Planning the holiday - London

Hey guys!

So in a few weeks I will go on holiday to London! And I'm thaaaaaaaaaaaaat excited. Oh my god.

So as this trip will be my first one to the UK, I'm feeling kind of nervous about it and hope that everything will turn out as it should. I probably should also mention that a friend of mine lately went there and missed her flight because she spent too much time in the duty free. That's quite funny if you hear it at first, but really, it's so upsetting when you imagine it happening to yourself, isn't it? But that is only a minor fear I have about that trip obviously :D I will go to London by aeroplane and land at Stansted Airport. To get to the city center I plan to use one of the shuttle busses. Are they good? Which one would you take?

I have planned to do so much in the few days which I will spend there and at the same time, I feel like I don't know what to do. Do you understand what I mean? I think, yes, I will definitely see the Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace, etc but what should I have seen apart from the obvious tourist attractions? Any tips for me? I also want to take as many nice memory pictures as I possibly can! Any nice little places, you would recommend from those of you who have been there already or MAYBE even live there? Another thing I could need some help is where to go for some shopping. So I have heard of Sainsbury's and Tesco. Are they good for food and stuff? Also where would you go for having food on the go/in relatively cheap restaurants (you know, being a student, I obviously intend to save my money for something else than only food ;) )? For clothing and jewelry and whatever things one could want to buy or look at, I thought of Topshop, New Look, River Island, Boots, Superdrug, Primark or Sephora. Any recommendations on those types of shops? Have you ever been to some of them before? I'm literally SO excited to go in them even if I will just have a look and won't buy anything but I think, shops are also so interesting when you don't have them in your own country or that near that you could go there after max. 4 hours of train journey. That's a kind of weird measure you might think, but that's about as long as it takes me to go to the furthermost cities of my federal state (well, that sounds posh to me.. it's comparable to a county in the UK) for which I being a student can go for free with my university ticket. That's quite a nice thing, I think! But yeah, I'm getting off the track.

Back to my trip..I really strongly hope that the weather will be on my side so that walking around  the city will be possible without having to carry an umbrella all the time or getting wet. I know that already from my home town, so why not experience something different? ;)

Have you ever been to London or to the UK in general? Or do you maybe plan to spend your next holiday there? What are your experiences? Any tips and tricks? If not, which ones are your holiday destinations?  I'm curious!!

♥