Splash of Summer Day 1 - Leeds

Assalamualaikum and a very good day peeps!

Finally, I had finished writing about my trip to Eastern Europe. It took a while to finish them. XD

A few days after coming back to Glasgow from London, I had another trip with my friends and my parents. A total of 7 persons joined this trip which covered Italy and Switzerland. However, my parents and I extended another two extra places for ourselves which were Leeds and Cardiff.

Since our flight to Rome departed from Manchester, therefore my mom asked me to plan a short visit to Leeds which is located just one-hour away from Manchester by bus. I had pre-purchased bus tickets from Glasgow to Manchester and also from Manchester to Leeds. Both operators were Megabus. Megabus is a great deal since we could get cheap bus tickets. Usually, from Glasgow to Manchester cost around £8 for a single journey and it cost £4 from Manchester to Leeds (single).

We arrived at Leeds late at noon. We had not much to do here. My mom just wanted to visit my uncle's university where he attended fewwwwww years ago which was none other than University of Leeds. From the Coach Station, I called a private hire cab and headed directly to Parkinson Building, University of Leeds. Thanks to Achik for providing me with the phone number.

University of Leeds

We spent few hours here touring around the university. Firstly, at the Parkinson Step which according to Achik, it's a significant landmark of this university. There's two halal restaurants opposite this building as well. The university is quite beautiful. Most of the buildings were built from red bricks therefore there are so pretty. There's a Great Hall too.

We walked towards the back to the direction of Woodsley Road. My uncle used to stay at this street but we didn't know in which house he stayed. So we just walked along this road until we found Leeds Grand Mosque. 

After that, we took a cab back to the Coach Station and waited for our bus back to Manchester. The girls already waited for us there in Kak Miah's house.

Al-Jazeera Restaurant

Back in Manchester, we all had dinner together at our favourite restaurant in Rusholme which was Al-Jazeera! The food is affordable and the portion is extremely satisfying. =)

Our flight to Rome was on 7 am in the next morning. I guess we had to sleep and wake up early so that we could reach the airport on time.

Salam Aidilfitri 2012

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

diucapkan kepada semua yang sudi menerjah ke blog ini.

Maaf zahir & batin.

Mohon ampun jika terkasar bahasa, terlaser, terlahar dan sebagainya. Halalkan makan & minum mahupun jika ada terlebih ataupun terkurang di sepanjang perkenalan.

Gigih pulak lukis kad raya sendiri kan.. Hehe..

Summer in London - Day 8

We had our breakfast in the hotel as it was served free of charge. Our breakfasts include a couple of toasts, cereals and fruits alongside with hot drinks. After breakfast, we checked out and took the underground tube to Victoria. There is a luggage storage facility at Victoria Coach Station for a price. After dropping our luggage here, we took the tube again to Westminster.

Westminster

At Westminster, we waited for our boat at Westminster Pier which is located just beside the tube station. Be careful around this station as there's a lot of Gypsy pickpockets. Last year, my mom's bag nearly got picked here. Opposite the tube station also, we could the the magnificent Big Ben which is a big bell on the tower which is located beside Westminster Abbey.

It's summer therefore a lot of tourists came to London for their summer holiday. The boat that we boarded got a lot of foreigners including from German. So we cruised along the River Thames under the bright sunlight. It wasn't too hot by the way, it was still cold due to the wind. Brrrr~

Along the journey, I could saw several landmarks of London located alongside the riverbanks such as the huge London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and a lot of other historical buildings which I couldn't recall their names. There are just too many of them. XD

Oxford Circus

We took a stop at Tower Bridge and got off from the boat. We planned to go to Oxford Street therefore we took the nearest tube to Oxford Circus. At Oxford Street, my mom grabbed some tops while I didn't have the mood for shopping that day. Maybe because I need to save up some money for my next trip to Italy and Switzerland.

We had our lunch at Rasa Sayang Express which is located at the street. I had nasi lemak with chicken curry and also a few sticks of chicken satay.

Bayswater

After we finished our meals, we continued our agenda which was souvenir hunting. They said that the cheapest souvenirs could be found in Bayswater. This was kinda true because most of the souvenirs here are very cheap and we could bargained for more discounts. Sometimes they gave you free gifts as well. I bought a t-shirt for £5 each and fridge magnets for £1 each. The shopkeeper even gave me extra piece of magnet. Hihihi...For key chains, I got 12 for £10 which was reasonably okay.

That's all for our London trip this time. I really hope I can go back to UK to continue exploring other parts of UK which has their own unique landmarks and historical sites.

That night, we stayed at Travelodge Gatwick because our flight to Glasgow was at 7 am in the next morning.

What a long 8 days of journey. However, our next trip will be longer than this one. 

Alhamdulillah, everything went well during this trip. =)

Summer in London - Day 7

Assalamualaikum & Salam Ramadan~

This was my second visit to London after last year's summer. We had been here before during our summer break last year alongside Wanji and Duwe. When we reached London Victoria Coach Station, we took a cab to Hammersmith district. Our hotel is located there. This time, we stayed at Premier West Hotel for one night.

 

We had a quick rest in our room before went back outside to find lunch. We couldn't find any halal restaurant nearby, so we take the underground tube to Queensway. There, we walked to Malaysian Hall and had our lunch there. I had a plate of rich with fish sambal and cabbage and a glass of iced milo. =)

Then we took the tube again to Charing Cross as we need to go to Trafalgar Square and took a tour bus there. Since my parents' tour bus tickets were paid together with the CIT Travel, I had to purchase my own ticket. There are a lot of bus tour in London, this time we used The Original Tour - London Sightseeing. We started our journey from Trafalgar Square. The bus passed by several attractions but we just stayed on the bus throughout the tour since we already covered most of the places during our last trip here.

Trafalgar Square

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral

River Thames

Tower Bridge

River Thames

London Eye

Big Ben & Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

River Thames & London Eye

London Eye

Hard Rock Cafe London

We took a stop at Hard Rock Cafe London as we need to get something from there. I wanted to buy pin badges while my brother had asked my mom to buy him HRC London t-shirt.

M&M's World

Then, we took the underground tube to Leicester Square. We're heading to M&M World. There are only 4 M&M's World in the world and other location includes Las Vegas, New York City and Orlando. Thus, it's best to visit this place while I was here. However, don't expect to buy a lot of merchandise here as the prices are ridiculously expensive. Fridge magnet could cost more than £6 or £7 each. So did the pin badge. I only bought a strips of magnets and a pin badge. Sorry kawan2, tak mampu nak beli souvenirs kat sini.. XD However, this place is great to visit with children because it is very colourful and beautiful. Such a great place to take photos. =D

Chopstix Noodle Bar

We had our early dinner here. Noodles with chicken dish. There were a lot of variety such as sweet & sour chicken, lemon chicken, salt & pepper chicken, curry chicken and many more. There's one Chopstix branch in Glasgow and their menu were merely the same.

Then we went back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we had one day left in London. We're planning to take River Thames boat tour as the tickets were complementary with the bus tour.

Cheers~