48 hrs in London like a local 🇬🇧 new beginnings

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

Old days feeling something. Same dress, same old pretty face. There's no need to keep me this happy way inside. Woah, woah, woah. Hello. Coming to you from a very gloomy London day. Shocking, I know. I haven't been vlogging as much recently as I would like to. So, we're going to get better. I have been spending quite a bit of time in London. You know, I love a bit of exploring, but I think by the time I finally get to London, because I'm traveling so much, I'm just so tired. I don't have it in me to explore as much as I would like to explore because it's such an incredible, beautiful city, and there's so much to uncover.

London also feels like insurmountable sizewise. In comparison, obviously, like New York or Paris, where I've lived, both cities, I'm like, okay, I kind of know like get a handle on over time. Whereas London, I'm like, oh my god, where do I even begin? Even just on a map, I'm like, I still can't name so many different areas, but we're going to get there in due time. Um, and so my best friend Ashley actually moved here a year before me. She's also always traveling all the time, but we're like, we need to make it a mission that when we're here together to like do a bit of exploratory hanging out and treat London as if we're on like a girls trip here together.

So, we're going to meet up for brunch and just do a bit of exploring around like Mayfair Regent's Park area, which I'm sure is a bit touristy. It's a bit basic, but you know, we got to start from ground zero. Would love any tips though about where I should be exploring, where I should be hanging out, what I should be seeing in London. I mean, there's so much here. It's such a I slept in um Kea's curlers last night. What do we think? I figured out the key is to get a thicker rod for curls.

I go like this way. It's kind of like a unicorn. It's not very cute. I sleep in it with my hair parted down the middle. And I usually part my hair down the middle, but I realized it would like make my hair look so flat. Then I do a little side part and that gives it a lot more volume. I actually think London is a great city this time of year, like fall into winter. even though it's obviously gloomy and the sunset's very early. The city, I feel like, is created to be quite cozy and so there's so many cute like little restaurants and coffee shops and pubs, even if you're not drinking, that just like have this very warm and inviting atmosphere for when it's cold outside.

I love asking this at the start of every year. I'm like, "What do you want to see this year? Do you like chatty, casual vlogs? Are they boring? Are they interesting? I don't know. Do you want to see more videos exploring different parts of the city? Do you want to see travel videos, adventure videos, challenge videos? of the day. I'm creating content for all of you guys. So, I want to know what you want to see. What excites you. Let's explore London. Hello. Hello from London. Curly in Marabout. Hello. The girls are back.

Yeah. In a new city. New city unlocked. Couple of Americans exploring the beautiful city of London. We're loving it. And it's gorgeous. And we're Marleone, which is kind of near Mayfair or Yeah, perfect. Well done. What neighborhood would you think this is most similar to in New York? West Village. All right. Yeah, we're in the West Village of London. We just had brunch at Sunny Brook, which is a bit funny because it's not exactly the most like London establishment. We've both been there in New York. Like chill. Didn't even need reservation.

That's That's what I'm going for these days at this point, 100%. And now we're going to look for some bookstores, galleries, coffee shops. Yes. All the things we love in a city. Maybe a thrift store. We'll see. This is us as friends. Len, this is me path stillness. Ashley coded. Remote places to stay. Escape the bean. Literally two best friends. Oh my god. No, I thrifted a jacket though. It's just like that. That was a great coat. This street that we're on, children. I feel like it's the best for walking.

And so many cafes and stores to pop into. Everything is expensive, but the window shopping window shopping is really good. Love me again. Girls are drifting away. Touch my hand. Hello from Mayfair. We decided to be fancy girls and we're at Allayia, which is a luxury clothing brand that I can't afford, but it's beautiful. If you want a little bit of imposter syndrome to see beautiful clothes, come here because on the very top floor they have this amazing like coffee book selection and cafe. It's really lovely and the fashion is like a work of art.

