London= best getaway weekend EVER!!!

I finally got to travel to LONDON!!!! The city I've wanted to visit for YEARS!!!!!

I will say, I needed this weekend in London so badly. Getting to speak English was such a gift.

Here is a recount of my adventures!!

Friday night: flight left at 10:15pm, so we headed to the airport at 8:30pm and experienced lovely Ryanair for the first time. It's basically a horrible Southwest. No jet way, you walk outside and up the stairs....no seat assignments... no reclining seats.... they try and sell you stuff the whole time... don't turn off the lights....UGH!!! After we got off the flight, we went straight to customs- we were very thankful to be Americans because the EU line was SO long, but we were the only ones in our line minus this random guy in front of us. I got through customs very quickly, but then the random guy in front of us ended up not knowing ANY English and it took both the customs officers about 15 minutes to try and decipher what he was trying to say, so that held us back long enough to miss the last train out of Stansted Airport. I had plenty of time to withdraw pounds and figure out what was going on. So finally when we were all finished with customs, we went to the bus office and got tickets for the bus and then went to the grocery store in the airport to get snacks for the hour bus ride and breakfast for the morning! When we finally got to the hotel we went to sleep around 3am and set the wake up call for 8:30am to start our crazy London adventure!

Saturday: It was tough to wake up, but we were all excited to experience LONDON!!! We started off by getting a map of London and a map of the London Underground (totally necessary) from the Concierge at the hotel and started our journey! The first thing I did was warn the girls I was with to take care when crossing the street because the traffic comes from the opposite direction, well, the first road we came across was almost deadly, but we made it unscathed!

Example of a taxi coming from the opposite side of the road....
It would have been helpful to have these street markings all over London, but they were mainly in the areas with more traffic....

Of course the Tube station right next to our hotel was out of service for this weekend for repairs, so we had to hike up the road to the "Finchley Road" station and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was crowded and we didn't want pay to go in because it was expensive and we had many more things to do that day, so we went in and took in what there was to see before having to pay and then went outside to take pictures and to head on our merry way. Next was crossing the Millennium Bridge- as I was walking on the bridge I KNEW I had seen this before and then I realized- it's the bridge from the newest Harry Potter movie!!!!! I was really excited!!! So of course I took pictures.


After crossing the bridge, we went to the Tate Modern art museum, not only are all the art museums free (maybe Paris should learn), but it was SO cold outside that it was a great refuge from the bitter cold wind, so we walked around and looked at the abstract stuff (not really into it) until we came across the gigantic table and chairs which were pretty awesome, and then we headed out to go to the Globe theater! We went in the gift shop because the tour was full and then got some chocolate covered strawberries and bananas on our walk across the bridge to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey!

We also passed the London Eye, but the line was so long, that we didn't have time to wait to go on it.

We arrived at Westminster Abbey as the doors were closing, so ee were the LAST ones they let int- we were hurrying to make it before it closed!!

We saw graves and tombs of the kings and queens and even heard the choir boys rehearse- really neat! It's so weird to think that when Queen Elizabeth II dies, she'll have an exquisite tomb and everything for her, but all she really did was get born into the royal family. It's so weird to think that just by being born into the line of the royals, that you are entitled to everything and more. It's really weird to understand. I totally don't understand the monarchy stuff, so I'm going to read up on it so I can figure out how that system actually works. After we left the Abbey, we met up with my friend Yoojin from church back home who is studying in London for lunch! We went to a pub and I had fish and chips!! It was very exciting. The only downer was that one of my friend's wallet got stolen out of her purse during lunch. We talked to the management and they have the guy on video stealing her wallet, so we went to the police station and filed a police report and took care of all that before starting the rest of the journey. Next on the list was the National Portrait Gallery.

That was a really neat museum, they had some Monet there! I was so excited to see my favorite impressionism art! The rest of the art was mainly religious art- seen so much of it that I'm really not that excited to see more. After, we walked around Trafalgar and took pictures with the fountains and the huge lions!

We attempted to get tickets to see a musical, but they were all sold out, so instead we went to Harrod's!! That was such a neat experience! I got a cute little pink china teapot shaped plate to put my used teabag! There was so much stuff to buy at Harrod's, definitely a dangerous store. I went to the Burberry section and looked at all the stuff that I would love to have....
We went to an Italian Restaurant and I got spaghetti for dinner. Then on the way to the train station to get back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store and got some breakfast and snacks- we found DR. PEPPER!!!!!!! happiest day of my life. I downed that quickly and thoroughly enjoyed my little taste of home.

