Last week I spent a whirlwind week in London for my Spring Break! I try to get over to London about once every other year, as a large part of my mom’s family lives there. Seeing my grandfather, aunts, uncles, and endless number of cousins is always the best part of the trip–and it keeps me SUPER busy–but I like to spend at least one day of my journey venturing through London and exploring. I’ve seen pretty much all there is to see of London tourist attractions, so I try to take myself on the roads less traveled–at least by tourists. On this trip, I had a number of specific destinations planned, so my adventure was half exploration, half checking things off of my list.

My first stop was lunch at Nando’s, a place that is near and dear to my heart. I became familiar with Nando’s when I studied abroad in Australia, and ate there at least once a week. I guess it’s technically a fast food place, but their chicken is AMAZING! As far as I know, there’s only one in the U.S. (and it’s in Washington, D.C.), so I was eager to get my fix at one of their London locations!

After a delicious lunch, I spent some time roaming around Oxford Circus, going in and out of stores and taking in all of the awesome British fashion. I brought beautiful weather with me to ever-gloomy London, which I took advantage of by sitting in an outdoor cafe and sipping a latte in the afternoon. Soon enough, it was time for the most anticipated event of my day…the fanciest manicure of my life.

I found out about Nails, Inc. from a friend of mine who told me about their magnetic nail polish. A huge fan of nail art, I visited their website immediately and found out that they do all sorts of amazing things (including a Ruby Red Crystal Pedicure, which entails getting each of your toenails bedazzled with red Swarovski crystals!). I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted my nails to look like, but I knew I wanted it to be unique and different. After consulting with the nail technician (who had the most amazing nails I have ever seen), I decided to go with neon pink and a layer of gold crackle polish on top, so that the pink would shine through. Did I mention they rubbed my hands in caviar lotion?!

So after quite a full day on my own, I went back to the suburbs to meet my grandfather for dinner. Overall, I felt quite successful, and was so happy to have had such an exciting day to myself! What are your Spring Break plans? Are you staying local? Traveling abroad? Comment and let me know!