So, it's kind of a gallery in itself. Feels like I'm having coffee in like a museum or an art gallery. If you like fashion and beautiful things and very clean white spaces, come to my dream. You're in my head again speaking in tong. It's like bourbon but bourbon. So this whole area is really beautiful for an art lover and it all kind of goes around Berkeley Square which is the larger nice insider knowledge. All of the galleries you'd want to see. We were just walking along the street and Ashley's showing me some galleries cuz she's my London gallery expert.

I don't know anything about it. And casually just walking by and there's this tiny little storefront that's having a Lee Miller exhibition which is insane. Like I think Lee Miller's photography is so stunning and so pivot especially from the time. I've never seen an exhibition of her work and to just stumble upon it on this like tiny little back alley of like 24 of these insane photographs was just like such a fun little surprise. They're all free. The energy is like very warm. Like people are very happy to have you walk around and stay a while.

Yeah, I mean that's what can be great about galleries over museums is that I mean obviously they're free and you're seeing a more intimate collection of work. Just a piece of you and me. You and me. I just want to give you everything. Everything. Everything. Everything. I always love the like soft orange windows. Hey, recording live. Having a little bench sit in Berkeley Square. One thing I love about London is there's always some like little park or square that you can pull over and find a like open bench. Have a sit, drink your comparison to being in New York, the density is a lot less and there's a lot more green space and so you just can always kind of have a sit on your own.

Oh gosh, it's always so dark trying to film. I feel like I don't know how to vlog anymore. Do you guys still enjoy vlogs? They feel so repetitive. I'm having a bit of self-doubt when it comes to vlogging. I mean, I've been doing this for so long and I kind of am like lowkey, does anyone still care? What do you want to see in vlogs? cuz I'm like feeling like my life is not that interesting. But at the same time, like I enjoy making them and I enjoy capturing life and connecting this way.

I don't know y'all. I'm just going to roll with it and we're going to hope for the best. I am meeting a friend later, exploring a bit of Nodding Hill and with my friend Manny. Super cool. In terms of also books cuz we love talking about recent reads. I recently finished Play It As It Lays. I think it's in the other room. It was a fascinating journey. I decided to kind of read it after having finished Valley of the Dolls cuz someone recommended reading them sequentially. They're quite different writing styles, but it kind of takes place in the same time like 1960s into the '7s Hollywood New York entertainment industry chaos, especially like the female experience.

And it was a very um dark read, I would say. But I do think reading them back toback is just a very interesting look into what it was like to be a woman during that time within the entertainment industry. It's kind of like depression and carnate. I'm like for one, damn, it really sucked to be a woman for so long, hasn't it? I think honestly of the dolls was like equally depressing in its own light, but again at the same time I'm like they were really interesting reads. Hello. I'm currently in Nodding Hill on this very rainy day, but going to do a little exploring outside.

I'm proud of myself. I hope my teeth keep tech on. I don't come to Nodding Hill a lot, but it's such a cute area. And my friend Manny and I are going to hang out and do a little exploring. So, we're setting up a coffee shop called For Music Show, I believe. Was meant to be cute. I mean, look at look at that building. It's so cute. It's so beautiful here. So, let's go. You going to introduce me to the YouTube vlog. Hello. Hey everyone. How's it going? My name is Melinda and I am a fellow West Londoner.

Today I'm showing Elena around Notting Hill. My favorite neighborhood. Which I mean, everybody talks about Notting Hill when it comes to London. I feel like it's a favorite neighborhood of so many people our age. I think so. And I feel like especially after the movie, it's very easy to do the tourist way, but I feel like it's good to see it through the eyes of a local. Exactly. Which is always the goal. So, we're having a nice stroll. Of course, the weather's absolute Classic London. Very classic. Um, but we had a lovely little coffee.

Just popped in dot bookstore. And now, yeah, we're on road. There's all these cute little arcades. Unfortunately, some of them are closed cuz it's a weekday. But I'm going to take Alena to Lover's Lane, one of my favorite vintage shops in London, and we're going to see what we can find here in your arms again. And I watch you.