A Weekend in Liverpool: Part 2

Our weekend in Liverpool had been choc-a-bloc full of food and shopping and neon Christmas trees; on our last day we felt like we should take in a bit of culture. Our Travelodge looked over the Albert Dock - home to a number of museums, gorgeous views across the Mersey and a selection of tourist-trap shops selling the best cheap tat you could ever hope for.

Three Alternative Nights Out in London

I'm rubbish at going 'out-out'. I hate crowds, I hate drunk people, I cannot wear heels for an entire evening and for the most part, the music is shite. I will occasionally hit the town, but generally that will include somewhere I can sit down and be able to hold a conversation. In the last couple of weeks I've headed out with some of my favourite blogger ladies to experience some alternative nights out in London which aren't stupidly expensive.

To Kill a Mockingbird at The Barbican

To Kill a Mockingbird is, without a doubt, my favourite book of all time. I first read it for GCSE English and I distinctly remember being on holiday with my family somewhere in England, stuck in the back of the car, and practically wailing out loud. It moved me in a way no book had ever done before. It highlighted injustice and love within an area of history I knew very little about, and in a part of America that I hardly even knew existed. I have read it countless times since and it still has the same affect on me now as it did back then.

An Evening on the Naughty Ghost Walking Tour

I've proclaimed on this here blog many times that the best way to see somewhere is on foot, and that includes my own fair city of London. The Naughty Ghost Tour is half scary, half comical and focuses on the London Bridge area, starting in The Boot and Flogger pub where I caught up with AJ, Katy and Leanne and knocked back a few glasses of red wine to get us prepped for a walk in the cold.

Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty at The V&A

Background image source

I read a lot of reviews about Savage Beauty, the retrospective of Alexander McQueen, before it even arrived in London. People wrote about feeling emotional, but I just thought it was arty types being a bit dramatic. I love fashion, and I'm even lucky enough to own some McQueen items, but at the end of the day it's just clothes, right?

I was proved spectacularly wrong.

Being a Collector

Since I can remember I've always collected something. At a small age it was badges and pressed pennies, then from the age of about 10 it was anything with Eeyore on it. Bags, clocks, notebooks; I had a rug in my bedroom, pyjamas, bubble bath - I was The Disney Store's biggest customer by miles. As I entered my teens, my fascination turned to music and a dedication to owning every release in every format possible for my band of choice. First of all it was Blink 182, then it was The Cooper Temple Clause and overlapping the both of those was Nine Inch Nails. The latter is the one that I've continued collecting and have been doing so now for over ten years.

Philip Pullman's Grimm Tales

There's a lot of 'immersive' theatre going on across London. Punters are no longer satisfied with sitting down throughout a performance, instead they want to be at the heart of the action, interacting with the actors, feeling as though they are really in the setting of the play. I've been to Secret Cinema a couple of times and experienced this on a massive scale, but nothing on a more modest scale. The thought of being a part of Grimm Tales was both overwhelmingly exciting and equally terrifying.

2014 Review: Culture

I started compiling the list of cultural things I've done this year and was really surprised by how much I've done. As with my 2014 Review: Eating and Drinking post, living in London makes it really easy to take advantage of new shows and exhibitions frequently, and you can guarantee that any band that tours will always drop into the city for at least one night.

Visiting Frankfurt's Christmas Markets

A couple of weekends ago, I treated my mum to a delayed birthday present of a weekend trip to Frankfurt to see the Christmas markets. I was super excited to spend a whole weekend with my mum and have some quality bonding time for a couple of days. I'm the type of daughter that you really can't shake; I moved out of home seven years ago (with a brief return after uni), but I speak to her on the phone a couple of times a week and I go back to my family home at least once every two months.

Anna Nicole: The Opera

What better way to portray the tragic life of one of celebrity's biggest victims then through the medium of opera? That's clearly what the Royal Opera House thought when they decided to put this on their schedule, and I couldn't agree with their decision more. Anna Nicole Smith's life was a tragedy played out in front of cameras; a life that when you look back on it, is as equally comical as it is sad. The juxtaposition between classical performance and our obsession with the rich and famous becomes a genius blend, confusing the audience as to whether they should laugh or cry at what's on stage.

