Last weekend my boyfriend’s work planned a trip to London. When I heard about that, of course I wanted to go. This weekend wasn’t my first trip to London, but last time we didn’t have much time to really look around or do a bit of shopping. I made up for it this time. Today’s post is about my trip to London and my London Haul.

Our trip started off really early on Saturday morning. We had to be where the bus would leave at 6:45 a.m. That part went pretty smoothly. Actually getting on the bus and leaving was a bit of an issue (people forgetting their passports and even the headlights on their car). In the end we left twenty minutes later than planned. Once we left, we started our 2,5 hour bus ride to France where we would get on the boat.

We had amazing weather, so the boat ride went pretty fast. While we were waiting for the boat to leave, there was some excitement. A truck was being searched and they actually found four people inside that were trying to get to England. Once we were on the boat it wasn’t that exciting, haha. The view was amazing, but it was a bit cold on deck. After the boat ride we had another two hour drive before we were actually in London. This is where things got a bit annoying, haha. We found out we didn’t have as much time in London, because our bus driver had to be at the hotel at a certain time (work regulations). On top of that, there was so much traffic, it took us forever to actually get where we needed to be.

After getting over the frustrations, we enjoyed being in London. My goal for Saturday was to find Forbidden Planet and Waterstones, haha. My boyfriend wanted the Warhammer store to find a game he can’t find here in The Netherlands. While walking to Forbidden Planet, we stumbled upon something I totally forgot about! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is performed here! I was so jealous and was wishing we were going. Oh well, at least I got to see the theater!

After I was done being a fangirl, we continued our walk to get to the stores we wanted to see. London is a busy city and I forgot about that, haha. What I will never understand is that people stand still in the middle of the street. If it’s so busy, that just doesn’t work, haha. Then again, that happens everywhere. We finally found Forbidden Planet after that!

Forbidden Planet is fangirl heaven, haha. I could live in that place. They have tons of merchandise, comics and lots of books! We were in that for quite awhile, but I eventually had to leave so my boyfriend could go to his Warhammer store. That we found pretty easily as well. The employee there was really sweet and excited telling all about the game. I knew there was a Waterstones that was supposed to be across the street, but didn’t see it. When I asked him about it he told us where it was and that we needed to go upstairs for fantasy. According to him we had to check out Brandon Sanderson (we are already fans, so that was a fun conversation). Even the guy he was working with joined that conversation. I love stores like that.

After our trip to Waterstones, we headed back to the location where the bus would pick us up to go back to the hotel. During the bus ride we saw most of the big sightseeing places that I saw two years ago. After quite the drive back, we grabbed dinner at the hotel and relaxed on our comfortable bed, haha. The next morning we were up bright and early. Breakfast and then back in the bus to head back to London for a few hours. Stores weren’t open until a bit later, so we walked around. I stopped at a souvenir shop to get my mom a souvenir and we saw some other stores.

We saw this Kingdom of Sweets store and decided to check it out. They had a ton of candy I haven’t even seen since moving to The Netherlands.  I was thinking about picking something up until I saw the prices. A bag of Hershey’s Kisses cost 36,99. I’m sorry, that is not worth it. We left the store right after that. The stores wouldn’t open for another half an hour, so we decided to go grab lunch. My boyfriend ordered a cider and the thing was huge! I have never seen on quite like that. It was pretty good though.

After lunch the stores were finally open. He went and got some sneakers. That actually surprised us. Two pairs of shoes cost less than what one pair would’ve cost him here. Can’t beat a deal like that! Of course, I couldn’t pass up another trip to Waterstones. This time we want to the one on Picadilly Circus and it was huge!! It has six floors. If I had known that sooner I would’ve spent the whole day there, haha. After browsing there and buying a couple more books (my haul will be talke about soon), it was time to head back to the bus. Our journey back home. Let’s just say it’s not a bus to sit in for that long! The last hour or so it just wasn’t comfortable anymore! All in all we had an amazing time and I hope to visit there again in the future!

Now for what you have all been waiting for! My haul! We stopped at Forbidden Planet and I started off with a couple of books!

Isabelle recently read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and said it was really good. I found a signed copy at Forbidden Planet and just had to pick it up! The Belles is another book I have been seeing everywhere and picked it up as well. There are so many books there! I could’ve spent a whole paycheck there, haha. After checking out the books, we had to  check out the comics. My boyfriend is also a big comic fan! Archie has published some new comics recently and I have been wanting them for awhile. So I picked up a few while there.

That isn’t all that I bought while in London. Both times I left Waterstones, it wasn’t empty handed. My first trip there I bought two books in The Land of Stories series. In the Facebook group TBR & Beyond there is a middlegrade event going on and I needed books for that. Not only that, I have wanted to read these for quite awhile! During my second trip to Waterstones, I bought The Hate U Give and More Than We Can Tell. The Hate U Give is a book I have heard nothing but amazing things about. There will be a movie soon as well, so I want to read it before that. I would say I did pretty good in London.

Besides books, I also bought some merchandise. At a souvenir shop I bought the mug and pin. This will be the mug I use from now on when I drink tea. It’s really big as well! While we were at Waterstones, my boyfriend bought me the bookworm pin (because I’m his bookworm <3).

All in all, this was a great trip. I will say that the next time we go, I won’t be going by bus, haha. Have any of you been in London? What things do I really need to see next time I’m there?