Sunday: First stop was Kings Cross station to find Platform 9 3/4! The whole time we were going there, my friends were telling me how lame and dumb it was, but when we got there and were taking pictures, a line started forming after us, so there!! It's COOL!!!

Then we got off at Baker Street to check out Sherlock Holmes!

After that, we went back to the Globe theater to take a tour.

We learned that it's actually the 3rd Globe theater because the first was torn down and the 2nd one burned down. After that tour, we ran to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. We were really confused because we didn't see the guards in the red, but the we realized that they wear gray long coats in the winter, so we saw them marching around and in and out. It was really neat!

There were TONS of people. The flag was flying above Buckingham Palace, so the Queen was in! (At least that's what we were told the flag means.) After the changing of the guards, I got my picture taken with a policeman- we even got one of them to do the guns up with me!

We walked through St. James's Park and tried to find Abbey Road (this failed miserably, so we gave up) and headed back to the city center. As we were walking, we came across the most perfectly placed red phone booths to take pictures with Big Ben in the background!!

So we took a reel of photos and moved along to the Tower of London. Right before the entrance to the Tower of London there is the oldest wall in London that was made by the Romans, so naturally I took a picture with the statue!

The Tower was extremely cool! Most of the places didn't allow pictures, so that was sad. There weren't any guards at Buckingham Palace because it was the changing of the guards, but there were some at the Tower! We couldn't get closer to this guy, but we did the best we could!

I got to see the Crown Jewels, which was absolutely amazing and beautiful and then we saw several other crowns and scepters- one had the biggest diamond I've ever seen. It was about the size of a plum!!!!!!! I would think it were fake, but it's the property of the British royals, so I'm thinking it's 100% legit. We saw lots of items belonging to the royal family and how the Tower of London has changed over the years. We couldn't take pictures inside sadly, so I got a postcard of the Crown Jewels!

This worker guy told us that he knew Texas was the "Lone Star State" but we were 4 beautiful stars! What a sweet old man!

We also saw the Tower Bridge- so awesome!!

I went to the gift shop and got some postcards and then we got lunch at Subway!! A subway melt and chocolate chunk cookie has never tasted so good.

After lunch we walked to Liverpool St. to get on the Stansted Express and rode it all the way to the airport! We were one of the last people on the train, so no more seats, so we stood for most of the time- we got to sit on the ground for a little while...

We got to the airport and waited in line to get our passports checked, bought oreo shakes, I got some Boots face exfoliant (I'm telling you, Spain is messing with my face's oil production... I'm thinking it's because everything I eat is doused in olive oil??) and some chapstick and then we went to the gate to wait to board. The Spannys (my nickname for the Spaniards) couldn't figure out how to work the door, so we were all stuck inside waiting to go downstairs and outside to go up the plane stairs to get on the plane. 10 minutes later, when they finally figured out how to open the door, we got to the plane and found seats and tried to get comfortable. About 3 hours later, we arrived in Sevilla! Whenever the flight is on time, they play a bugling sound over the PA system and then everyone cheers and claps... weirdest thing ever, we were dying laughing at these Spannys. We got off the plane, got my passport stamped in the EU line because there wasn't another option, tried to find a money exchange place (there isn't one, so I'm stuck with pounds), and then went outside to catch the bus... which we waited on for 45 minutes!!!

Oh I forgot the best part of the weekend. The weather in London was absolutely perfect. The sun was shining the entire time, but when we land in Sevilla and deboard the plane... it's raining on us. Why is the weather so HORRIBLE in Sevilla??

Right now there is a stomach virus going around the school and mostly everyone is sick... I'm praying not to get it. The students at the Center are going through the "I hate Spain" period. The weather is horrible, we are sick of the food, there are only 60 kids at school, so it's worse than high school, and our classes this half of the semester are a LOT more challenging than the last half. I am so grateful to be studying in Spain right now, but I am SO glad I got to travel to London because I had the opportunity to speak English the entire time. It's amazing how we take communicating for granted- I was ecstatic to see English written, it's been 2 months. My Spanish is coming along, my Mamá tells me "tu español es muy muy bien", so that's nice to hear, but getting a break was so nice.

I am SO ready for the rain to stop and the good weather to start.... I can only take rain so much and it's been raining 5 days a week for 2 months.

So basically, London saved me and I am SO glad I got to visit!! I definitely want to go back to London and stay for a week to take it all in. 2 days is just not enough.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my trip to London!!

Love,
Merick :)