Chocolate Show @ Olympia

Last Sunday I went to Olympia Exhibition Center for the Chocolate Show. I got a 50%-off entrance ticket from Timeout.com. I guess when you come to UK, almost everyone will recommend this website to you. It has the latest updates about films, concerts, plays, and so on. Sometimes it has special offers that can save quite a lot for you. Check out this website once in a while and maybe you can find something fascinating.

The Chocolate Show is part of the London Chocolate Week. The show attracted a lot of people and at noon there was a long queue at the front door. Many famous chocolate shops had their exhibition stands. And of course, it’s a show about food, so the most important part is definitely tasting~ Almost every shop offered small pieces of chocolate for people to taste. However, some flavors were really, well, let’s just call that unique. Like this one, Dark Chocolate with Goji Berries. To be honest, as a Chinese I found it tasted really weird. And normally we don’t put goji berries in desserts. We use them to make medicines.

Besides these special flavors, some shops used chocolate to make shoes, tools and greeting cards. I thought no one would eat them because they were so beautiful. There were exhibitors used chocolate to build houses and Christmas trees. That’s not about food anymore. That is art.

Speaking of art, I guess some of you may know last year a chocolate artist, Jen Lindsey-Clark, created a chocolate figure called Chocobatch and earlier this year she made Cumberbunny. These two were based on the shape (face) of Benedict Cumberbatch. This time her team brought Chocolate Queen. It’s not hard to tell who inspired her. But I always think human-shaped food is a little bit creepy. I do love these fantastic creations and appreciate the artists’ hard work. But think about it, if you let me eat one of them, where should I start? Head?

The show also had some clothes with accessories made of chocolate. There was a chocolate fashion show at 5pm but unfortunately I had to leave early. All the chocolate tasted excellent (except the goji berry one, sorry). There’s no doubt this is the most delicious exhibition I’ve ever been to.

Breathtaking view@Sky Garden

Before I came here I’d read an article called 20 Places You Have to Go in London.  It was written by a famous Chinese blogger, she always write something about living in London. And the first place she recommended was Sky Garden. Not only because it has a breathtaking view, but also the entrance ticket is free, all you need to do is book a place in advance. As being a student who really worries about money issues, Free sounds absolutely attractive.

However making a reservation is not an easy thing at all. I guess because it’s free there are lots of people want to go up and see this wonderful city.  It took me three days to finally get a ticket and that was the last one for the day. After I came back one of my friends said why I didn’t ask her to go with me,  I said I really wanted to, only if I could get another ticket.

I have to say weather in London is really unpredictable. When I arrived there it was sunny, the sky was blue, I thought I could take lots of great photos. But three minutes later when I got out of the lift, it looked like there would be a storm or something, that was quite frustrating.

But the view truly is breathtaking. The skyline of London is totally different from the one of my hometown. In China people are obsessed with building higher and higher skyscrapers. Every time I went to Shanghai I felt intimidating, at some places I couldn’t even see the sky because those glamours glass buildings were just too tall. On this 35th-floor garden I could see so far away I thought I probably saw the edge of this city.  I saw Tower Bridge, the Tower and London eye, kind of figure out where should I visit in the coming weeks. There was a sign on a window said you could see the Olympic Park from there,  unfortunately I couldn’t.

Just like its name, Sky Garden is literally a garden. There are lots of plants, which made me wonder how did they grew plants on the 35th floor of a modernized building. I saw people from all over the world, they all came here to enjoy this beautiful view . I guess that’s why this place is so popular.