Spring Break: LONDON

Tower Bridge in London!

Next stop on my trip was London, which was one of the places I was most excited for. I flew from Brussels to London Heathrow with Mandi and Carolyn and then they headed to Cardiff, Wales and I set off on the tube to find my friend Alyssa's apartment. I successfully navigated the tube for the first time (woo!) and found her basement flat. Alyssa is one of my oldest friends from Mountain Lakes-- we used to have weekly playdates in third grade when we moved from Maryland-- and it was so nice to see her! I was pretty exhausted from my lack of sleep and all my traveling so we just did a little light shopping and got amazing pub food for dinner. One of her roommates was gone for the night so I got a (freeee) bed and passed out asap.

Alyssa and I at the pancake house

Monday morning Emily came from Firenze to join me for the rest of spring break. We met at our hotel- a cute little house hotel in a good location- and head out immediately to see London. First stop was the Tower of London. I was really excited for this particular trip because I've (dorkily) read and watched so many things about the Tudor dynasty.  We took a tour guided by a beefeater who was really entertaining and knowledgeable. We saw the 11th century center tower (called the White Tower) and the spot where Anne Boleyn was executed. We also got to see the crown jewels-- so pretty.. and sparkly!

The White Tower

After the tower we headed back towards the hotel to meet up with Nicole, another friend from Colgate who was visiting for spring break.  We got a quick lunch at Pizza Hut (so cultural of us) and then we took the tube towards Parliament. 

in front of Big Ben!

Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey are all right next to each other so we zipped through those sites (we couldn't go inside the Abbey because there was some sort of ceremony going on) and then walked through a gorgeous little English park towards Buckingham Palace. We weren't in London any day that the changing of the guards happened (unfortunately) but we got to see the guards from afar. Next stop was Harrod's the famous department store.

We had contemplated getting tea there in the afternoon but a 26 pound price tag killed that plan. We did get to explore the store though which had so many cool themed rooms (like an Egyptian escalator central atrium) and an amazing food court. Emily headed back to the hotel to take a nap but I navigated the tube back to the Tower Hill stop and met Alyssa for a Jack the Ripper Walking tour.  The guide was wayyyy into the material and had a penchant for long winded tangents and facts but overall the tour was interesting. It was a little creepy to be standing where all the murders occurred but I enjoyed myself.  After THAT I headed towards Picadilly Circus where I met Emily and her friend from home to go to the London Ice Bar.  It was freeeezing in there (obviously) and a lot smaller than I anticipated but we thought it was fun-- although we were more than ready to go when the our 40 minutes were up.

Ice Bar

 We had gotten a lot done on our list of things to do but it had been a really long, packed day and I was more than ready for bed.

Tuesday we got to sleep in a tad because we had a day trip to STONEHENGE and the Roman baths. Stonehenge was something Emily and I had decided to do immediately after putting London on the list. When else would I be able to go see it? We met our tour bus around 10:30 and after a quick stop at Windsor Castle (unfortunately we only go to see the outside from a distance) we headed to Stonehenge. Everybody told us Stonehenge would be anticlimactic but we both thought it was amazing.

at Stonehenge

You can't really do anything there-- you just walk a big loop around the stones-- but we had a good time taking stupid pictures and seeing it..plus we liked the gift shop. Next, the bus took us to Bath to see the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey. Emily and I enjoyed this partr more than we expected. Bath was a beautiful little city and the Roman Baths were cool to see--although the water was naaasty. 

Roman Baths

The bus then departed for London and we got back around 8. After grabbing a quick dinner we met Nicole and Sara (another girl from Colgate who is studying in London for the semester) at a bar called the Sports Cafe for student night (aka where all the Americans go to in London). I really liked going out in London-- much different from the clubs in Florence.

Wednesday morning I got up a little early and walked to the Sherlock Holmes museum, which was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. I got there just as it was opening and did a quick tour of it. I'm not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan but I watched the movie with my grandparents last summer and I liked seeing the real apartment and all the set-ups of 19th century stuff.

at 221b Baker Street

 Emily joined me after that and we headed to one of the open markets in London- the Camden Market. It was a pretty alternative scene but Emily found a cute dress and it was cool to see all the different shops and stalls. We walked through a little bit of London- we saw Trafalgar Square and the outside of the National Portrait Gallery (which I really wish I had made time to go inside) and then met Alyssa for lunch at.... a pancake place. I must say this pancake wasn't quite as amazing as the one in Amsterdam but it was delicious none the less. After that we headed towards the train station.

We had a liiiittle mishap with our tickets. We went earlier in the day to get tickets and were told that the cheapest we could get to Paris from London was 184 pounds... a ridiculous amount of money.  We asked 242343 times if that was the absolute cheapest price for students and whether there was anywhere else we could buy tickets and were told a clear 'no' by the guy behind the desk. We needed to get to Paris so we bought the tickets. Afterward I checked the train website and found that the student price was 95 pounds. Still a lot of money but far less than the 184 pounds (and remember there is a 1.65 exchange rate from pound to USD) we had been charged. Making sure all of our travel plans made sense and fit the budget was so much more stressful than I anticipated. Luckily when we got back to the station the woman who was then working the desk was outraged that we were charged almost double the price and got us a refund-- pretty sure she also called her boss to get the other worker in trouble. Thank god for her help because I had already spent a tonnnnn of money on this part of the trip-- London is NOT a cheap place to visit. Overall the trip was definitely worth it though. I am already mentally planning a trip back because as much stuff as we got done I have sooo many more things I want to see. I have no clue when I'll make it back  but I already have about 786897 things on the list of what to do when I do = )