Flying.

Who actually likes flying long haul? Actually, this 11-hour flight wasn't bad, apart from the inevitable queueing/ questionable plane food, not to mention the jet lag. The West Coast of the US is 8 hours behind London time - weird arriving at 2 in the afternoon and it feeling like 10 at night - throughout the day, we pulled an all-nighter.

But I did manage to get these awesome pictures of Yellowstone National Park and Salt Lake City. Just beautiful.

P.S. whoever says they're able to sleep on planes are lying.

The Pre-Holiday.

Before our flight from London Heathrow, we stayed overnight in the nearby Windsor & Eton area. It was very posh. Or maybe I'm just too Northern.

We saw the castle, home of our old Queenie:

And had our picture taken with the Olympic mascot, Wenlock/Mandeville:

I don't know the difference.

Eton - just so British, with all the flags and the rahs.

We had a lovely meal at a Restaurant called the Bel & the Dragon.

How cute is this room?!

To start, we had fried whitebait and squid with chili jam - I was so impressed by this I forgot to photograph it - and for main course, I had this lobster salad:

Incredible!

Flight tomorrow.

(also, ignore the dates on these posts - they'll be in chronological order, but not necessarily on the right dates, as internet access is sporadic!)

Just to say...

How NOT to pack - a week to go!

Everyone hates packing right? But we're usually talking packing for one week's holiday, or two at a push. For me, this usually involves a few bikinis, a couple of pairs of shorts and some sandals. Not exactly space-consuming! 

I'm a pretty light packer as it goes - I managed to get a whole weekend's worth of things into one rucksack on my last holiday in Amsterdam after all!

But now imagine trying to pack a year's worth of clothes, for every possible occasion and eventuality into just TWO suitcases. Yep, it's practically impossible. I've got fancy dress outfits, beachwear, gym gear...who knows what I'll be up to after all?! One week I might be on a break in Hawaii, the next I have to be searching for an internship. It's literally impossible to call! But I guess that's what I'm most looking forward to.

 It's all about the crazy organisation (which I've been known to whip out on holiday - for some reason my usual laid-back attitude goes out of the window). My list at the moment looks a bit frantic:

With only a week to go until I leave for the States, I can't really put it off any longer. From now on, I'm wearing all of my holey old clothes whilst EVERYTHING else - from my very favourite denim jacket down to my new low-top Converse is banished to the Case of Doom.

Hopefully this WON'T be me.

I'm looking at the packing as a good thing - it means my year in the States is nearly here!

Unfortunately I've haven't managed to pack successfully so far...

Road Trip Playlist.

If you read my post describing the overview of 'The Road Trip' I'm taking with my family before I start my first semester in San Francisco, it goes without saying that we'll be doing a LOT of driving - in total, we'll be travelling a total of 20 hours, and that's WITHOUT flying time included!

I HAVE to listen to music in the car (mainly to avoid car sickness, nice) so I downloaded some albums for my playlist 'Cali Road Trip' to get me through. I know no-one really listens to full albums anymore but I like to, especially on long journeys. Here are my choices!

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom - love every track on this album, perfect calming music.

Azealia Banks - Fantasea - With 'I Ain't A Bear' an instant classic (love to my Evo crew), and with the album not out until mid-August, I downloaded this 19-track mixtape instead. Yet to have a proper listen!

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die - I have to say I wasn't that keen to begin with, but with my bestie playing this CONSTANTLY, it's growing on me! I can see National Anthem becoming one of my holiday theme tunes.

 

Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm - again pretty chilled, I've been in love ever since I heard his version of 'Titanium' in the Live Lounge.

Various Cruelties - I was recommended this by my lovely friend Matt a while ago and I still love it! Great Unknown is my favourite.

Emilie Sande - Our Version Of Events - I think this is meant to be the biggest-selling album of the year or something?! Anyway I've been a bit slow on the uptake so I thought it deserved a listen to see what all the fuss is about!

