the disclaimer is that i rarely ever read other peoples blogs so i have no clue what a blog entry entails and i also don't ever go places so everything i do is pretty much a win over my shut-in tendencies. but let's go!

london day 1 & 2

_{(25/08/2023 & 26/08/2023)}

friday, day 1:

i decided to take this trip when they announced the AEW ALL IN show in wembley stadium in spring. usually i would have been like “how cool, sucks that it’s in britland though and i can’t go” but… i could just go? so i did the insanely crazy (for me) thing and booked a flight and a hotel for a weekend in london and just went!

aside from this being my first trip on my own, this was also my first time flying alone and it started out pretty annoying with my flight being delayed for hours due to bad weather. but i made it to london heathrow and 25£ later (i didn’t realize how fucking bonkers expensive heathrow express was oh my god) i also made it to my hotel. a decent little place close to hyde park.

one thing about me (and something i tend to forget a lot) is that i actually don’t really like traveling… a new environment, different temperatures, just so much unfamiliar stuff to adjust to. honestly... not for me! so my mood usually sucks on the first day of a vacation/trip. keeping that in mind i decided to fight through it and take a train to soho to do some exploring!

i visited gosh! comics and brought a cool ass zine that combines essays and sick artwork and is about trans representation in movies (“through the vitriol” by bug shepherd-barron) and also some vintage fantasy art trading cards (that kind of sucked ass). gosh! comics is so sick i could have spent hours in there! they also had a lot of osamu tezuka’s work and if i had more than just a carry on backpack… trust, they would have come home with me.

i also ended up taking a little detour to chinatown because i was hungry but it was so busy that i just bought some mochi and left. took the train home and called it an early night hoping my mood would be better the next morning.

saturday, day 2:

on saturday i ended up waking up way early because of the time difference in england. so i went to a little corner coffe shop and got an iced latte and a croissant and walked a few more minutes to sit down in hyde park to enjoy the quiet early morning.

my big plan for saturday was to visit highgate cemetery, so after finishing my “breakfast” and walking around a bit more in the neighborhood i ended up taking the tube to archway. honestly every time i had to go down (or up) the escalators in the tube i was so scared for my life… these mfs are way to steep and placing displays along the walls is just an insane person move.

after a short walk i arrived at highgate cemetery which is just beautiful. i love visiting cemeteries, i am enamored by them… i just love the quietness and the beautiful nature. they are very serene, beautiful places to me and highgate cemetery did not disappoint! i was lucky that the weather was absolutely perfect that morning; sunny, not too warm and with a beautiful blue sky.

the east side is the newer one of the sides and after you enter you follow a paved way that is lined by lot of beautiful trees and tombstones. several smaller ways go off of that big road that you can follow deeper into the foliage and cemetery. there are big fields of hundreds of tombstones that are very close to each other and almost seem to be placed at random. it makes for an almost “lost” atmosphere sometimes.

next i entered the west side which you go into through a beautiful gate and which is the older of the two cemetery parts. it’s a lot steeper as it is on a hill and you even used to be able to see the city of london from there when it was first built! it has beautiful old graves and trees and elaborate tombs and architecture. the west side, on this day, was a lot darker and cooler because of the big, old trees and in general has a more enchanted vibe about it.

afterwards i visited the small shop of the cemetery and picked up a book by jean sprackland “these silent mansions” (it is so fucking good omg). i took some more time to stroll around in archway, which is wonderfully more calm than the downtown area of london.

the rest of the afternoon was spent in my hotel room to recharge for the evening. i wanted to go to prince charles cinema to catch “enter the dragon” but when i arrived i was so overwhelmed that i ended up going to FOPP and spent my evening looking at blu rays. i picked up the arrow release of nightbreed and tokyo fist by shinya tsukamoto (i have been searching for that one EVERYWHERE). great fucking store i can 100% recommend going there and getting lost.

when i was finally in bed i suddenly got really hyped as i realized “oh my god i’m going to see cm punk vs samoa joe in less than 24hs” but i still managed to fall asleep.