I fell in love with London when I first visited on a trip with my local YMCA centre. I love city life - when I lived near Glasgow (in Hamilton) I couldn't get enough - I spent more time in Glasgow with friends than I did at University (yeah probably why I didn't last long). When I first visited London I was young and didn't have much cash - I'd spent months saving up every penny I could from my weekend cafe job so things I bought were the typical tourist things like key rings from London Aquarium and a tea towel for my mum.
One shop I fell in love with was Links of London in Covent Garden. They do lovely friendship bracelets and over the years I managed to accumulate four of them - they are quite expensive to some people (I think the most I've spent is £125 on one). I also got one for my mum's Christmas a few years ago and she loved it - although she did tell me off because she knew roughly how much they cost.
I will mention that for my Christmas (or maybe birthday) Dave got me one and I loved it - it was their Wimbledon limited edition bracelet - it was purple and green and looked great however I went travelling with work and somehow managed to loose it in the bed sheets and never saw it again - I expect some housemaid is wearing it somewhere.
The friendship bracelets come in different sizes and colours so there are lots to choose from. I believe (might be wrong) but Links of London also have an eBay page with reduced bracelets too. I don't think there is any difference and they are not cheap knock-offs.
This is by far my favourite one and I've been wearing it for around a year. The material does get a bit dirty what with the dirt you pick up but you can wash them in soapy water and it dries pretty quickly (according to the instructions). This one is a nice ocean blue with a pinkish-red either side.
I have two others (as I said above that the other one went missing - sorry Dave)
The first bracelet is dark blue with a black outline and the second is pure red.
I'm currently looking at other new bracelets - as you can never have enough! But it does take me forever to choose one when I want them all. Let me know in the comments if you have ever bought anything from Links of London for yourself or for someone as a gift.