London Baby

Our group had a field trip to London this Friday. We we're taken to the Tower of London where we were given a tour inside, and also had the chance to see the royal jewels which include the largest diamond in the world (although we weren't allowed to take pictures); after that we had a tour of the Shakespears Globe Theatre. It was fun, but we were given a lot of time at the Tower of London so it got kind of boring. The theatre was really cool, but scaffolding was all around it and inside it too, so it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be.

After our field trip, a few friends and I stayed in London for the entire weekend. When we left the field trip we made our way to the London Eye. We first had dinner at this Asian place right outside the London Eye, then of course we went on the London Eye. It was so nice. It moved slowly, but it only lasted 30 minutes, and we saw some pretty amazing views of London. I'm upset my camera doesn't take that great of pictures at night because I wish I could have captured how pretty it was for you all to imagine when you see the pictures. After the Eye, we made our way to the hostel. We had the room to ourselves since there were 8 of us so it was really nice. The shower was absolutely disgusting though, so I kind of smell right now since I haven't shower all weekend, but I'm going to do that after I finish telling you about London.

When we left the hostel, we took a cab to Piccadilly Circus where there are a bunch of bars and shops. The main reason we went there was because we made reservations to go into this bar that is made completely out of ice! It was SO cool! To be honest, it wasn't really what I imagined it to be, but it was well worth it. They gave us warm poncho looking kind of things to keep us warm, and our glasses for our drinks were made of ice, the chairs/tables were made of ice, bascially everything was made out of ice. We were only allowed 40 minutes in there though which was good because by the time we got out my feet were so cold. The ice bar was amazing though.

We then made our way back to the hostel where we attempted to plan the next day. On our way back, we had to walk past Buckingham Palace, and it was at night so there were guards everywhere, but it was kind of scary because we past up these two guards who were walking around the palace with guns in the hands...it was scary. Anyway, prior to that day, we had purchased tickets for this bus company where it's like a double decker and the top of the bus is open. It's really for tourists so they can see all of the London. Little did we know though, this weekend was really busy in London with parades. Many streets were blocked off, and the traffic was crazy. It was definitely not worth it because we kept getting lost and not seeing the places we wanted to be at. Saturday, most of our time was spent on the bus trying to figure our where the hell the driver was taking us. The good thing was we literally saw all of London because we were on the bus so long, the bad thing was that it was raining and silly us chose to sit at the top of the bus :) Stupid mistake...good memory...The main attraction we saw that day was Harrods which is kind of like a Macy's but way prettier and possibly bigger. It was really nice there; very packed, but very nice. It was funny because I was going down the escalator, and there was this opera music going on; as I was going down I went past this lady who was actually singing with the music. It was so weird just because this random lady was singing opera in the middle of all the escalators haha.

After that confusing day, we made our way back to the hostel where we changed into nicer clothes and went out to dinner. We ate at this Italian place, and it was DELICIOUS. Best Italian food I've ever had! (well hopefully the best will be in Rome when I go this weekend, but best thus far) Ugh, it was so good. Then we all went to go see Wicked! It was incredible as always! I took 5 videos so I'm going to try to upload them when I get a chance :) I love wicked so much; it was so so good, but I still haven't decided if it was better than Chicago. I'm thinking Chicago might be better, but I'm still contemplating...hmmmmm...It was so cool though because we met up with a friend, Rachel Chesley, who I went to high school with who is studying abroad in Rome and was visiting London that same weekend. She is going to show us around Rome when we're there. I never thought I would see her there; it was so nice to see her!

We were all so pooped after Wicked that we went back to the hostel and tried to plan Sunday's adventures and pass out. Sunday (today), we woke up early and walked to Buckingham Palace (which is what I'm standing in front of in the picture). The flag was up, so that meant the queen was in there! After that we walked through Green Park which was very pretty, and then made our way to Big Ben/Parliament/Westminster Abbey. The soldier's parade was also going on, so after we got our pictures of those places we went to watch the parade. It was alright. We only went because we wanted to catch a glimpse of the queen, but then someone told us her car wasn't going to drive past us so we were really upset :( They had a minute of silence for all those who died serving their country, and it was really cool just because there were SO SO many people there just silent for an entire minute. Very powerful.

We then walked to the bus stop and tried to make our way to King's Cross Station where Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter is. By the time we got to the correct bus stop after switching busses 2 times, the bus that was suppossed to take us there had stopped running. Please take note: if you ever visit London, do NOT purchase those tour bus tickets; please rely on the tube since it is way more reliable and fun to use. So then we had to buy an all day pass to use the tube to get the King's Cross...UGH! When we got to King's Cross, the platform was nothing like I imagined and nothing like the movie...it seriously looked like they picked a random wall and and threw a sign up there with half of a pushing cart cemented to the wall...retarded...

We had quite a bit of time before our coach left to take us back to Canterbury, so we made our way to Princess Diana's Memorial. Of course, it was under construction when we finally got there...great...

London is absolutely not what I pictured it to be...as my friend Nina put it "London is like Paris and NYC had a baby" There is old historical buildings and new strange buildings all over the place. It's nothing like the movies make it seem. Don't get me wrong, I had a fun time this weekend, but I think the bad weather on Saturday and the tour bus being a piece of crap kind of ruined it a little bit. I wish we would have just relied on using the tube. Paris is 100 times better than London FYI.

Anyway, that's about it for London. I think I'll only go back one more time hopefully to see a football game or show before I leave.

I'm going to go shower and then watch a movie with Emma.

Miss and love you all!