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular - I know this is pretty old but I recently heard Electric Feel on the radio and now I'm back into this album!




Noah and the Whale - Last Night on Earth - My favourite 'Blue Skies' isn't on this album but it's got such a California feel (Who'd have thought they were from Twickenham? Ha) I had to include it!

Alabama Shakes - Boys and Girls - I've read a LOT of good reviews about this, so I'm giving it a whirl! I've saying the first listen for my journey though :)



The Black Keys - El Camino - I know The Black Keys are huge in the States but I'm relatively new to them as a band, so had to download this.

I know I'll also be listening to a lot of reggae (perfect road trip music).
Any recommendations anyone?!

Postcards.

I've promised to send my friends back home a postcard a week from San Francisco as even with all the technology that surrounds us, it's too easy to get out of touch with each others' lives.

I want to do things the old-fashioned way of letting them read my news, and they get a wall full of beautiful postcards of my travels!

Hopefully I'll manage to keep it up, I'll be on the lookout for interesting postcards everywhere I go!

The Visa Trip.

So I had to go down to London to get my student visa from the US Embassy, so naturally we made a little trip of it!

Once we had arrived in London after a three-hour train journey, we had pre-ordered tickets for the V&A's latest fashion exhibition, of ballgowns from 1950 to the present day. It was a really lovely display, and the V&A just so happens to be my favourite museum ever.

We stopped for a quick pre-theatre bite at the Brompton Quarter Brasserie, which I definitely wouldn't recommend! Very overpriced, terrible service and mediocre food. Ah well, you win some, you lose some!

Afterwards we went to the Cambridge Theatre near Covent Garden to see Matilda, which is relatively new on the West End. It was a very well staged production and sitting in the upper circle didn't matter luckily!

Our hotel was The Westbury on Conduit Street in Mayfair, which was so chic and nice to stay so central. One of the best things about good hotels is the pillows! Mmmm so soft.

So the next day we did a bit of shopping on Oxford Street and Carnaby Street after a quick fruit-and-croissant breakfast from Pret A Manger - one of the things I notice in London is just how many Prets there are!. On Oxford Street, Urban Outfitters is my new favourite! Just my thing, and they were having a huge sale too so I picked up a few things for America. As usual I forgot to take pictures of what I got (apart from the one below, Instagram is my new obsession), but I might do a haul so look out for that! We also wandered the beauty hall in Selfridges, which is heaven, and I couldn't resist buying a blusher from NARS.

How cool is this?! From the Urban Outfitters sale, a watch with two faces - one for London time, one for San Francisco Time! This is the kind of thing I think is brilliant.



After a quick bagel and chai tea latte at Starbucks I made my way to the Embassy for my appointment. And yay! My visa was approved so I can now study in America!

After my appointment and a little cat nap in the hotel, we had an early tea at Aubaine on Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, which was a lovely French restaurant recommended by Rose from The Londoner - after last night's disastrous meal, I thought we'd better go for a place that had been tried and tested! Luckily it was amazing - I had a mozzarella and tomato-jelly salad for starter, scallops, prawns and octopus with tomato and garlic bread with a side of fries (French ones of course) for main course and I shared a raspberry and pistachio cake for dessert with my mum, in a lovely French-style atmosphere.

We then walked to the Queen's Theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue to see my all-time favourite show, Les Miserables and it didn't disappoint! The only problem is that I end up singing the songs for pretty much the rest of the week but who's complaining?! Oh yeah, the people listening.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast at Starbucks before getting the tube to Liverpool Street Station to have a little wander round Spitalfields Market. It's nice to get away from the tourist crush of the West End, and the market was lovely! There were so many unique things (Mother of Pearl opera binoculars, anyone?), I probably could have spent all day looking over everything. I picked up a vintage Levis jacket so I came away pleased as punch.

All I can say is I love London! Most importantly, I got my visa but I also got some lovely things and had a fabulous break away with my mum too, ahh :)