Londres



Boarding! We actually had to go
 to on the Tarmac!

After unpacking and repacking my backpack numerous times (for reasons I don’t quite know), Jamie and I finally left for the airport for our long weekend away from Spain. With London a few short hours away I was incredibly excited to give my brain a rest from Spanish for a while. We got to the airport and headed straight to the counter to get our printed boarding passes stamped and I opened up my backpack and... They were not there. I made sure I had them 50 times as I took them in and out of my backpack. So I hopped on the bus and rushed, as much as I could control, back to the apartment, grabbed the tickets and went back to the bust stop. I must have just missed it because I waited for almost 20 minutes for a bus that is supposed to come every 20 minutes! Ugh, I looked at the boarding passes that said the gates close at 4:10 and it was already 4:00. The bus to the airport takes at least 20 minutes so I was freaking out. Finally, it showed up and I hopped on praying that the plane would be delayed. Well, my prayers were answered. We finally got our passes stamped and quickly went through security. Of course our gate was number 25, the very last one! We ran to the very end, out of breath and sweating, we realized the plane had not even arrived at the terminal yet! We ended leaving about 20 minutes late. If that wasn’t an answer to prayers I don’t know what is! We ended up meeting a very nice old gent in line who entertained us with sarcasm but did not quite understand sarcasm himself. We finally got on the plane and I was able to relax, turn on my ipod, and listen to some Jay Sean, after all, I was headed to his home town ;).



Friends! Colleen, me and Maggie
at Buckingham Palace



We finally arrived in London and we took a bus into the city. We needed to get directions to the Tube (London’s subway system) so we stopped a man to ask him. Now it took my mind a while to stop thinking in Spanish. So when he repeated where we told him we wanted to go I said, “si, si! Oh wait, yes yes!” That was a good lol moment. We made it to the hostel without a hitch and it was very lively. We met up with some friends and after a while decided to call it a night and get some rest. I did not get much sleep that night, unfortunately, not the best first experience in a hostel. I will just leave it at that.



Ed



The next morning we took a free tour of the city, which was awesome. The tour guides work for tips so they are pretty entertaining. Ed was our guide or Edward when something is going wrong, as he told us. He took us to the sites like Hyde Park, Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace where we saw the changing of the guard (not as glamorous as it sounds), Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. But by far my favorite site was Big Ben. A little trivia for you, Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the tower and not the tower itself. Regardless, I don’t know what it is about this building, but unexpectedly we turned the corner and about half a mile away was Big Ben, It took my breath away. It was the most captivating piece of architecture I have ever seen. It was absolutely stunning.



Lo<3



We took another tour that afternoon for a fee with the same tour company and it was also awesome. This one was the Old City tour which mainly took place in the Burrough of Westminster. We started at Covent Garden and worked our way to the Templar Church (Da Vinci Code). On the way we were able to see Fleet Street (no signs of the demon barber or Johnny Depp). We also stumbled upon a random set up of an old school market, something that looked like it came out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Come to find out… It is part of the set of Pirates 4! I did not find this out until after we left so I did not to get to appreciate it in its full wonderment. We continued on and saw the Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral (awesome) and the Tower of London. London has so much history it is so incredibly astonishing. That night we ate dinner, and what did we have? Fish and chips of course!



After dinner we took an adventure to King’s Cross station, the sight of Platform 9 ¾. For those who don’t know, it is the famous portal that Harry Potter takes to get to the train that takes him to Hogwarts. They erected a memorial at the platform in honor of the books. Now, if any of you ever want to go know this: Londoners can’t count. Platform 9 ¾ is actually between platforms 8 and 9. You have to follow the signs for platforms 1-8 and the walk down the side and eventually you will find the half cart in the wall.



What I look like when dreams

come true. With the National

Gallery behind me



Day 2 we did our own thing. We went to the British Museum, and while I love a good piece of art, archaeological findings tend to bore me- something I learned on this trip. I did get to see the Rosetta stone, which I thought was the coolest thing in the place. We found a cute café to have lunch at after the museum where I had some delicious food and a great cup of coffee. Eventually the group separated and I did the things I really wanted to do. One thing awesome about London is that all of the national museums are free to enter. This is cool considering London stole every historical artifact from every other place when it ruled the world. I went to the National Gallery which is full of beautiful paintings and lost myself in there for a couple of hours. The paintings were not only gorgeous, but so was the décor and architecture. I felt as if I was in a piece of work myself. Then I ventured to the other side of the river to see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from that view. I walked along that side of the river and saw some interesting street performers. London has such an eclectic society. Then I worked my way back to Fleet Street to find and appreciate the set of the movie, and when I finally found it, it was closed! I am pretty sure I was within 500 feet of Johnny Depp and/or Geoffrey Rush. The area was most likely closed for filming, and they had security outside of the filming area. I then crossed the Millennium Bridge to get to the Tate Modern. I explored the museum and before I knew it, it was time to meet up to begin the second half of our journey! On the way I saw the Tower bridge open! Our guide said it opens about once a week these days because it does not really need to anymore, and I got to see it. How lucky was I! Stay tuned for Dublin~



Much love!

Tower Bridge! (closed) Love from London