So I think the theme of this entry is pretty clear... I went to London this weekend!!! But first let's back up and fill in the blanks a little...
Between my fall break and this weekend it was nice to have some time in Paris to see some more museums, work on my photography projects, and just live in Paris. My friends and I got to go to the USA verses France football (soccer) game on Friday Nov. 11th too! That was so fun to see a different side of the French, in a big, drunk, rowdy crowd cheering for their team! It is not something we see often so it was very interesting to see a different side of the Parisians.
And, now... London!!! I went with Anna, a girl in my Arts in Wells program who also is a dance major at Point Park! Luckily she has friends who live near London who worked with her at an arts summer camp in the states, so they were able to give us some guidance during our trip. We flew into London, landing at about 7:30 on Friday night, and although we figured we could drop our stuff off at our hostel and take the tube into town to grab dinner at a pub, it took us way longer to get to our hostel than we thought. We were exhausted by the time we got there, so we ended up wandering down the street to find a falafel and kabob place... yummm!
Saturday we got up, had free continental breakfast at the hostel (thankfully!) and took the tube into downtown London where we were meeting Anna's friend Natalie in Trafalgar Square! We woke up earlier than we thought we would and got into town early, so we stopped by a Costa, which is England's version of Starbucks, and had some great minty hot chocolate and praline lattes! Finally we found Natti in the square and decided to head over to the London Eye first! (for those of you who are not familiar, the London Eye is a giant ferris wheel in London right along the river Thames which has incredible views over London). We took a hop on/ hop off bus tour because Anna had come a few weeks earlier and still had the tickets, so it allowed us to drive past a lot of the sights, including Big Ben on our way to the London Eye! Once we got there, it took about 40 glorious minutes to go around, and by the time we were done we were hungry and started searching for a good authentic pub with authentic fish and chips. We succeeded, finding a great pub called Hole in the Wall and I was happy to check fish & chips off of my list. Next we took the tube to stop quickly by Picadilly Circus, a shopping area which was a buzz with lights and activity, on our way to Madame Tussauds wax museum of the stars! After the museum, we were itching to do a little shopping, so Natti took us to TopShop, a famous clothing store that was 3 or 4 stories tall and full of fabulous clothes! After, Natti had to catch the train home, but Anna and I weren't quite ready to be done for the day, so once she headed home we decided to stop by Harrod's before it closed. It was a long day, and once we were kicked out of Harrod's at closing time we found a pub around the corner and I had a great little steak and ale pie and hot cider... yummmm!
Saturday Anna's other friend, Emma was able to meet us at our hostel in the morning and we got on the tube together to head into town. We decided to start by getting off at Green Park and walking over to Buckingham Palace. It is still so strange and magical to me to imagine living in a country that was still ruled by kings and queens, and it also amazed me that Buckingham Palace was right in town. I guess I imagined it being a little further away, a little more private, but there it was, right in the middle of London! From there we walked past a bunch of other homes of royals to Trafalgar Square to catch the hop on/ hop off bus again, this time to the Tower Bridge. Right next to the bridge was the London Tower (which just looked more like a castle than a tower) which now houses the crown jewels. We weren't able to go inside, but it was cool to see and hear about. After, Emma really wanted us to experience one of her favorite restaurants, Nando's, which is a Portuguese chicken restaurant. It was as great as she explained and we felt refueled. As the day was growing later we made the decision to go to Covent Garden, an area with lots of cute little shops, and it happened to be all decked out with incredible Christmas decorations and a giant Christmas tree! Finally we headed over to Hyde Park to the Winter Wonderland that we were so excited to see! There was a huge Christmas market selling little goods, and then there was the carnival side with lots of county-fair sorts of rides, but all christmas themed. Finally it was time to see the Circus at the Winter Wonderland that we got tickets for (with fire jugglers, break dancers, trapeze asian guy, motorcycles in the ball, you know, the works). Once it was over, we were tired, but Primark, another huge clothing department store, much cheaper than TopShop, was right around the corner, so we decided to stop in and have a little look around. By the end of the night, we were exhausted and we wandered drowsily back on the tube to the hostel, where we bid Emma farewell and packed our bags to rise early in the morning for the airport!
I have sooo many pictures, so it may take longer before a few end up on here. Plus AMY VAN NORSTRAND, my roommate and one of my dearest friends, will be arriving in Paris to visit me on Tuesday (in 2 days!!!!!!!) and stay through Sunday! Sooo.... pictures of London and the adventures of Leah and Amy in Paris to be added in due time!
Bisous ;*
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