A weekend in London

After checking out and leaving Nottingham I made my way to London – finally Hilltop Hoods weekend had arrived. When I got to my hotel to check in there was another woman in front of me. Turned out that she was an Aussie, and we very quickly started to chat. You know those people that you just meet and click with straight away. Well that was me with Molly. We swapped numbers as we made our way upstairs to our rooms. I mentioned that I was in town to see Hilltop Hoods. Unfortunately it turned out there weren’t any tickets left so we made plans for coffee the next morning.

After checking in I got myself ready to go and meet up with Annabel, who was joining me to see Hilltop Hoods. I had done my usual thing of just buy two tickets when I booked mine (last year while on a train in Germany). It was so lovely to be able to introduce someone to one of my fave music acts on the other side of the world! Also super cool to catch up with Annabel again, as it is every time I come through London now. It really is amazing to travel to another country meet someone at a festival from another country and then continue to catch up and stay in touch. It’s really been a pleasure getting to know Annabel over the last year. We grabbed a drink and bite to eat across the road before heading in for the show.

Hilltop were of course amazing! There was a very dense Aussie population in the front rows, where we of course were. The crowd was great, and the venue was pretty cool. It was at the Roundhouse. It was soo good to see them live again. It’s been a while. I have this aversion to large stadium shows. I will go to them, depending on a few factors, who’s playing, where will I be, price, etc. Since Hilltop had started playing stadiums in Melbs I had stopped seeing them . I saw them play the stadium when I watched them support Eminem. It was pretty cool to get to enjoy that nosebleed section live energy once again. Check out their recap video below, can you spot me in the crowd?

The next day I met Molly in the hotel foyer and we went for coffee and breakfast. It was so lovely to just connect with her and chat. Such good chats. After our brekky we went for a bit of a wander through to Portobello Market. I said goodbye and left Molly here to continue her day exploring as I had booked myself into the War of the Worlds – Immersive Experience. I arrived slightly early and got myself a Martian themed cocktail before the show.

As it was Father’s Day in the UK, it turned out this was a great event for families. So I was the only soloist in the group amongst a bunch of very friendly families. This was a pretty cool experience and I am so glad I went. A cute journey through an epic tale with a banging soundtrack of course. The design of the spaces were cool, the use of the VR head sets and videos merged with in scene actors worked well. It was also nicely paced and fun to travel through. If you get a chance to experience this or a show like it, I recommend saying yes and jumping right in.

Afterwards, Annabel and I caught up again for the evening. We met for a fancy dinner and then went for a wander to feed the squirrels and visit the ducks. It was nice to walk around the gardens and take advantage of the daylight hours. We considered going to the movies or something, but I did need to get back to pack for leaving the next morning. The responsible adult in me wanted to prepare. I had an early start for making my way to Heathrow in the morning. So we made our way to the station and said till next time.

This weekend in London really was a lovely way to end this visit to the UK. Especially as I had decided to alter my next travel plans. Instead of heading to France and Italy as I originally intended I am Croatia bound instead.