London

London

November 5-8, 2009

We landed at London Stansted airport Thursday night late and Jillian, Kayla and I were so excited for a wonderful weekend! We took a shuttle into the city and then a cab to our hostel that was located in Soho. Shelley and a group of girls who are studying with SMU in Paris were supposed to meet up with us at our hostel to celebrate Shelley’s 21^st birthday weekend. We got in so late Thursday that they had already gone to bed, but they left us a message at the front desk outlining their plans for the next day. They wanted to do the walking tour Friday, but we decided to do the ‘Original Tour’ on the double-decker buses instead and would meet up with them later on in the day.

So Friday morning we got up bright and early at 7 after having arrived at the hostel at 1am and headed to Starbucks across the street from our hotel for breakfast. The Starbucks tasted unbelievable and was just so reminiscent of home and we were so happy to see they had started using their red holiday cups so we ordered Chai tea and gingerbread lattes! I ordered what I assumed was oatmeal, but it turned out o be porridge. It was nasty! At least I know for next time! But anyways the streets and stores in Soho had all just been decorated for Christmas so we were freaking out like little children on Christmas morning! It was all so beautiful! Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Europe Christmas comes early indeed! We bought passes for the double-decker bus tour and hopped on! Even though it was very cold we climbed up on the top of the bus and enjoyed the open air and beautiful views of the city. Our guide was amazing and pretty funny so we decided instead of hopping on and off throughout the over two hour tour we would stay on for the whole time once through before deciding where we wanted to get off and spend our time. The tour was amazing as all the trees were all the gorgeous fall colors! We saw literally all the sights from the bus: Hyde Park, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the London Eye, the London Bridge, the Tower, Buckingham Palace, the Financial District, the smallest pub in London, etc. It was wonderful. The entire time we were freaking out professing our love for the city. Literally I am so impressed and in love with London. It is so clean and everything is so beautiful. The people were so nice, they speak ENGLISH and there is SO much to do! Two full days was hardly enough time! I could have happily spent a week there!

It was bizarre being in an English speaking country! It was the first time in three months that I was somewhere where English was the primary language. It was shocking when people greeted me and asked me questions in English. It actually took me a few seconds to process what they were asking me! And more than once I answered in Italian. So weird. It was definitely a little taste of the culture shock I know I will experience when I get back to the US.

After riding the bus tour until noon we decided to hop off at “the Tower,” which has been many things over its existence including a fortress, prison and castle. It now is famous for holding the ‘Crown Jewels’ of England. We first walked around the perimeter of the fortress which had examples of the old castle interiors and even some people in the authentic customary apparel of the Middle Ages. My favorite part was definitely seeing the Crown Jewels! They were pretty unbelievable. Especially the fact that most of the things on display are still worn during particular ceremonies is insane. The crowns were exquisite and I especially liked that most of them had fleur-de-lis on them (my sorority’s symbol). The tableware was pretty amazing too like the huge solid gold platters and serving dishes. We then went into the tower where they had all the armor on display including the armor for the horses. There were also interactive stations that taught you the proper use of certain medieval weapons. It was really interesting.

We took a break and grabbed lunch. Everyone had told me the food in London was nothing special, but we loved it! They have every kind of cuisine you could ever want and lots of great restaurant chains that we don’t have in the states. For lunch I went to this great ‘create your own salad’ place that was amazing! The salads are just so boring in Italy literally mixed greens and tomatoes so it was nice to get a little creative and have all my favorite things including grilled chicken in mine. We then walked to Buckingham Palace, which honestly wasn’t quite as grandeur as I expected, but still pretty awesome and took some pictures in front of it. Green Park is located right next to Buckingham Palace and looked absolutely gorgeous so we decided to venture in. The entrance to the park had huge wrought iron fences with gilded gold on it and was breathtaking as we walked in to see all the picture perfect autumn trees and leaf-filled pathways. We took the opportunity to frolic in the leaves and take lots of fun pictures. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing for a solid half hour. It is something I will never forget. We were just so happy and carefree.

Afterwards we took ‘the tube,’ which we became experts at, to go see the famous department store Harrods. It is the craziest department store I have ever seen! It is giant, beautifully decorated and just so unique. You literally could get so lost there! It was fun exploring all the different departments. We were on a quest to find somewhere to have ‘high-tea,’ but it was pretty pricey at Harrods so we went down the street to another department store called Harvey Nichols that my fashion teacher who used to live in London had recommended to me. We took the elevator to the fifth floor where there was a boutique market, champagne bar and a café. We sat at the café and each had scones and a pot of tea. I ordered a chai tea and loved just being able to sit down and relax after a busy day. On the way back to the hotel we stopped into the popular English chain store called Top Shop to look around. It is like the stores H&M and Zara, but still pretty pricey especially with the dollar to pound conversion. Everything was adorable, but we just had fun looking around.

We went back to the hostel, changed for dinner and met up with Shelley and the SMU girls for Shelley’s birthday dinner! It turned out that they had switched hostels after their accommodations were not as sanitary as they had hoped. Luckily ours was perfectly acceptable, but since we ended up at different hostels it was harder to coordinate schedules. We had a fun dinner and it was so great getting to see Shelley on her real birthday especially her 21^st. We all went to a pub after for celebratory pints of Strongbow cider (one of our new favorites) before heading into **** to look for a club to go to. Since it was a weekend every few feet club promoters would try to lure you to their clubs by giving you flyers or enticing you with free entrance or drinks. Since there were nine of us and it was Friday night when most clubs have cover charges we went to this club called Ruby Blue where we got in for free since it was Shelley’s birthday. We had a great time dancing and enjoyed the usual blend of American music. Once again: we just love London.

