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Live, Love, Laugh, London (Day 2) // #LipstickRoadTravels

Hello there! 

Welcome for Day 2 and the last day of my weekend to lovely London. It was a very short trip unfortunately, but I would go to London even for an hour if I could.


The weather was really crappy on this second day, it was raining from the minute we woke up, till we left England at 6:30 pm, but it's okay I mean we got some breaks during the day. So we left our hotel and took the Underground to do some major tourist stuff. In fact, we headed to Big Ben, the House of Parlament, Westminster and Buckingham. I've seen those a couple of times, since it wasn't my first trip to London, but I don't get tired of the view. 


We first started with beautiful Big Ben, but we actually had to wait for 15 minutes at the exit of the underground station for the rain to calm down because it was really cray-cray. Anyway, we crossed the London Bridge to get some pretty rainy pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben. 


Once we were done and the rain finally stopped, we stopped for a minute at the House of Parlament, and it's crazy how this building is so pretty and amazing. I'm still in shock.  


We walked to Westminster Abbey and we actually wanted to go in for once, but the queue was so long, we quickly gave up. 


We then crossed Saint James Park to see Buckingham Palace under clouds and rain again. My feet and shoes were dying and so wet! I was freezing cold and already planning my trip to Topshop to change my outfit with things I would have bought of course. 


According to the Union Jack flag flying in the sky, the Queen was there. We didn't see her, sadly, but we got to see her incredibly beautiful and huge home. 


We planned to walk to Oxford Circus or Piccadilly but at this point my shoes were full of water and I could hear the "squeak" in my shoes every time I moved.  So we decided to take the underground again. The ticket for the day were so expensive that we thought "better use it". 


We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus to some Souvenir shopping. First stop was Fortnum and Mason. I mean you can't go to London and not buy tea. Can you? Whatever I was determined to get some tea, because their tea is just amazing. So we got Wedding Breakfast, which was created especially for the Royal Wedding, and I thought would go perfect with my Will and Kate royal wedding mug. We also got Royal Blend Classic Earl Grey and Afternoon Blend, which are my absolute favorite from Fortnum and Mason. We also got an Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows mixture. Then we went to Cool Britania for real souvenir gifts. 


After our little stop at Piccadilly we headed to Oxford Circus. I stopped at Topshop, and it was crazyyyyyyy! I've never seen a shop that big! I mean they have a hair/makeup space, and a cupcake stand! CUPCAKES IN A TOPSHOP! Am I the only one shocked?! There were so many things I didn't know where to look at, seriously I was blown away. I just bought a leather wallet from the brand It's Not Me It's You that I love. 

For lunch, we decided to go back to Shake Shack at Covent Garden where they installed new decoration with clouds balloon everywhere. Check my Instagram if you haven't and you'll see what I'm talking about. 



My Dad really wanted to go to the London Film Museum for the James Bond exhibition so we went to see the amazing cars from the movies. Once we were done with the exhibition the weather was getting crappy again so we stopped at Primrose Bakery, again... 


This time, my Dad had Cookies and Cream cupcake with an expresso and I had an Earl Grey cupcake with a hot chocolate. You can't be disappointed with Earl Grey, so good!!



I really wanted to god to Camden and Primrose Hill but the weather got real bad and we ended up being stuck at the bakery for an hour. Once we left it was too late to take the tube to Camden since we only had an hour in the City before we had to head to the train station. Maybe some other time... So we just wandered around Covent Garden, stopped at Topshop again to buy some jeans and headed back to our hotel to change and leave for King Cross Saint Pancras. 


Again, even though it was a short trip, I couldn't be happier. It was such a good surprise, and it came just in time since I was thinking about how bad I wanted to go back to London. Plus, it's becoming a father/daughter holiday ritual since it was the second time we went to London just the two of us. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post.

See you soon,

Love, 

Elsa.

PS: No OOTD for this second post of my trip to London unfortunately, because of the weather I actually looked like sh*t on that day, and my outfit was not great anyway. I was wearing boyfriend jeans from Cheap Monday, an open back black t-shirt from Asos, a plain black hoodie, the same vintage jacket from my previous post, the same boots from Dunnes and my bag from Red Herring. 

