The trip to London started off a bit rocky. Danielle had some trouble with the metro line, so she arrived at the train station at about 9am. Our train was at 9:13. But we’d be fine. We’ve taken trains tons of times and got there right before and were able to board. But NOPE! They said boarding was closed. Try 1. Where were we? In an airport? Well, they were nice enough to put us on the next train at 10:13, so we decided to go to check in. First, we went and they said we needed new tickets. Try 2. We got our new tickets and proceeded to passport control. I didn’t even know they did that on trains! I get up to the lady and she asks me where my landing card was. I told her that I never landed and I live in Paris. She was very nasty and told me I needed to get out of line and fill out some card. Try 3. We filled out the stupid card, but only put London for our address since we didn’t know Jared’s address. Back in line again. We went to the guy this time. He tells us we need to have an address….Try 4. Luckily Danielle got through to Jared and we got his address. It was 9 Frying Pan Alley. We totally thought the man was going to think we made it up. Luckily, on try 5, we got in. He questioned me a lot at the little window, but I guess I passed. We were freaking out when we saw that our bags needed to go through security because we had razors and tweezers. Thought we’d get in trouble, but they didn’t seem to care. PHEW! We just made the 10:13am train. URGH. But we were finally on our way to London!!
The train ride was very smooth and only took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. It’s crazy how close everything is in Europe. I love how you can be in a different country in such a short amount of time! We got to the super big train station: St. Pancras. Right when we got off, we saw the Olympic rings hanging from the station! It was super cool. Jared met us right there. Everything worked out great. We had to go get our Oyster Card, which is for the Underground ‘Tube’ system. We bought a week since it worked out to be cheaper. Still pretty expensive when you convert the pounds into dollars. Killing me! I was so glad we got the card though. We had unlimited travel and we used it so much. We dropped our things off in Jared’s dorm building and decided to go walk around Piccadilly Circus and see Big Ben! What a breathtaking site! It was so crowded near Big Ben. We all lost each other trying to walk by the London Eye. It was a bit ridiculous. But everything was too beautiful for me to care!
At Piccadilly Circus, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Pret A Manger. I’ve seen a few of them in New York, but let me tell you. In London, you cannot walk a block without seeing one! They are pretty good and very affordable. We walked around, stopping in souvenir shops and regular stores, as well. We also stopped in Primark and Harrod’s, two of London’s big department stores. Primark has very cheap clothing and was packed! It was a bit overwhelming, so we didn’t stay too long. Harrod’s is one of the most expensive shops in the world. We found a piece of jewelry for like 190,000 pounds! We played a game to see who could find the most expensive thing in the jewelry section. It was insane. I didn’t even like how some of the really expensive things looked. To each his own… After a fun filled afternoon, we went back over near Jared’s dorm to have dinner at a pub called Woddin’s Shade. Fish and Chips and Magners. A perfect dinner! We went back to the dorm to hang out with some of Jared’s friends and all decided to go out for the night.
We first went to a cute little pub. Then, everyone wanted to meet up with some other friends at a club called Piccadilly Institute. We had to pay 5 pounds to get in and 2 pounds for a coat check. It was a little annoying. Then, we were sitting in a booth and a lady who worked there came over and said she’d give us tequila shots for 3 pounds each if we all got one. I think we were a group of about 12. We decided to do it. As she is pouring the drinks, she pours “Bacardi Gold” and then a bit of tequila. We took the shots and figured out that she put water in them! What a rip off. We were all so very mad so decided to go back to the dorm and hang out. It turned out to be fun, though.
Saturday was another fun filled day. We started the morning/afternoon off by getting McDonald’s Cadbury Cream McFlurries. I was a bit disappointed. They tasted nothing like Cadbury Cream Eggs. Then, we stopped for pasties. I tried a cheese, tomatoe, and basil one. They were very good! Next, we were off to Buckingham Palace. On our way, we stopped at King’s Cross train station to get a picture by the 9 ¾ platform from Harry Potter. Funny! We then arrived at Buckingham Palace…What a beautiful place! We unfortunately couldn’t get inside, but it was still an amazing view. From there, we went over to Camden, a bit outside of London, to try to find Abbey Road. We got to ride a double decker red bus to get there! Danielle and I sat in the front row on the top. We had a very pretty view. When we got off the bus, we walked the wrong way down Abbey Road. Figures…but we finally found the recording studio and the famous crosswalk. It was pretty exciting. I don’t even know why, but it was very excited. Of course, we just had to take all those touristy pictures. The cars trying to get through didn’t find it as amusing as us and would keep beeping at all the tourists standing in the middle of the road. We weren’t that dumb and waited for the cards to actually have a red light. It was funny, though. Danielle and Jared tried to do a jumping picture and Danielle fell in the road. She didn’t get too hurt and now has the Abbey Road crosswalk on her jeans. At least it makes a good story. A lot of things were closed when we went back over by the dorm building, but we found a place called Nando’s to go to dinner. Jared’s friend, Todd, joined us as well. It was great. I had a lemon and herb chicken pita.
