Of how I went to London to shop and ended up meeting J.K. Rowling

Omg, I haven't posted anything in a month. I'm a terrible blogger!
But I've got some excuses: my last exam (which took place on September 18th and drained all my energies until I finally got my grade), moving house, my trip to London... I'll just talk about the latter because the move and the exam are very boring subjects, and I'm glad at least one of them is over.
So! I went to holiday. I took it as a reward for finishing the exams, but the truth is my mother had noticed I really, really needed a break: my last trip was three years ago, but it lasted three days (including the flights), I had to do everything in a hurry and I didn't enjoy it at all. These last two years have been... well. Let's say "tough" would be the understatement of the century. University was the least of my problems, but it still took all of my time, and all I had been doing lately was studying locked in my room. I held on and tried to think "it's ok, come on, this is the last effort, it's going to be over soon" and eventually it was over, but I was so tired and I so needed to go away from my everyday routine.
I hadn't even realize how much I'd needed it until I was in this amazing city.

Aside from the usual places one sees when they go to London (which I wasn't really interested in, since I'd already seen them years ago, but it was my boyfriend's first time in London) I had planned a very detailed scheduled made of bookshops, manga shops, games shops and other nerdy stuff.

I didn't take pictures of all of them; too bad because the Orc's Nest was worth a pic, but I'll keep its memory in my heart u.u

Foyles

Just so that you can get its HUGENESS, what you're seeing above is *one* of the paranormal romance shelves. I was in awe.



Tokyo Toys

This is just the entrance; if I should post all the pictures of the inside, there would be no space left for anything else.

I couldn't buy it because it was so expensive, instead I bought Homura's Soul Gem, which you can see below together with a Sailor Moon peluche and Orihime Inoue's pins.

Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker Street

My horrible handwriting XD I was writing in a hurry on my boyfriend's back.

Of course, the reference is to BBC series Sherlock, of which I'm a big fan, but not in that slashy omg they're_so_gonna_have_sex way.
Oh, and I didn't have the time to go and see the Crown's jewels, which I deeply regret because I wanted to stand in front of it with a note saying "and honey, you should see me in a crown!".

Starbucks.

I bet Starbucks isn't that big of a deal to pretty much all of you, is it :D?

Well, sadly, it is to me: we don't have Starbucks in Italy.

Well, of course, we have actual cappuccino and caffellatte (and we pronounce these words correctly XD), but what do I care if I can't have blueberry muffins...?

Camden Town

Sweet mother of goths.
This is just Camden High Street, but you should have seen the markets. Like, I can't even. I was about to literally cry from beauty. There was a Burleska shop. I got to try the Mollflander dress. There was a Spiral shop T_T and there was goth stuff just everywhere T__T! I mean, seriously, how can people in London do anything other than shopping...?

This is what I bought from Camden. It's funny: of all the amazing stuff I saw, I bought a few super tacky Spiral tops. Well, actually I'd been eyeing the one on the right for months. And the other one, I don't know, I bought it because of the super strong gay content. I guess I just felt extremely supportive that day - plus I love Victoria Frances.

On the left, lace corseted hold-ups. Too bad I have to wait until next summer to wear them T_T

And on the right, tights with a pentagram. Because I'm a piano player.

Bracelet <3

52 Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury

Virginia Woolf's Memorial in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury.
Apparently her house in London has been tore down and now in its place there's a hotel. I don't have any good pics of her former house or of the park, sorry :/

Forbidden Planet

I can't really describe this place, which is a lot wider than you can see from the pictures.

Look what I found there:

And Willow's not even my favourite character; it would be more accurate to say she's the one I hate the most of the whole cast (as a character; my crush for Alyson Hannigan isn't a secret :D) but I would have still killed for this coldcast.

I didn't buy it, of course. 235£: it's too much in pounds, let alone what it would have cost me in euros. *wipes a tear*

But I got off with these. A bottle of Tru Blood and a Buffy poster. I'm not very satisfied with the latter because of two reasons: first of all, there's Riley in my birth month. I mean, Riley. Of all the characters. If it were Willow, I would have said, fine, I hate her, but she's still a hell of a character. I don't hate Riley but he's the mehest character from the mehest season of the series. And second!, there weren't neither Faith nor Angel. I can understand Faith (well... can I? Really? When Oz gets a month all of his own? And frickin' Dawn has to share hers with her sister...?), but Angel...? How can they even think of a Buffy calendar without the love of her life, the one she could never forget, the only one who - ooook, I've been watching Buffy recently and I need to gain the control on my feelings back.

So, one afternoon I went to Oxford Street and I saw all of those shops other bloggers talk about all the time, like Topshop, Primark, River Island, Bershka, Claire's... none of which I can find in Italy. I wouldn't care this much if it wasn't for Topshop. I just fell in love with it.

