Riding the London Eye was a highlight of the trip. (alexandre zveiger - stock.adobe.com)
Editor’s Note: Irina Dungca is a student writer from Dr. Wiedemer’s and Ms. Ireland’s class at Spangdahlem Middle School (SY 24-25).
The trip to London starts off with a four-day weekend. My parents wanted to go on a trip for the four-day weekend.
I have never been there before. Other than the photos I saw online, I always dreamed of London. When I was eight, I had a dream to go. What inspired me about London was “Paddington.” That was my favorite movie growing up. Once I heard my parents told me we will go to Paddington station I was super excited. I just knew 8-year-old me would be super excited and that maybe would have cried.
The second I got off the plane and on my feet in London I just knew this was where I belonged.
I got to London at a really late time, but I had so much energy to walk around. But my family and I waited for the bus to pick us up to bring us to our hotel. Looking out the window I thought to myself that these four days will be the most memorable days of my life.
The first day, my family and I took a public train to meet up with my uncle and aunt. They lived here for a long time. Meeting my family was such a thrill. I actually haven’t met them since before only my two-year-old siblings met them when they lived in England my age.
The first place we visited was Big Ben. I really felt like I was in a movie standing near Big Ben. Then crossing the bridge to the London Eye, which was another place I really wanted to visit. My family bought the tickets and headed inside the pod thing. At first, I was nervous even though I shouldn’t be. After a while we were so up high seeing everything. If you’re a person who enjoys a place to get away and enjoy a beautiful view and you’re in London, I really highly recommend the London Eye.
I highly recommend riding on the London Eye for the amazing view. (Mistervlad - stock.adobe.com)
Then, after the gorgeous few of London I started to get hungry, so my uncle recommended to us this wonderful food market that wasn’t as far from the London Eye. I really wish I could remember what the place was called. Once I walked through the market with different scents of spicy, sweet and garlic in the air, it was really hard to choose what I wanted.
If you know what the famous Dubai chocolate is, then good for you. I swear, the whole time I was in the market there were at least a couple Dubai chocolates being sold. From Dubai chocolate churros to Dubia chocolate strawberries. I’m not really much of a fan of pistachios, but if you do like them I also highly recommend you try that.
Overall, I finally picked what I was looking to eat; it was fish n’ chips with some calamari that my dad decided to buy with the fish n’ chips. I gotta say that fried seafood had a good enough salt and had a perfect crunch. If I’m being honest, they really weren’t playing around with their “Famous Fish n’ Chips” stand. We were waiting in line for a good 10-15 minutes to order. But it was all worth every minute in line and every bite I took.
I chose fish n’ chips at the market in London. (pitr134 - stock.adobe.com)
After a good while of eating and exploring we ended up going shopping around the Chinatown area. It was so pretty when the sun started to set and the lanterns started to turn the place even better. It started to get late. I wasn’t as hungry since I ate a lot at the market, but was up for a little snack at Chinatown. You might think Chinatown only has Chinese things around the place, but actually has different varieties of Asian stuff. Shocking isn’t it? If you didn’t know already, I’m Filipino, meaning I’m from the Philippines. So, I was really wanting some Filipino snacks or treats. Luckily, my family members who live in the UK knew a place which was really thrilling.
Once I heard my cousin tell me about the store name, which was called “Mamasons,” I was shocked. This is a well-known place I hear a lot about, coming from Asian family members or on social media. This place holds wonderful ube treats such as the “pressed ice-cream sandwich” with four different flavors: ube, mango, chocolate, and matcha. As a Filipino, I most definitely got an ube one. This gives you two pieces of the sweet, yummy sandwich which is quite medium sized, and for a perfect price as well, the price of 3-4 £.
The Chinatown area is so pretty at sunset when the lanterns start to turn on. (pxl.store - stock.adobe.com)
This day was so long we took the train back, which was long because we didn’t live close to the city, only near the airport. So, our train ride was about 16-17 stops back to the hotel. I was so tired, but it was ALL worth my time to be tired.
