A Day in Birmingham! // Shopping, food & a haul!

Living in a small town there isn't always places to shop, eat or go for entertainment and while my town has been working towards improving this, it's still nice to hop onto the train and go somewhere a bit bigger for a shop! So, we headed to Birmingham.

Birmingham is about a 30/40 minute journey on the train which isn't all that bad, especially when you enjoy train journeys! When you arrive, you're in Grand Central. The new and improved train station, that is also somewhat of a shopping centre, with a variety of different shops and restaurants as well as one or two bars. The only shop within Grand Central that appeals to me is Gobstopper, an American sweet shop, which is usually my first stop when I head to Birmingham but unfortunately, I discovered it has now closed down - no grape iced tea for me!

We headed through Link Street which connects Grand Central to the Bullring, another shopping centre with a total of 3 floors and a lot of different shops to visit. Link Street features spaces for pop up shops, as well as Cereal Killer Cafe, a vegetarian burger joint called Not Dogs and more.

I tend to visit the same shops whenever I'm shopping in Birmingham, which is similar to how I shop in most places as it's easier to visit the shops that I know and love, while sometimes trying something new or different if it catches my eye. So, let's get into the shopping and the haul!

The overall haul!

The first shop I went to was HMV. I'm a collector of vinyl records and HMV has increased the amount of vinyls they have in stock, Birmingham having more than the one closer to me so it's a chance to get any of the newer releases for my collection and sometimes older ones that I'd love to have. This time, I was on the search for a new pair of headphones. I didn't have any plans to purchase any, more just wanted to get an idea of what they had and what was good but luckily for me, there wa was a promotion on so I treated myself to a pair of Sennheiser Urbanites that were originally meant to be £150 but I got them for £50 so you can imagine, I was pretty happy with that.

Sennheiser Urbanites

Unfortunately though, there was an issue with them. Under the big price sticker, was a dent in the box which had already been opened and the headphones themselves didn't work which lead me to believe somehow, I ended up with a pair someone had returned! I was able to exchange them at my local HMV without any issues, but it was frustrating to know that things like this could happen!

Next, we headed to H&M. Clothing being the main point of my shop, it only made sense to visit a clothing shop that I've come to love more and more, especially their Divided range which features clothing more suited to my style. When it comes to clothes shopping, I'm a sucker for the men's section. As much as I try, I sometimes struggle to find items in the women's section that I like, or will fit into as a tall person so men's usually fits in with what I like.

My girlfriend found the first item I got, which is a black denim jacket with black fabric sleeves which I absolutely loved. I already have one in blue denim, which made us question this purchase but being a fan of dark coloured clothing, it was a purchase I couldn't say no too. There was a few other items, in the Divided section, that caught my eye but I wanted to be good and not spend all my money in one place - maybe next time! The sale rack was the next place I looked, picking up an XL grey t-shirt that featured skulls and palm trees. XL is the only size left that would have fitted me but it works well with it being slightly baggy. Later on, I also got a plain yellow t-shirt that I stumbled upon in the Basics section of women's.

All 3 items, modelled terribly by myself.

By this point, it was time to grab some lunch so we headed to Five Guys, a great fast food restaurant if you're into burgers and fries. While slightly expensive as you have to order each item individually rather than ordering one whole meal, it's still worth the price as the portions are bigger than your average fast food place. The drinks machine is also one of the Coke Freestyle ones that features a variety of different flavours of well known brands, I had still grape Fanta as that is usually my go to.

The next place on my usual route is Selfridges. The Bullring has a 4 floored Selfridges with each floor catering to different things. I tend to stick to the bottom floor which features the food hall, as well as a few other stores within it. We headed down from the 2nd floor, which is home to different clothing brands and had an event happening (this is featured in my video, check that out to see what it was!). Seeing as my usual American sweet shop is now closed, I checked out what items where on offer here but I feel like the stock they have is limited to what you'd find in supermarkets these days, focusing mainly on Reese's products, cereals and pop tarts which are all great but not exactly what I'm after!

Paperchase, which is one of the stores you'll find on this floor was my next stop. As well as different stationary, they also have cute, funny postcards for 80p which I also collect. A few of the ones I have purchased previously are framed in the bathroom and hanging in our kitchen (check out my girlfriends video here to see those!). I ended up getting about 10 more cards for my collection after making the difficult decision to put some of them back!

The newest postcards to the collection.

We wandered around this floor a bit more, before heading onto the next and best purchase of the day, Krispy Kreme donuts! My addiction to these great donuts has gone from buying myself one donut per visit, to treating ourselves to a dozen and having six each (that don't last very long..). With new donuts being added, it's hard to limit yourself to just one.

We visited more stores afterwards until we decided it was time to head back to the station to grab something to drink while we waited for our train back. On our way back, we once again walked past the Cereal Killer Cafe and decided it was time to give it ago. With different cereals, both from the UK and the US, there is different cocktails you can try, as well as milkshakes or simply just a bowl of cereal with your choice of milk and toppings. I picked Double Rainbow, which if I remember correctly was a mixture of Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles, marshmallows and strawberry milk. It was a great mixture and it made me realise that UK cereal is pretty boring! Why don't we get great fruity cereal? We also got a sticker and some badges that we available for £1 each.

It was a great step back into my childhood. The booths were single beds with bedding featuring shows from the past, such as Gladiators, Buffy and The Simpsons. Your table number was a VHS tape case of films from the past, ours being The Jungle Book and there was also TV's playing classic shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I felt like a kid sat in front of the tv on a Saturday morning! 

Overall, it was a great day with some great food and good bargains as well as a lovely time spent with my girlfriend, although days shopping in busy cities can be tiring and at sometimes stressful, it's still nice to get out of my town and treat yourself!

Check out the video for my day in Birmingham!