London Surprise Calling (Day 1) // #LipstickRoadTravels

Hello,

So my Dad totally surprised me this weekend with a short father/daughter trip to London. It was such a good surprise because I truly love London, it's one of my favorite city that I've been to (I almost cried when I found out at the train station that we were taking the train to London). I had no idea we were going there even though I knew we were going somewhere this weekend. In fact, my Dad gave me weird clues that just freaked me out about this weekend. 


Anyway, I had a blast, the weather was not great but who cares? It was very rainy on the second day, we eventually got some sun on the first day but I still had to buy an umbrella.



I feel like London is one of the prettiest city to visit, and it's even prettier to visit when it rains. I mean, that's just my opinion, does it make sense or just sounds like total crap? Whatever, I love London, rain or no rain.


We left really early on Sunday morning (Sunday morning rain is falling...) and arrived at Saint Pancras around 10:00 am. We got to our hotel 10 minutes later, left our luggages and took off for some London adventures. Our hotel was in the City neighborhood, quite near to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge so we walked there to take some photographs. 

We then walked to Saint Paul Cathedral, sat for a minute before we hit the road again to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. On the road there we stopped at Topshop and Superdrug. We don't have Superdrug stores in France, nor in Ireland, so I really wanted to stop and see what they were selling. I didn't get anything at Topshop nor Superdrug even though I really wanted to get Zoella's new products. 


After our little stop at Trafalgar Square under a sunny sky we headed to Covent Garden for lunch. Covent Garden is one of my favorite place in London. We had lunch at Shake Shack (love love love love love love love), enjoyed some cheese fries, wandered around Covent Garden and then went to Primrose Bakery for coffee and cupcakes. Yes I now drink coffee, I want to be that woman, who drinks wine on Friday evening with a good meal, and coffee in the morning before heading to work, even though I'm still a student... 


I love Primrose Bakery, it's so cute and the cupcakes are delicious! We had one Apple Crumble cupcake and one classic Red Velvet cupcake, with an Expresso and a Cappuccino . 



After this little break we walked to Piccadilly Circus and just enjoyed the view. Then, we headed to Regent Street aka the shopping neighborhood, in search for Victoria's Secret. Let me just tell you I was not leaving London if we didn't go to VS. Again we don't have VS in France, nor in Ireland, so I needed, okay maybe not needed, but I really wanted to go to their huge store in London. 

I had a little breakdown and bought some stuffs, like maybe one bra, one pyjama set, some yoga pants and two moisturizers. We then looked for the Underground to go back to our hotel for a little break after a lot of walking through the city. 

My Dad really wanted to go see the Arsenal Stadium so we went there, walked around, and took some OOTD pictures. 



We headed back to the city centre, and Piccadilly for dinner. We ended up walking to Oxford Circus and Carnaby Street where we found a little Italian restaurant for dinner. After dinner we were dying for ice cream even though it was getting cold, so we walked a lot and eventually got lost, looking for Amorino. 




If you're not familiar with Amorino, it's an artisanal ice creams place where they make ice creams that look like flowers. You first choose the size of the cone and then choose the flavors you want on your ice cream, you can choose as many as you want, but we both had 3. I had Nutella, Dark Chocolate and Coconut. 



That was our last stop of the day since after Desert we went back to the hotel for a good night of sleep. 

Hope you enjoy this post, 

I'll see you soon for more pictures of my weekend to London.

Love,

Elsa. 

WHAT I'M WEARING:
JEANS: DR DENIM (ASOS)
HIGH NECK TOP: BRANDY MELVILLE
CARDIGAN: VINTAGE 
COAT: VINTAGE
SHOES: DUNNES 
NECKLACE: MOMUSE
SUNGLASSES: MARC BY MARC JACOBS
BELT: H&M 