Getting this super cool opportunity to live in Europe and visiting new places was amazing.
On the train I thought to myself while listening to music that I had a dream to live in London someday. Maybe when I’m old or when I finish fashion school and live in London. I ended up falling asleep on the train, but, oh well, I really needed a small nap anyways.
The next day I woke up so bright and early wondering what would be the next exciting thing on the agenda. This time the first stop was at Buckingham Palace, which was the place my mom was really wanting to go to. If royalty or history is your thing, then you should definitely go here and learn about what this place really is all about. For me, I wasn’t really excited as much because history and royalty isn’t my thing, but good for my mom since she could revisit this place. We didn’t really stay long or take a tour. We were there for photos and the soldier march. It was quite crowded over there, so maybe you should get there earlier than we did. A lot of people kept pushing a shoving over a soldier march, which was weird because the march was basically less than 10 minutes. Anyways, the whole time I was at Buckingham Palace I thought I would run into Queen Elizabeth ll, but then forgetting she passed away.
After the nice short visit, my family finally took us to the Notting Hill streets. I have a big passion for Julia Roberts films, and this was one of the movies I enjoy. So, hearing the fact I would be at this amazing sight, I was ready to feel like Anna Scott (the person Julia Roberts played). Unfortunately, I didn’t find William Thacker while I was on the Notting Hill streets. Just so you’re aware, for people who don’t understand what the movie “Notting Hill” is about, it’s about a bookstore owner named William Thack who meets Anna Scott who is an American actress, and they fall in love.
Another wonderful thing about the Notting Hill streets was that there was a market called Portobello Road. It was in the movie “Paddington” as well, I really got to embrace the amazing things people were selling, from artworks to ceramics that were being sold. I really was interested in clothes or jewelry being sold at the market that amazing evening. Unfortunately, I got unlucky and didn’t find any good clothes I enjoyed other than the fact that I got an I-heart London hoodie. But my mom was going crazy shopping for teapots and plates left and right.
We spent a long time shopping at the Portobello Road market in the Notting Hill area. (Alexandre Rotenberg - stock.adobe.com)
Things were going amazing.
I enjoyed London so much that my parents started to make a London trip happen again. I was really hoping it would work out. Forwarding a few months later, we did end up going back, but that’s for another time.
I’m so grateful I got an opportunity to fill in my dreams and visit London. Life couldn’t get any better.
After that shopping mess, we went to get something to eat because eating is really important. That night I went to see my cousins and eat out at a nice restaurant. We all decided to have Chinese food and dumplings. Again, my family we were visiting knows the good places to feed us, so I wasn’t worried about much. Heading into the restaurant I just smelled garlic and sea salt scent in the air. We took our seats and waited to order.
I already knew what I would be getting: shrimp dumplings with chilis because I have a deep love relationship with spicy. I also ordered a passion fruit Yakult drink. If you don’t know what that is, you are most definitely missing out on a great opportunity for a refreshing drink. On the bottom of the glass was the passion fruit, then ice, and laying it on was the Yakult drink and some sprite. I would feel really bad if you didn’t know what Yakult is, but it is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk beverage. After getting our food, I ate some spicy noodles and my shrimp dumplings. I was so stuffed after that; like I was a build-a-bear doll.
A Yakult drink is a delicious mix of fruit, juice, ice, Yakult probiotics and soda. (Mishbah - stock.adobe.com)
The last two days were shopping for family, friends and ourselves. What I enjoy the most is every time I go to a different place is that I really like getting my friends keychains from the place I visited. I got my four friends different London keychains based on their personality or how they would like it to be. At the London gift shop store, I got overwhelmed with how many cute keychains they were selling, because (if I’m being honest) I’m a hard decision maker. But eventually I picked one to give to each of my friends.
Soon it was time to leave. I wasn’t ready. It’s hard saying goodbye to a place you love so much. But I have to remember that this isn’t a hard place to visit. A two to three-hour flight isn’t as bad and I can always visit anytime. I really enjoyed every minute and second over on my trip in London.
