New Year's in London!

I really wanted to celebrate the New Year in a foreign country. And so we did.

Where are we going? What is our budget?

Actually, choosing our New Year's destination wasn't so difficult. We wanted to see spectacular fireworks and party with foreign people. Still we also needed to think about our budget. And so we decided to visit LONDON!

After we decided on London we booked our New Year's trip as soon as possible. As expected, a lot of hotels didn't have any rooms left. On Expedia.nl we managed to book a flight + hotel (with breakfast) for only 200 euro each!

It is a very short flight from The Netherlands to London. When I could undo the safety belt after take of, it felt like only 5 minutes before we already had to fasten the seatbelt again for the landing. 'That was fast!'
Somehow my boyfriend, Fernando, still managed to sleep on my shoulder during that short amount of time.

 

Our hotel, Holiday Inn Heathrow, was almost 1 hour away from London city. An Oyster card for the metro was very handy at that moment! *You can buy the Oyster card at every metro station in every card machine*

We came for the fireworks and champagne, but the extra days we had in London were of course used for.. shopping! We found a very cute asian shop called ''Panda Ho''. The whole shop was filled with panda stuff! Panda plushies, panda notebooks, panda shoes, panda bags, panda EVERYTHING! I couldn't leave such a cute store without buying something, so I got myself a very adorable panda plushie, a travel notebook, some cute panda stickers and toothbrush holders.

I named my panda plushie ''panda''.

A must visit in London is M&M World! The building has 4 floors and is filled with M&M merchandise, M&M paintings, M&M statues and of course.. M&M's!!! This colorful building is so much fun to visit!
Our new red M&M jar reminds me of it everyday.

Enough about shopping! Let's get to the best part, the fireworks! We stood right in front of the London Eye, which I heard is the best spot to be. We stood there for more than 3 hours waiting for the big moment. I can't remember a place were I've seen so many people at once. Thousands of people stood there with us. Everybody was waiting for the same moment. No matter where you came from, no matter who you were. We all shared the same feeling in that special moment when the clock was almost at 0:00.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 

I couldn't believe my eyes. All those people, thousands of people, counting down the clock, cheering for the New Year and the firework.. it was stunning. 15 minutes long I watched the most beautiful fireworks I had ever seen with big eyes. Everything was perfectly timed on music played by a DJ. And because of the Olympic Games that will be held in London this year, they made it extra special!

We sang, we cried, we laughed, we toasted, we drank, we kissed, we danced and we watched. It was a great start for 2012!!!

I know it's a bit late now, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

''Smile, be happy and Love!''