Salam alajkum!
Today I want to share some of my impressions of London with you. The reason for my journey to the UK was the invitation to my friend's wedding, my first bengali wedding ever - I was suuuper excited when she asked me to come. Alhamdulillah the time I spent with my girl Zarrin (you might know her as blogger
ihijabi), her family and friends was such a blessing - I definitely had the best time.
I met so many kind and gorgeous people, wallahi can't wait to see them and especially Zarrin again!
When I first got to know Zarrin through blogging and our first gift swap, I never could have imagined that we might get friends one day, meet in real life, be a guest at her house and wedding.
(If you read that thank you for everything sweetheart :)
It was such a great experience, basically I was a stranger to this family but from the very first moment they welcomed me, were so warm hearted and gave me the feeling I was home, may Allah swt bless them!
The wedding was such a beautiful and stunning experience for me, Zarrin was seriously the most beautiful bride I have ever seen! The whole setting, the hall, the decoration, all this colours, amazing dresses, the bridesmaids, flowers, the dinner, the wedding cake, the whole ceremony - every little detail was just so perfect! I am so glad that I was there to witness such a beautiful happening, alhamdulillah!
Basically bengali weddings are all about family (note: huuuge family) coming all together, having dinner, taking many many many many pictures and big drama - saying 'goodbye' to parents & family at the end, that was kinda emotional, wow :(
Because I knew that the dresscode for asian weddings is a little different than to what Europeans are used to, I was kind of concerned to look like the only girl looking so 'european' (don't know how to explain that), Zarrin was like 'don't worry we'll find something for you'. So when I finally arrived in London she took me to 'Green Street' straight away. Seriously- I never saw anything like that before, subhanAllah sooo cool, a whole street full of stores, selling beautiful, colourful, embroidered gowns, dresses and sarees. Halal restaurants, islamic book stores, jewellers and so on ... I didn't know where to look, I just wanted to kind of absorb all this impressions! Zarrin chose the dress, I tried it on and immediately felt in love, to be honest it just really makes you feel like a princess ... never wore anything like that before! You'll see the dress in the pictures below ...
It was an aaaamazing experience, once again alhamdulillah!
London is a great city, in my opinion it got a very different kind of beauty compared to other European cities I've been to, a super special atmosphere! So fashionable, multicultural, broad-minded, hip and just super cool! London would definitely be a place to life for me, if university wasn't that expensive in the UK I'd pack my suitcase today ... but heeey, maybe one day? in shaa Allah !
As an Austrian hijabi I'm used to people giving me weird looks because of my headscarf so I really appreciated the experience I made in London - not a single person staring at me because of me wearing a hijab. UK's multicultural society should be a role model to many other European countries, no matter which race, colour or religion - people are just respecting, coexisting or just ignoring eachother. Everyone is living their own lives, instead of caring to much about ones headscarf or other ridiculous little problems. In shaa Allah things will get this way in Austria too in a couple of years. Acceptance instead of hatred! Just being normal is a nice feeling :)
Advice: If you'd like to eat halal at Subway, search for beautiful hijabs, bonnets, cardigans and other stuff hijabis need, then I'd recommend you to visit Whitechapel market ... Another amazing experience was the jummah prayer in the in the 'East London Mosque', subhanAllah I never saw such a huge mosque and so many sisters and brothers at a jummah prayer before, mashAllah.
One of the most beautiful moments I had during my time in London!
In three days I tried to do as much sightseeing as possible, all this buildings and places definitely left an lasting impression on me. I had been to London before, with my mommy about more than 13 years ago. I really enjoyed to see all this places once again as a grown up, with different eyes and this time I had the chance to take loads of pictures with my Canon without anyone telling me - 'come on, hurry up, are you finished?, we gotta go' - I was just exploring the city on my own and surprisingly I enjoyed it, never thought that sightseeing alone could be fun :)
If you are intrested in the royal family I really recommend you to visit 'the state rooms' at the
Buckingham palace - I really was blown away by the impressiv beauty of the palace ...
Another gorgeous sister I met during my time in the UK was
Zahra's adventures, she is such a kind and adorable girl, she's one of these people you meet for the first time in your whole life but when you talk to her it feels like you've known eachother for years! mashAllah such a cutie!
basically there is so much more to talk about buuut this post is already too long, so I'llstop writing now before you'll stop reading ...
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Met this beautiful couple in the streets of LDN and
just straight away I asked if I could take a picture of them |
thank you for your support!
xoxo, Samira