Unfortunately, this is all I came home with from there.

And yes, I've just made a big jump on the nu goth bandwagon - but hey, I'm still quite far from hipster goth and, god forbid, pastel goth.

I have to say that the latest trends - you know, crosses and skulls and spikes in every shop downtown, not just in the alternative ones anymore - allow me to wear something that's close to my style even in my everyday life. Something that I couldn't do before - I was doomed to choose between a full goth outfit and just plain, boring black stuff.

It should also be said that when I was younger I was a purist and an elitist, obsessed with that not-goth-enough shit, but that's because I'd met many people who had that attitude towards me, so I just felt like I had to live up to someone's expectations. And even if there had been these things in the regular shops, I'd have refused to buy them, and I would have despised those who would wear them.

Like, at the time I would NEVER EVER EVER have worn Doc Martens. Now, instead, look at what I bought for my everyday life <3:

I mean, these boots saved me from my New Rocks. I would never have even imagined how much a pair of boots could hurt my feet.

That's me on my bed surrounded by half a dozen plasters. And a Warhammer Fantasy starter box.

By the way; the latest rock-chic fashion has finally landed to Italy, after a year of spikes and Jeffrey Campbells all over lookbook. I had felt so happy when I saw creepers and JC and the new limited edition of Doc Martens on a window in my town, and then I went to London and figured out that those things were everywhere, and on everyone's feet.

I mean, fashion in London is so great. Even the clothes you find in markets or in the malls have rock or vintage or retro details, and everyone dresses differently from all the other people. This just doesn't happen in my country, despite being known for the fashion and the shoes... it's sad to admit it, but abroad they've gone much, much further than us.

Whenever I ran into italian people in London, I could tell they were from my country for two reasons:

1)They were yelling and making stupid comments on people and being loud, rude and disrespectful;

2)They were all_dressed_the same. A jumper, a jeans and a pair of Converse/random sneakers. Maybe even quite expensive jumpers, jeans and sneakers, but still... everyone was the perfect copy of his/her peer. That was so sad. And hardly fashionable.

Here'sa few outfits I pulled off during the trip. The only thing that bothers me is that I could only bring a pair of shoes and I had to go for the stompy boots, which weren't exactly the best match for my lacy stuff, but I couldn't take more than five steps in my TUK victorian boots to save my life.

And finally... the J.K. Rowling corner.
I'll start with a picture of me on the 9 3/4 binary :D

Which really drew a line in my life, before which I just thought I "liked Harry Potter", and then, after making an ass of myself at King's Cross in the rush hour, I realized the harsh truth that I'm a Potterhead.
Anyway.
I knew, before leaving, that J.K. Rowling had written a new book and that it was going to come out on September 27th. I had checked if she was going to be at some bookshop to sign the copies, but she wasn't.
When I got to London, though, I had this great idea of checking the newspapers. And that's how I found out that she was going to sign copies at the Southbank Centre on thursday night, after an event which I couldn't attend because tickets were needed (and they had run out of them on August 3rd, the day they came out). But nothing suggested that I couldn't go there later and have my copy signed.
So I went there. The Southbank centre is a really big place, so I asked a few guys for help. They happened to be J.K. Rowling fans too, so together we managed to find out where the place was and went there.
There was an endless queue and they told us that we needed a ticket, and that we couldn't buy any. We were meters away from her and we couldn't reach her.

My boyfriend suggested that we joined the queue and stayed in the last places, but it was ten p.m., the queue was long and the tube stopped working at 11:30 p.m., so I decided to try my luck. Afterall, the newspapers didn't say you needed a ticket for the signing.

[Almost there and crossing my fingers]

And eventually, the guy who checked your tickets and opened your book at the right page told me that there was no need for tickets to get your book signed. And kids, this is the story of how I met J.K. Rowling.

That's me, shivering and babbling and repeatedly saying "thank you, thank you, thank you". She looked a bit cross to be honest XD. Maybe that's because I pretty much didn't say anything, while the girl before me had given her a present. But I hadn't even thought about it, and even if I had, what could I possibly give the richest woman in England...?

So I just took my autographed book and went away, with my trembling hands and my shaking knees.

And the funniest part of it is that in the previous days I'd never shut up about being in London and not having met a single celebrity.

Talk about celebrities, huh :D?

And that's pretty much it (well, if you don't count that I almost didn't leave because my ID wasn't valid in the UK, or that my boyfriend's dad almost got us all killed in a car accident on the way to the airport, or that my dad hadn't noticed that he hadn't paid the hotel and we almost got broke in London, and I still feel I should say something about the amazing food retail chains in London, but maybe in another entry, this one is getting infinite).

I'm definitely glad I went there. And, of course, I suggest you all to go to this wonderful (no... brilliant!) city.
And I promise the next entry won't take this long :D!
Have a nice day ^^!