The journey from Greenwich to oxford circus takes a while and if you have to stand up the entire time it's deathly.Though, finding a seat on the DLR isn't always that easy so when I finally discovered and conquered myself a seat, I felt like Columbus. It's a saturday afternoon and the underground is packed as usual. If our municipality already thinks that Antwerp is overpopulated they clearly haven't been to London yet. In comparison to London, Antwerp is an oasis of peace and tranquility. When I came out of the tube at Oxford circus I felt like Mufasa in the Lion King when he gets caught into the rush in the ravine. Trying not to get trampled we headed towards Trafalgar Square. It isn't that easy for a Belgian girl and a Scot to find their way around this massive city but thank god for smartphones with GPS functions! Despite the help of the smartphones we took a little detour but we didn't really care. It gave us the chance to look around. Striking to me were all different little bookshops you find. I couldn't help but think; I want those too in Antwerp! Arriving at Trafalgar Square we noticed that the place was packed with thousands of people. Apparantely the annual japan festival, called Japan Matsuri, was going. Trafalgar Square was covered in people, music and stalls where you could eat japanese food and participate in several japanese activities. After enjoying the japanese music we continued to Leicester Square.
One of the must sees at Leicester Square is M&M world, so that's what we did. The second I walked into the building my inner child came out everywhere I looked there were statues of the M&M characters, paintings, clothes, teddybears and off course lots and lots of M&M's in every colour of the rainbow to chose from. The place has a very disney like magic going on.
After that we walked back to the underground via picadilly circus, where I have seen the phantom of the opera earlier this week, and regent street. While I was walking down Regent street I felt like I dead and gone to fashion heaven, I walked by the Michael Kors shop, Karen Millen, Chanel really all the big fashion designer are there. Even the H&M store looked more glamourous than the one we have in Antwerp.
When I came home at the end off the day I had the feeling that I had shared ths experience with a lot of people but in reality I only had really shared it with my flatmate Ryan. Even though you are surrounded by thousands of people you walk the streets alone. In a way it gives you the feeling that you are not alone in the world but when you think about it you are. While I was looking around in awe of the beauty of the city I was in, the majority of the strangers around didn't even notice that beauty anymore. I realised then and there that beauty is transitory after a while it's just a city. And no matter how many people surround you, in the end it is just you.
money money money it's so funny in a rich man's world
Don't we all dream of being millionaires and billionaires! A lot of people say that money won't make you happy and they are right in a lot of ways but it does make life easier. Our society is obsessed with money, we live for profits, big numbers, sales and so on. This resulted in the fact that you can't get anything for free anymore, except for the air we breath and the sunrise in the morning.
When I was still at home the only things I had to pay for myself were my clothes and the drinks on a night out. It is now when I have to handle my own budget that I realize that I took a lot for granted back home. Untill now I never realised how expensive the basics in life are and the shops don't make it easy on you. Marketeers will make sure you definitely notice the chicken that will cost you six pounds but have to search for the chicken that will only cost you two pounds.
In modern societey we all are materialists and everyday we get confronted with things we really would like to have but cannot afford. Do we hate that feeling? Absolutely, it sucks! It seems pretty stupid though to desire things that are out of our reach but it's perfectly normal. The entire day we hear and see nothing but things that we don't have, take facebook for example, I have dozens of friends who write about doing things or having things I wish I had. Social media, advertising and television work as a constant reminder of what we don't have in life in comparison to others.
