The club scene, and London again!

The past weekend the girls and I checked out the club scene here in Southampton. Friday night we went to Junk which was, well just okay. I mean, we had fun, but the place wasn't fun. And the DJ(s) played annoying music, because they would play an intro to some hit and then go on to the next intro. So we NEVER got to hear a whole song.

Saturday night we went to my friend from Sykkylven Sarah's place. This is where we started our evening and got to know three other girls that she knows. We continued to Orange Rooms this time and this place was way better than Junk. I actually read that they have won Southampton's Best Bar Award. Here's a picture of the interior from their website.

I loved the interior, and the place was packed, so the atmosphere was really great! (Also the music was normal in comparison with Junk...) I'm not dissing Junk, it's probably a great place on other evenings when they have more people and other music-themes. Just, not this Friday...

Before the weekend, actually when I was in London on Tuesday and met Marianne for the coffee, we talked about me coming back for this weekend for 100%DESIGN. That's basically a huge event where a lot of designers and companies gather to promote their products and prototypes. I really wanted to go, but didn't know if I would really be in shape for it after two days out in a row. BUT, I found myself up and running at 8 o'clock Sunday morning, sat on the bus to the Central Station at 9, and had my butt placed in the train to London at 10! I'm very pleased with this achievement.

I met Marianne at Earls Court, where we later met Runa (from my class in NKF). I really didn't know that Earls Court was as big as it was, I had only heard about the name. 

But, it was this big.

And actually that's just half of it.

So as you can see, this place was big enough to have fun for hours. 

But after 4 hours you're pretty tired and don't have any more space in your head to take in what's left.

I've made another slideshow for you, (I think I'm gonna stick to this when posting loads of pictures...), and they show some of my favorites from Channels, darestudio, Il Vetro Dei Dogi and Melin Tregwynt.

I stayed in London for the night with Marianne. On Monday before she left for her first day of school, she showed me a place called Brick Lane. Basically this street is a designer/artist/musician street, and you can find many cool vintage shops, not-so-known-(yet) designer stores and a great music store called Rough Trade. I loved this little colorful strip.

When we said our goodbyes for now, I went to the Victoria and Albert museum that I had heard many great things about. Sure enough, this place was filled with amazing art and design from different periods. Divided into different styles and countries, it was way too much for my head to see absolutely everything. That is why I stuck to checking out the Asian part with beautiful decorations, handmade furniture, ornaments and amazing and colorful textiles. I am very fascinated by the Oriental art and culture. Maybe this is something I can use in my coming dissertation later on this semester?

I also checked out the iron section, the glass section (mostly window glass paintings), and last but not least the performance and theatre section - something that I'm also very interested in. I love both the stage part of the theatre and the costumes. I love colors and patterns, and think the idea of forming a role or a character's clothing is very exciting, with all the different textiles and masks and what not.

Here's a little bit from the V&A museum.

There were extremely many cool things at both 100%DESIGN and at V&A that I will take with me in future projects. I gathered very much inspiration before school-start, and think that when I've digested all the impressions and sights, I will be ready for this coming year. And it's all starting on Monday October 3rd!

After everything I'd seen and learned I decided to go be a real tourist before I headed back to Southampton. I'm not going to tell you much about that, because everyone who's been in London have probably done the same things as I did, which was seeing Picadilly Circus and take a stroll through Chinatown and Covent Garden. After that my head nearly exploded, so I took the next train at 1635, 1 1/2 hour earlier than planned. 

Picadilly Circus.

When walking in Covent Garden, I stumbled upon this place, a dear memory from the days back in high school, when visiting London for a week together with my dancing class.

Pineapple Dance Studio.

London - you showed me Way too much - but I loved it!

- vic -