Needless to say, I've never been to an opera that sings lines such as 'You need bigger tits!', but times they are a-changing, and what better way to give opera a broader appeal than to produce a show that blurs the lines between cultures so neatly? The show was hilarious and dark in equal measure. Of course, Anna Nicole, with her comically large boobs and ditzy personality are ripe for laughter, but the devastating premature death of her son and the pure hatred she experienced from her late (billionaire) husband's family were verging on heartbreaking. All facets of her life were shown, with all the disputes between truth and reality laid out too. Ultimately, nobody knows what was real, with her side of the story always muddled in between those of her family and her lawyer/lover, Howard Stern.

The setting for this show gave it real gravitas though. The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden is completely stunning, and it was my first time visiting so I was totally taken in by the beauty of it all. Obviously, the auditorium is layered with gold, decorated as you would imagine an opera house to be. The Royal Opera House also has a beautiful roof terrace and champagne bar that you can take advantage of during the interval. The view over Covent Garden piazza looked so peaceful from up above and the view made a welcome break from jostling at the bar or queuing endlessly for the toilet.

I'm wearing:
Leather jacket - Zara
Tee - Urban Outfitters
Culottes - Vintage

We were sat near the top, but we had a fantastic view, and we only paid £20 per ticket which is another great way to encourage opera skeptics to attend a show. We were sat next to two opera aficionados which was great, as they talked so enthusiastically about things like the 'incredible aria' the lead had performed, which was all adding to my opera education! He pointed out how he loves to watch the orchestra during performances, so I looked down there too, and it really is incredible how they are so perfectly timed and gracious throughout the whole show.

Make sure to keep an eye out for lower priced tickets for shows at all of London's theatres. They often sell out quickly or are released on the day, but it is a great way of experiencing a huge part of London's West End. We caught the closing night of Anna Nicole: The Opera, but you can catch some of the best bits on YouTube as well.

[Explore] The Street Art of East London

East London is well known for its street art. This goes beyond graffiti and is of a status much higher than any type of vandalism; these are usually commissioned works, hidden on every shop shutter, alley way wall and front door from Hoxton to Hackney. You may know Great Eastern Street, the road that connects Old Street with Shoreditch, and its famous 'Let's Adore and Endure Each Other' creation, but there is so much more to be found. You can even take a guided tour of the most well known street art, but if you don't want to fork out the money, just take a walk down Brick Lane and its side streets, or through Rivington Street and onto Curtain Road and keep your eyes open. Sometimes you'll spot something hidden behind a chimney stack or a drainpipe, other times it might be on the ground or wrapped around the corner of a building. There's no point putting your camera away, you will find another artwork sooner than you expect. But don't think that you only need to do this once. Every time I walk back through these streets there is a new piece on a new space, or an older work has been painted over. I took most of these photos this weekend when I was showing a visitor around the area, but some of these are from times past where I've remembered to take a photo before I walk past. Here are my favourites:

My First Trip to Hong Kong: a Summary

As I'm sure you're all very aware, I've spent three wonderful weeks in Australia and I knew that the thought of heading straight back to London would be too much to bear. To save myself from an uncomfortable bump back to reality, I stopped over for a week in Hong Kong before flying home. As it turns out, one of my best friends lives in HK so I was able to stay with her and explore too. As with my Australian posts I'll write up some of these explorations into more detail, but until then, here's what my time in Hong Kong consisted of (being written on the flight back to London, feeling very grumpy that I have to go back to the real world in the next 48 hours!):

Monday: I stayed in Sheung Wan which is very central and makes it easy to get everywhere very quickly. I took in my first temple, the small Man Mo temple and was instantly amazed by seeing something so different from anything I'd see in Europe. I then walked up to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens where there is a range of monkeys being held. It wasn't a very pleasant experience as I'm pretty sure the monkeys didn't have the room they needed and weren't very happy, so I headed off back down the hill to see some of the famous architecture. I gazed up at the Bank of China and went into the famous HSBC building, both of which tower above the streets below. I weaved in and out of the various streets in the Central area, including up Graham Street (famous for the wide array of fruits  and vegetables on offer) and the fishmongers of Lower Lascar Row (who have live fish right in front of you to pick from!). That evening I had my first genuine Chinese dim sum and drank my weight in green tea!

