London night out

Since finishing uni, all I have felt like doing on a Friday night is curling up in bed with the boyfriend with lots of snacks, and getting a looong nights sleep. Until it hit me that I have become officially old, and I am wasting away the best nights of my life making memories that I won't remember (where I can still go out clubbing all night for free and only be mildly hungover the next day). 

So last Friday, we rectified the situation. 

Starting off at regular haunt Mahiki, we tiki-ed down and sipped from pineapples & coconuts, dancing to cheesy music.

 

Then off to the Box, which is my favourite club in London. Wonderfully wacky, you can literally see ANYTHING at this place, from tap dancing monkeys to people being lifted up by their hair... to slightly more 'interesting' shows involving a hell-lotta nudity and overall extreme weirdness. The only word to adequately describe it is surreal. 

It's stricly no photographs, but we sneaked a few... 

Without wanting to give too much away, this night we saw a ping pong show (not the sort involving a table) and a utterly bizarre dance off between a 7 foot transvestite and a topless male wearing 9 inch high heeled boots. They both could dance a million times better than I can ever hope to, how depressing </3

It's a beautiful club set in an old theatre, with elegant, classy people dancing crazily like nobody's watching. Definitely worth a check out if you are in London - totally mad! 

Then, true to party-all-night mode, we went to new club After Past Midnight, which unsurprisingly opens after midnight (2am) and is located in Paramount, overlooking all of London.

The views are beautiful, and as it is open all night you can watch the sun rise! (except we gave up, and went home in search of mcdonalds like the classy people we are before the sunrise). 

A completely mad night, to make up for the past three months of hardly any alcohol or partying! 

xxx

Bodo's Schloss

Bodo's Schloss has been on my to-go-to list for too long. Happily, last week I rectified this and the club is now firmly on my favourites list. I am a sucker for a good theme and cheesy music - what can I say? Bodo's is alpine-ski themed and they take it quite seriously. There are horns poking out of every wall (naughty!) and 

skis just casually lying against the walls. 

We started with a three course meal - unfortunately the food was so delicious we scoffed it all down too quickly for pictures, but I managed a lone picture of a rather excellent apple strudel. 

The food here is the best I have had at a club. Sharing style, we started with a ham board (I'm sure there is a more sophisticated name for that, alas it doesn't spring to mind), hummus, crusty bread and gazpacho (a cold tomato soup) and for mains we feasted on schnitzel, salad and delicious stuffed rolls. The food was all really excellent, I would definitely recommend eating here before partying ze night away ski-style. 

At around 11, the back doors open up to a huge extra room, complete with a DJ in a ski lift. There were already a couple of people dancing away like they were having the time of their life, and on closer inspection I saw it was The Londoner (and her insanely beautiful friend Phoebe), whose blog I am mildly obsessed with. It has literally been the biggest help ever whilst living in London - every recipe or recommendation is always incredible. So safe to say, upon seeing her I retained my cool composure and WENT MILDLY INSANE and embarrassingly told her I love her blog major amounts and asked for a picture. I have met a few famous people, but the one I was most excited about seeing was Rosie Londoner. That is probably quite  really sad but she was so lovely and only mildly freaked out by my fan-girldom. 

My favourite thing about Bodo's is definitely the music. They play classic cheese, 2000 pop hits like Beyonce and Kelis which are the best to dance along to drunkenly. Also there are some remixes mixed in which stops it from becoming too 'school disco'ish.

This unfortunately also encourages very cringey alcohol fuelled dancing and singing...

... my favourite kind! 

If you are looking for pure FUN, Bodo's Schloss is the place to go and get schlossed. It is impossible to defy the fun atmosphere, especially when you are with a great group of people! 

University - Part Two

Clubbing 

One of the best things about going to uni in London is the nights out. After our first interesting experiences at the 'student-y' clubs such as Fabric, Ministry of Sound (top tip: avoid if you don't like being groped/surrounded by drugs) a promoter messaged me and asked if I wanted a free birthday party at a top London club (which has since closed!). I was very dubious but went along with it, and we got free entry and free drinks all night, as well as cake! We then realised that for basically every top London club, there are promoters wanting girls inside, who will give you a completely free night out with no catches. This was excellent news, and since then we haven't paid for hardly a single night out. There is also sometimes free food, yay!! (No, I'm not sure why they do this but who cares?!)

 why yes I will accept your free cake... (who cares that my name isn't Santiago?!) 

The (free shhh) drinks at what was formerly known as Whisky Mist, and is now Rusty Nail I believe. They give out pasta at 2am!!!! 

One of my favourite nights was seeing LMFAO at Jalouse! 

Boujis is always a really fun night, they usually have themes! 

Kensington Roof Gardens will literally be stunning in the summer - a huge club-within-a-garden on the roof of a hotel! They also serve burgers throughout the night! 

Ruski's Tavern is very cool, Russian themed with giant astronauts walking around and plenty of caviar! 

The Box is personally my favourite club to go to, because it is so different from any others! They have 3 shows that are ridiculously extreme and entertaining, but be prepared for literally anything! 

Mahiki is a firm favourite with my friends - we are there practically every Monday. Everyone is really chilled and the treasure chests are beyond words. It is super cute and hawaiian themed, with a secret 'no tell motel room' in the back! 

The best promoters I know are Central List (excellent for Mahiki), San's list  and the Ace of Clubs. Generally they are quite easy to find, if you search where you want to go on twitter followed by 'promoter/list'. I feel so lucky to have been able to have such incredible nights out for nothing at all! 

Travelling

It's a well known fact that university is the best time to travel - no obligations, commitments, people to feed etc. Fortunately London is well placed and I've been lucky enough to have willing travel companions with me over the past 3 years! 

Majorca with my best friends last year was amazing, can't wait for Croatia in July! 

you don't have to go far - Brighton is 1 hour from London and tickets are as cheap as £10 return! 

(Yes that is me skateboarding through the trees..)

I have been to Amsterdam three times now, twice with my boyfriend and once with my best friends. It is my favourite place to go in Europe - chilled, clean, pretty and everyone is pretty much happy! (there is probably a reason behind it..) There are countless things to find and eat and experience there, and I will probably be back - it is just a 45 minute flight from London, and we usually go for around £150 including flights and hotel for 3 nights. 

I loved Paris. Mainly because we went to disneyland, and it was my birthday but everything was still so chic and fabulous :) at 2 hours on the eurostar you have to go whilst in London (a bit of irony working there) - for the food if nothing else! I was completely taken over by the Eiffel Tower too, although I didn't think much of it before! We went in the evening and it was almost completely empty.. 

Modeling

Modeling was something on and off throughout University, but being at uni gave me the opportunity to explore modeling in London on the side of my work. It took me a long time to learn how to balance it out, but I have literally had the most incredible experiences modeling in London and I'm really excited for the future! 

The best job I have ever had is definitely the GQ Awards last year, where I met all my favourite celebrities, was paid to do so, got to keep the clothes and go to the afterparty! It was definitely one of the best nights of my life :') 

Modeling in London Fashion Week 

My first job in London was to  go to a Vogue Party. This was also a really amazing night!

JD Sports campaign! 

I have had such amazing experiences modeling, the best thing about it is that you literally have no idea what tomorrow will be like! I'm going to do it full time for a while, and it's going amazingly at the moment :) 

Friends

Luckily all of my best friends from Cyprus were here waiting for me in London before I came, and my boyfriend Dima came over with me (to go to Imperial!). I have also made some incredible friends over the past three years, and I don't know what I would do without them.