After getting home from Paris I slept for about 3 hours before I had to wake up and catch the flight to London. I arrived pretty early and had to wait until 1 because I was meeting up with Alex who was visiting for spring break. Around 1 I started to get pretty nervous that I wouldn't be able to find her and thinking about the worst case scenarios. Luckily however she popped off a bus right as my worries were getting out of control! I was very glad that our plan to meet worked out since neither of us had wifi or a way to contact each other. We caught a bus to the city center and then attempted to use the tube to get to our hostel. It was pretty confusing and overwhelming at first due to everyone looking like they knew what they were doing and all the different routes to figure our. We luckily had some instructions from Rose which did assist us. We finally arrived at our hostel and dropped off our stuff before we went out to look for somewhere to eat and to walk around a little. Alex was getting pretty hangry (hungry and angry) so we luckily found a great pub on the river by the Tower of London. Very cute and I had a yummy burger. After our dinner Alex was refueled so we walked around to the Tower of London but it was all closing up so we didn't go in but we were still able to marvel from the outside. We did a bit more sightseeing in our area then headed back and hit the day since we were both tired from traveling and Alex had jet lag.
The next day we were up early for our free breakfast which was great,! (Sorry to mention this mom). Unfortunately me and Alex thought it would be okay to go down in our pjs and looking overall ratchet but this did cause embarrassment on our parts since everyone else was dressed and looking acceptable. Oops. Anyway we decided to buy a daylong travel pass which let us ride the tube and the bus as much as we wanted for the day and this turned out to be our biggest asset since we could see everything we needed too. BEST DECISION EVER! We started off our day with a great free walking tour. As I have probably mentioned before I just love these tours because I like hearing stories from the guides and history about the city. The tour hit up a lot of main sights like Buckingham palace, St. James palace, Big Ben, Westminster abbey and the House of Parliament. Overall a great tour and very informative! I love how London has the royalty because it seems like there is so much owned by the queen. One funny thing was when our tour guide Jake told us how the squirrels were very friendly with people which I did not believe until the next day when I was trying to eat and 3 squirrels would not leave. It was a very scary moment and I was afraid they would try and steal my cake. Well anyway back to the day, we also were able see the natural history museum and hit up abbey road. This is why we loved the tube pass so much since we were able to go to all these places in one day. Although we may have gotten a little to obsessed with the tube and figuring out which route to take so we decided the next day to take the bus more so we could at least see the city while in transit. We took another scenic walk along the river then hit up a pub for some cider and food for Alex and then hit the hay again.
On Monday we were excited to have the whole day to see things. First we went to Kings cross station (about 9am) to get the classic tourist photos. After that we were able to make it back to Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guards ceremony. It was interesting to see but there were so many people there and it was a little less anticlimactic than I thought. But I still liked seeing all the guards and hearing them play music. Next up on our agenda on the recommendation of Rose was to hit up Leicester square. We didn't really know what to expect but it was a nice area with a lot of theaters. I am very glad we went because while we were there we saw a sign advertising for an ed sheeran show that night. That seemed a little unreal to us since we are both pretty big ed fans so we went in to ask and the lady told us tickets were 120 pounds!! That was not going to fly. We were pretty excited about the possibility of seeing Ed in London so we jetted over to royal Albert hall where the concert would be to see if we could get tickets. This was a failure but they said we could check back later. We did not let this anticipation stop our day so we continued on to see the parent trap house since we are both pretty big fans. We also hit up the British museum and ate lunch at a cute place. After that we decided we should head back to check for our tickets and it was a success! By that I mean he said he had 2 behind the stage in the last row left but they were 35 pounds so we couldn't resist! Such a great excitement. We had some more time to kill before the concert so we went to notting hill and Kensington palace which unfortunately closed right as we arrived so we could only see from the outside. We got some sweets and ate them in the park and then went to the show. It was another great show by Ed and I was very excited to see him in his home city plus the hall was very cool and historic looking so I felt like I really got a lot for my money. Unfortunately at the end of the night Alex got very hostile due to her hangryness so we ate a snack the chicken cottage also at the recommendation of rose.
Today we only had a few more things we wanted to see which was good since I had no money left due to the tickets and not wanting to get out more pounds when I would be leaving. We saw the Tower of London in the day time and then tried to go to the bank which I was very excited about since it said we could hold 14kg of gold but it was closed! I was very upset. We hit up some more sights like a cathedral and another museum, looked At Shakespeare's globe and the borough market. I really liked the market there were a lot of free samples and me and Alex shared a giant bratwurst. Unfortunately I could not buy all the food I wanted due to having no money (LOL).
Well after that it was time to leave and now here we are. Luckily I got 5 pounds back for my Oyster card so I can have a snack at the airport! I really loved London! It reminded me a lot of Dublin just a lot bigger and with more royal things to see. It did seem like it was a very posh city and there was so much shopping! I have never seen so many h & ms before within a close distance. The bad part though was it was so expensive! Our tour guide said it cost 17 pounds to ride in the London eye and then went on to talk about what a waste of money it was so we did not do that. But it was really refreshing to be in an English speaking place after my last 2 weeks of travel. Everyone in London was also very friendly and helpful which I didn't expect since I had heard this about the Irish people but not the British. But overall great trip! One of my faves!
I am excited to get back to Dublin after being away for so long and be able to do laundry, although not excited for the homework. I am also excited to go grocery shopping and actually be able to cook for myself since my next trip is to Madrid in April (yes Kristen I will be visiting Spain). Well okay that's it for now!