Tuesday: I ventured much further out of Central and headed to the 10,000 Buddhas Temple. I sweated up what felt like a million stairs in the boiling heat but it was so worth it - the gold gilded Buddhas were spectacular and the temple and pagodas at the top were like nothing I'd ever seen before. My temple excursions didn't stop there! I then went on to see Chi Lin Nunnery which was a beautiful building strikingly set right in front of looming residential skyscrapers, yet still surprisingly peaceful. Close by was Wong Tai Sin temple - probably the most famous temple in Hong Kong. Outside the street is lined with fortune tellers so I got my palm read! I then went to Apliu Street flea market. I didn't realise until my friend told me later, but that area of town is the poorest in Hong Kong. I was definitely the only western person in the area and the state of the apartments in the area should have signified it to me sooner. It was really eye opening. 

Wednesday: I finally made it up to Victoria Peak! Sadly the famous tram was having maintenance during my whole stay, so I took the bus up to the top. It was so staggering to see huge tower blocks still standing tall all over the mountain area and the views down to the city were very impressive. Once I was down I took the bus to Stanley, a seaside town in the south of Hong Kong. I saw the beautiful island beaches and then walked the promenade of Stanley next to its well known market area. Very calm. That evening I went to my first sky bar (the bars within the skyscrapers throughout the city that boast the best views around the city). Sadly the mist was bad that evening and we only saw over to Kowloon just before we left, but we did manage to catch the famous light show projected onto the skyscrapers on Kowloon but enjoyed by those on Hong Kong Island. 

Thursday: I headed up to the famous ladies market in Mong Kok to get my first glimpse of the famous fake designer goods so well associated with China. I could not believe the amount of imposter Mulberry, Michael Kors and Louis Vuitton bags there! It was full of British women loading up on whatever they could but I decided not to get anything. Instead I got some great oversized clutch bags and a cute pussy bow blouse - no designer names on them, but bargains nonetheless. I then headed to Kowloon promenade and walked the Avenue of Stars, culminating in a huge statue of Bruce Lee! I met my friend and we walked through to the Jordan area where Temple Street Night market is. We had dinner at a street side restaurant which I was a bit wary of at first but it was delicious!

Friday: I jumped on the MTR and went all the way to Tung Chung to get on the famous cable car (with a glass bottom!) to the village of Ngong Ping on Lantau Island where the famous bronze Buddha statue sits. It's the biggest seated bronze Buddha in the world and sits atop a hill looking serene and beautiful every vantage point. This was awesome in the truest sense of the word. As cheesy as it may sound, I felt really blessed to see something so impressive and imposing - it's really unlike anything I've ever seen. That evening we went for cocktails at a sky bar which was probably a mistake considering we had an early start in Saturday. 

Saturday: We went to Macau! Another country ticked off my list! We took the ferry to the strange country, previously owned by Portugal and it is without a doubt, the oddest place I've ever been in my life. My blonde friend was a tourist attraction in herself, with Chinese tourists taking her photo everywhere we went which was so weird. There wasn't a huge amount to see in the town although the architecture is very strange: European style but covered in Chinese writing and signs. Macau is obviously famous for its casinos and it's basically the Las Vegas of the east. We went to the Venetian and it was bizarre! The hotel was painted to look like Venice, with a river with gondolas on it floating through the centre! I was glad to get back to the relative sanity of Hong Kong after that!

And now here I am, sat on a plane home. I can't believe a month has gone and I'm headed back to London. Three hours in to a 12.5 hour flight so I've got plenty of time to get used to the idea of being back!