Saturday morning we got an early start to our day again with a Starbucks breakfast before heading to the Portobello markets just outside of the city. The market is in Notting Hill (like the movie) and is just adorable. The area reminded me of a little bit of parts of Portland. It had adorable brightly painted old buildings and cottages and lots of antique stores. The Portobello market is on one whole street with stands set up along it that sell antiques to jewelry to clothing to fresh produce, etc. It was so fun! I bought a really unique headband decorated with beautiful peacock feathers and an ‘I heart London’ shirt! I couldn’t resist. We then took the tube to the Camden Lock Markets around noon and had fun shopping around there. That area was a lot more alternative and had lots of funkier stores as well as cute booths. We could have easily spent another three hours there, but we only had a two so we did a quick sweep through before grabbing lunch. Kayla opted for a lunch of authentic fish and chips; I was surprised to find out that the chips are really fries! I didn’t know that! On our loop back to the tube we shopped a little more and I ended up getting bamboozled into buying this body scrub made of salt from the Dead Sea. The saleslady had done a demonstration on me by washing my hands in it and my skin felt amazingly soft and hydrated. She said when you use it you don’t need lotion so since my skin has been neglected since coming abroad due to a lack of my favorite lotions, I caved and bought it. Luckily I haven’t regretted it! It smells amazing and works wonders! I should be on the infomercial! Haha.

On our way back to our hostel we stopped at a kiosk and bought tickets to see the musical Wicked for that night. I had no idea that London was such a mecca for musicals! Literally every musical I have ever heard of is always playing there nearly every night! I’m used to plays or musicals coming through an area then not returning for years, so it was so fun that we had so many options! I had seen Wicked, but Kayla and Jillian hadn’t and it is my favorite musical so I was more than willing to see it again! We got pretty cheap tickets so we were so excited to go! Especially me, since by this point I know all the songs and lyrics!

We all changed back at the hostel into cute dressy outfits and headed to Dukes Hotel for high tea. It is the most adorable boutique hotel completely off the beaten path in London that had been recommended to me. It is amazing. We were taken back into the parlor and seated on comfortable couches. It was so cute and cozy. We each ordered the Dukes Special, which was pricey but came with a pot of tea and a good sized assortment of tea sandwiches, pastries, and desserts. I just love the whole concept of high tea. It is so great to just relax and enjoy your friends’ company while having a snack. The whole time we were there we kept expressing how blessed we are and reminding ourselves to savor the moment. It was another experience I will never forget. I felt so blessed to be abroad, to be in amazing London, to have made such great friends and blessed just to experience all of this. I could have sat in that tea room forever. It definitely wasn’t reality it was so perfect and we were all so content. I can’t wait to go back to Dukes in the future and my dream is to actually stay there! It’s so adorable.

We then took a cab to the London Eye, the biggest Ferris wheel in the world, for a spin! We had bought discounted tickets at our hostel and wanted to squeeze it in before going to see Wicked. It was a beautiful night and the city lights were crystal clear. Part of what was so fun too was that we were all dressed up. It just made us feel so sophisticated and was the icing on the cake of what was a perfect day and night. You stand in a basically a pod with like fifteen people as you go around the Ferris wheel so we ended up talking to two American boys who just graduated from college last year. One of them works in finance and commutes to London every two or three weeks and is transitioning into living in London full-time for a few years. I talked to him for awhile and was so jealous! After seeing London I realized how much I would LOVE to live there for a year or two at some point in my life. I’m obsessed with the city; it’s definitely my favorite in the world. I like it WAY better than New York City. If I had a second study abroad experience I would go to London in a heartbeat.

Anyways we dashed off to see Wicked, which was amazing even the second time seeing it! It was so funny hearing the actors say everything with a British accent! The vocals were definitely better the first time I saw it in LA, but it was still great! Kayla and Jillian loved it too, they were freaking out the whole time over the amazing songs, characters and creative storyline and its clever intertwining with the plot of the Wizard of Oz. We were leaving early Sunday morning for our flight back to Italy so we couldn’t decide what to do after the musical. Our bus for the airport left at 4:20am!!!! We debated not sleeping at all and just going out, but ended up walking around and sleeping about an hour before taking a cab to our shuttle. Our flight left at 8:25am and we were devastated to be leaving London so soon. After having travelled so much over the course of the last three months I really appreciate that London has so much to do. In most of the cities I have travelled to you can do and see everything in two or three days, but I definitely could’ve spent another 3-5 days there. I can’t wait to come back. We were just so lucky with our weather too since it only rained a tiny bit. Upon flying into Pisa we were absolutely exhausted after a cab, shuttle and flight all before noon. We had an hour train left to get back to Florence. However…the trains headed to Florence decided to go on strike on Sunday! Just our luck! So we were stranded in Pisa and trying to figure out how to get home as swiftly as possible since we were on the brink of falling asleep standing up. We decided the easiest and cheapest way to get home to Florence after talking to a taxi was to split a cab fare amongst ourselves and two other girls who were in our same predicament. Upon reaching Florence we realized there had been a miscommunication with the driver about what he would charge us for the 45 minute drive. We tried to explain what we had thought he would charge us and he was standing his ground and clearly overcharging us. We ended up handing him a wad of money (about ¾ of the price he charged us) and briskly walked away. He shouted at us in Italian but we kept on walking and then he followed us for a few blocks after realizing we hadn’t paid the whole fare, but we took a few detours through some alleys and lost him. It was an interesting day! But we finally got home safe and sound and EXHAUSTED. Let’s just say I fell asleep at 6pm Sunday night and didn’t wake up until Monday at 11am!

It was such an amazing weekend, one I will surely never forget! Can’t wait to report more of my adventures!

Love you! Ciao!

~Kara