Siena melts my heart: Three days in Florence (Day 3) // #LipstickRoadTravels

Hey there,

For our last "real" day in Italy, we decided to take the train and go to Siena, which seemed like a good idea at first but quickly turned into "Was that a good idea" when we got to the train station. Let me explain. When we got to the train station, we had 10 minutes to take 3 train tickets before heading to the right platform. Sounds normal, right? Well, it is normal until you realized that those 10 minutes turned into 3 minutes after the 10 persons in front of you took their tickets. Then, add to that stressful situation the fact that you have no idea where you have to take the train because the platform number wasn't communicated on the screens yet. We quickly found out that the reason why we didn't know where we had to take the train, was because our train was delayed... 15 minutes delayed that turned into 20 minutes, which finally turned into 30 minutes. The moment you decide to go get water bottles for the trip to Siena, is precisely the moment they decide to tell you on what platform you have to get your train. From that particular moment, you realized you have 3 minutes, yep 3 minutes, to run to not only catch your train, but also to find that platform, which wasn't even on the same area we were at... 



Long story short, we caught the train. But, a journey that was supposed to take an 1 hour and 15 minutes, turned into a 2 hours journey... Yep, we got stuck for 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere, in a train with no air conditioning, no lights, no nothing... 



Anyway, 2 hours later we finally arrived in Siena. What you need to know about Siena is that the city is at the very top of a "mountain", so get to the top you have to take at least 10 electric stairs, but when you get to the top you have another breath-taking view of Toscana. We walked for 10 minutes to Siena historical centre, and let me just tell you, Florence is very very very very very very pretty but Siena is amazing. It's a gathering of small streets with no vehicles, small boutiques and stores, and you feel like you're so far from the real world; if that makes sense. You just feel like you're in a different world, completely cut off times. 



We wandered around Siena for a good 2 hours before we finally sat down at a small restaurant to again have the so delicious bruschettas. After this small lunch, we really wanted to have a little treat, meaning ice creams. We do love our ice creams, don't you? However, we didn't quite chose the right day to visit Siena since the city was organizing horses courses with horses representing the different neighborhood of Siena. So the city was crowded and the main "plaza" was actually closing at 4:10 pm to set up everything. We got to this famous plaza, that kind of looked like an arena with small boutiques and restaurant all around it, and a cathedral and a castle, at 4:00 pm... We just had time to take pictures, and selfies with our brand new selfie stick *yeaah tourist goal reached*, before we got kicked out.


Still searching for an ice cream place, we ended up in another plaza with the most amazing cathedral. I mean, the details!!!!!!!!!!! It feels like you're looking at a piece of art. But at the end of the day, it is art. We sat there in front of it, just dazzled. I mean, look at it! 

When we finally got up, we headed to the busy streets, still searching for ice creams. We didn't get our ice creams... Disappointment...  We had to head back to the train station to get back to Florence because it got too late.


We were so tired... exhausted, our legs were falling out, we were dying for cold water, and fresh air. We walked down the electric stairs to the train station before founding out that the train was due an hour later...  Since we didn't want to wait for an hour at the train station, we asked details to take the bus to Florence, which was cheaper, and was taking the same amount of time. However, we found out that the bus stop was at Siena's city centre. Meaning... we had to take the 10 escalators for the 3rd time of the day. We got to the top, missed our bus, waited for 20 minutes, got into another bus, and really enjoyed the ride home because you got a view of Toscana we wouldn't have had while taking the train. 


We arrived at Florence, quite late, so we quickly headed to our hotel, took a shower, changed and went out for dinner for our last night in Florence.


We found a very cute restaurant with pretty little lights, street musicians in front of it, good food and wine etc. I actually had Tagliatelle pasta with pesto. So we had a very cool evening. And how do you end a cool evening to make it even more perfect? 


With ice creams of course! We had ice creams in front of the prettiest cathedral of Florence, and headed back to our hotel for a good night of sleep. 

That was a truly great day in Sienna and an amazing evening in Florence. I truly think that there's nothing like discovering a city by night. It's so much different, it's a different vibe, different atmosphere etc. 


Hope you enjoy this last post for my #LipstickRoadTravelsToItaly series, I won't be posting anything for our last and fourth day because I didn't take any pictures since this last day was mainly focused on packing and souvenirs... I'm sorry... 

Stay tuned for my next post, 

Love,

Elsa.

