On Sunday afternoon I went right into the heart of London: Soho. At Underground Station Oxford Street you can jump right into the middle of the action. And boy, I didn’t expect so many people here on a cold, cloudy sunday in January. The streets were packed with people. Shopping, souveniers, dinner and nightlife all concentrated in one district. I wouldn’t want to live here close by – far too much trouble for my liking.  But it was just what I wanted to experience for one day.

I went down Oxford street looking for a restaurant and some shopping places to get a post card for Maike – she collects postcards from friends everywhere. And I hadn’t had food all day so I was very eager to find a good meal. 🙂

Disney Store, Oxford Street

My first stop was at the Disney store though. I wanted to see if there is anything I could use for my action figure photography project. Another thing I really like doing. But I was rather disappointed here. The store was much smaller than I anticipated from looking at their web site before and mostly had stuff for little kids (doh!).

Street Food

This little street food stand looked like it survived from christkindelsmarkt.

Cub on Oxford Street

Be careful when crossing streets in London. Driving on the left side is really dangerous for tourists and passengers from most other countries. Britain is not the only place in the world driving on the “wrong” side though! Did you know that out of 221 countries in the world, 59 have left-hand traffic? (Remember me, when I blog about my New Zealand adventure)

Steakhouse Oxford Street

The Angus Steak House on Oxford street was the winner of my restaurant lottery. A good steak is the best food in the world in my opinion and so I went here for dinner. It was a very good choice – not only because the food was real good, but also because the stuff had a very nice british humor. When I sat down the waiter came over to me to get my order. As soon as I spoke to him he realized my German accent and startet talking broken, but good german to me. He asked me if I want to order a steak and fries. I said yes, that is exactly what I want. Then he asked me if I also want a salad as a starter. I told him no, don’t need a salad. He stared at me for a second and then yelled: Oooh, I’ll tell your mom!

I had a good lough. Great guy.

Five Guys Oxford Street

Soho

These pictures here show some places along Oxford street in Soho district. So much going on here I liked it. And just when I thought it couldn’t be much more crowded, I stumbled upon a giant asian gate on the middle of a close by road. It was the famous Chinatown Gate close to picadilly circus. And there were even more people!

One of the Chinatown Gates

All those people were either looking for a good asian restaurant, some asian grocery stores or lissening to one of the many street artists there.

Chinatown Street Artist

Those two guys over here did some awesome cover songs. What a voice. And they played there for hours. I just couldn’t walk by…had to stand still for minutes listening.

Chinatown Artist

China Restaurant

I nearly regretted going to that steak house before – some of these chinese Restaurants looked really comfortable and interesting. Next time I will try one of these for sure.

Pokemon Flavour in a chinese grocery store

There were also several stores with special asian food. I don’t know whats inside these pokemon cans though. But they look cool.

China Restaurant Open

If you don’t wanna visit a real restaurant there, you can also go into one of the many snack bars there. This one had some chinese bakeries and sweets. Delicious!

Delicious Cakes

Chinatown Street

Fresh Fish

Restaurant Chinatown

I can only recommend this part of London! But that’s hardly an insider tip – giben that Soho is the part were most tourists will go for the nightlife in London. 🙂