It's been eighteen long years since I've been to London. Looking around, nothing felt familiar. But I guess you don't remember much as a kid when your life used to revolve around cool parks and ice cream trucks :)

London is kind of hard to classify. In comparison to Paris, it's ten times more congested, commercial, and culturally diverse. So in that regard, it reminds me of New York. Their financial district and sky scrapers remind me of Toronto. Thankfully, the architecture is a gentle reminder that I'm not in America, but that I'm (somewhere) in Europe.

In hindsight, I would have spent less time at the palaces and more time in small markets, walking along the Thames river, and (window) shopping in boutiques. 

My cousin was nice enough to show me around Camden Town, the hipster area of the city. There were loads of tattoo parlours, endless food stands, and some rather strange stores hidden in the depths of the market (ex. we stumbled upon a glow-in-the dark alien themed store). A little out of my comfort zone, but it seemed like a cool area to grab drinks and look around :)

Next, my cousin and I headed over to China Town. I was really excited that my visit would coincide with Chinese New Years and we made an effort to stop by and search for the parade that was supposed to take place. 

For whatever reason, we couldn't find it. Judging by the people wandering around with lanterns and sparklers, we guessed that we weren't the only ones waiting for something to happen. Naturally, it started to rain, so we retreated in Tao Tao Yu for lunch.