we finished, we made our way over to the Van Gogh Experience. This is an immersive experience that walks you through the life of artist Van Gogh and details the events that inspired his paintings. It finishes off inside a room with projections of moving versions of his art, so that you are completely surrounded by it and accompanying audio. We enjoyed that for a couple hours before grabbing happy hour drinks outside at Coqbull and soaking up the final bit of sun of the day. A huge part of traveling for me is people watching so we were able to do some of that while sitting outside. After drinks, we went back to the hotel for a bit before heading into Chinatown for dinner.
CHINATOWN
Chinatown is gorgeous at night, known for its streets filled with red lanterns and endless options of restaurants. We met another one of my coworkers friends for dinner at a delicious ramen place. The beauty of big cities is the melting pot of cultures and unique people that you’re constantly surrounded by. Unfortunately I didn’t leave myself room for my favorite treat: Bubblewrap, a small restaurant tucked into a little sliver of Chinatown which serves bubbly waffles with ice cream. We called it a night pretty early, heading back to get sleep and be ready for the event set up the next morning.
WORKING HARD
Our morning event was held right near the hotel we were staying at in Soho, so we walked over to the space and prepared for the arrival of our guests. We set up products,screens, and banners and shot video as well as photo content throughout the event. Once the event was over, I squeezed in a little chocolate shopping for my family and then headed over to my fit-to-fly COVID test. We were fortunate with good weather so I was able to do a lot of walking to and from my destinations, which comes with natural sight seeing. We had food at a hole in the wall restaurant (the very best kinds) and hopped in the famous black cabs to head to our evening event in Putney. The cab ride offered a bit of sight-seeing too, which was relaxing and always feels surreal. The event was successful and once we finished cleanup, we headed back to the hotel for a final sleep before traveling back to our home destinations.
GRATITUDE
While it was only a few days, I was able to pack in a few of my top must-see locations. I forced myself to stay awake and make the most of my time there. London has always felt like home ever since I first landed for my semester abroad, so going back is more like going home for me.
I am extremely fortunate to be given these opportunities through my job and I don’t take them for granted at all. I know it’s a huge privilege and pretty rare to be in my position, especially freshly out of college. I’m aware this is basically the travel equivalent to “I built my business from the ground up (with a small loan of 1 million dollars)”. Trust me, I know I’m beyond lucky. I look forward to whenever my next trip is, and I hope everyone finds a way to make their situation work for them in order to see different corners of the earth.
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