WHAT I WORE : 
ROMPER : ASOS 
BRALETTE : PACSUN, KENDAL&KYLIE COLLECTION
HAT: YANKEE BASEBALL HAT 
SHOES: STAN SMITH 
SUNGLASSES: ZARA

Walk a lot, Eat a lot: Three Days in Florence (Day 2) // #LipstickRoadTravels

Hey there,

It feels so weird to be back to not so sunny and not so warm France, and I'm really missing Italy and Florence. The day 2 of our trip was so great and exhausting, we walked so much, breaking the record of 19,5 km of our first day there, with a great 19,77 km... However, I got to go to Brandy Melville, which was pretty exciting, I must say. I don't really go to their stores there in Paris, too much crowded, no air conditioning, you get the picture.  So I was pretty excited when I found out that there was one Brandy Melville's store near our hotel. So, on Tuesday's morning, after a 10 minutes walk that felt like a 30 minutes walk under 37°C at 10:00 am, we went to one of my favorite store. I just love everything they sale, from the fabrics to the prints of their shirts, sweaters, dresses and skirts. Plus, their clothes are super comfy. Even though, with the one sizes clothing, you can get some surprises sometimes... Anyway, I'll do a "Brandy Melville Haul/ Try on Haul" post soon, just stay tuned! 


After, a bit of a "going crazy" session at Brandy Melville, we headed back to our hotel, with quite a heavy bag, I must say, dropped the bag, and then headed back to the city centre. We planned to go visit one of the most pretty and well known Cathedral in Florence, El Duomo, but we realized we couldn't get in because we were wearing shorts and our shoulders were not covered... So we just walked to the Medicis's Residence, aka the Castle, read a little bit of the history of their residence, and then hit the road, walking thought little cute streets, tourists free, to get to the starting point of a walk to the top of Florence. 



We stopped at a little restaurant to have lunch to have bruschetta, rest a little bit, before starting what felt like climbing a mountain. I couldn't be happier when we reached the top. Not because I could finally sit down to rest, drink water, and die under the sun, but because the view was just incredible and breath taking. On the top of this small mountain, you have a view of the whole city, and everything seems so small and even prettier than it is when you're actually in front of it. After taking some pictures, we headed back to the city centre. 





We took a little break under a tree, and got attacked by a bee, so we left again to have ice cream at Vinchi. I couldn't be happier of this day, not only the ice creams were delicious, but Vinchi had air conditioning!!!!! Cherry on the top of a cake. I had a great double chocolate ice cream cone that I had to finish outside in front of the greatest museums of Italy. 


We couldn't get in the museum, because we would have to wait an hour and a half just to get in, just for an hour in the actual museum. since the museum was closing 2 hours later... So since this was a total fail, we just seated on the stairs outside the museums and watched painters painting and drawing the tourists. It made me want to get back to drawing and painting. 




Then, after this little rest sessions, we headed back to the hotel, with a feeling that our legs were going to fall or detach from our body. We walked through cute and empty streets with little street art that I love.





After a shower, and the first change of outfit of the day, we went to the Rooftop of the hotel to have a drink of wine in front of another breath-taking view of all the roofs of Florence. After this little "drinking pause" we left to have dinner. We originally planned to go to a certain restaurant that I can't remember the name of, but we couldn't find it so we ended in a cute restaurant, having pastas outside. It was such a lovely evening and a great day in Florence. Again, it is the kind of day that makes you forget all your trouble and all the things that are waiting for you back home. It even makes you forget that you missed the final episode of Pretty Little Liars, and the feeling of anger when you found out what happened during this episode on Instagram ! Yep, I got spoiled again... but I don't care, because I would rather walk 20 km in one day in the streets of Florence than to stay home, finding out who A is.


Hope you like this post, and my pictures, 

See you soon for the Day 3 of my Trip and the final post of #LipstickRoadTravels 

Love,

Elsa.

WHAT I WORE: 
(DAY) 
SHORTS: ZARA 
TOP: ZARA 
SHOES: STAN SMITH
HAT: URBAN OUTFITTERS 
BAG: RED HERRING 

(NIGHT)
DRESS: BRANDY MELVILLE 
JACKET: VINTAGE 
SHOES: STAN SMITH
BRACELET&RING: VINTAGE