After dinner, we stopped at a grocery store for some Cadbury eggs. YUM YUM YUM! We then went to a bar in some pretty sketchy part of London. Good thing most of the people in Jared’s program are guys so I wasn’t too intimidated. It was a good night, but we got back rather early so we could get up for Easter!
Sunday was a little rainy. We got up pretty early to go to an open-air market right outside the dorm building. There were so many clothes! Didn’t buy anything and we were off to St. James’ Church for Easter mass. We actually found it rather easily! We were early! It was a beautiful church. Mass was very nice, as well. The reader reminded me of someone right out of Hogwarts. I love the English accent. After mass, we stopped at Starbucks and met Jared by Hyde Park to have a little picnic. Unfortunately it wasn’t a nice day out, but we still had our picnic on a bench under a covering. We hung out in the lounge of Jared’s dorm for a while and waited for his roommate, Nico, to get back so we could all go out to dinner. Fish and chips it was again! I believe the restaurant was called Weatherspoon’s. Of course, it was delicious as usual. It wasn’t your typical Easter dinner, but still yummy. We also walked by the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge and stopped for a drink at a place over there. We headed back to the dorm and then went out to Trafalgar Square. Since it was Easter, it wasn’t lit up. We had a beautiful view of Big Ben all lit up though! We found a bar called Verve that let us in for free and we stayed there until about midnight, when it closed. Then, the security guard escorted everyone to a club called The Zoo that was opened until 3am. It was definitely my favorite night in London. The club was a lot of fun! We took the night bus back with Nico and Todd because everyone else disappeared. Then we walked to their favorite bagel place about 15 minutes from the dorm building. It was delicious! I miss bagels in Paris. I just had one with butter and pretty sure it was only 30 pence. That’s what I call a good deal! We got back to the dorm at about 4am, so we slept in on Monday.
We went over to Westminster Abbey first, but didn’t want to pay to go inside. It was still a beautiful building. We walked around there, not having anywhere in particular to go to and found the first bus we saw to take us to South Kensington. Jared works in the science museum right by here, so we stopped to visit the museum. Almost all museums in London are free for everyone being that they are funded by the UK. I thought that was pretty cool even though I’m not that into museums. The science one was cool but VERY crowded since a lot of kids probably had off for Easter Monday. We stopped for a very late lunch at Jared’s favorite sandwich shop. It was so good. We also finally got our phone booth pictures!! YAY. We almost completed our London Bucket list! We visited the Kensington Gardens and the Princess Diana memorial. It was a very gorgeous memorial and the sound of the water trickling down the little stream was very soothing. Right across from the memorial was one of the bridges that Harry Potter flew under to get to Hogwarts. Harry Potter is all over London!
We headed back to the dorm to get ready for our last night out in London. It started off at 8pm with a visit to the London Ice Bar. What an experience! Everything was made of ice. EVERYTHING! Even our cute little glasses!! We got huge Eskimo suits to stay warm and were allowed to stay for 40 minutes. It was the perfect time, because I was starting to get very cold. We headed outside to defrost and then met a bunch of the other kids at a restaurant/bar place for drinks. It was a calm night, but still a lot of fun! Everyone had to be up early for work, so we got back at about 11pm.
Danielle and I were going to go to St. Paul’s this morning, but we found out you have to pay to go inside so we figured it wasn’t even worth it. We stopped one last time for fish and chips and headed to the train station early because we were nervous we’d miss our train again. Luckily, it was NOTHING like it was in France. We got through in probably 5 minutes total and waited for 40 minutes to board the train. Overall, it was a great vacation! I can’t believe we’re going on spring break in 3 days. Time really needs to stop flying!
I hope everyone had a blessed Easter! Have a wonderful week :)
A bientôt mes chéris!
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