Across the Irish Sea to LONDON!

London! I absolutely loved it! So much to see and do and the city is full of so much history it is amazing! I spent Wednesday night traveling, I felt like it took forever to get there. First we took a bus to the Cork airport, then the plane to Stanstead airport, then a bus to London, then the tube and after some walking finally made it to our hostel. We stayed at Journeys London Eye hostel which was great. Best one I have been to yet. Everyone was just so friendly, and it was very youth oriented, so we met tons of great people our age and swapped traveling stories. We crashed early Wednesday night ready for a jam packed weekend.

On Thursday, after our complimentary breakfast of tea, toast, and cereal, we went and found the Big Bus Tour Company. Our friends who had gone the week before recommended them. It included two different bus tours where you could hop on and off, three walking tours, and a boat cruise. It was nice to have the transportation, but looking back probably wasn’t worth it. It was terrible weather on Thursday though; cold and rainy. London had a crazy snow storm earlier in the week, but most of the snow was melted by the time we got there just a bit of ice left when we first got in. I was just surprised how much colder London was compared to Cork. We took the bus tour and saw all the sites, Big Ben, Webminister Abbey, London Eye, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and went on the River Thames Cruise. We were pretty frozen after that so we found Sherlock Holmes Pub and defrosted. My friends all had their fish n’ chips but I stuck with a roast beef sandwich.

Then we strolled down some major shopping streets doing some window shopping. We found this toy store called Hamleys, probably the coolest place ever. It was seven stories, and had every toy possible. They also had stations set up throughout the store with a sales person demonstrating the toys. We saw everything from magic tricks to nail polish pens to paint sets. At each station we were like a group of five year olds, so easily impressed and awed. My favorite would have to be the Magical snow. It is powder, then when you add water expands one hundred times its size. It feels and looks like real snow! Then after two weeks it changes back into the powder and is reusable. Coolest thing ever. Afterwards, we stopped at Tesco, the grocery store, and bought meals for the next three nights for only two pounds each. There is nothing like pasta and grill cheese.

Thursday night we went to the Absolut Ice Bar. It is a bar where everything in it is made out of ice. The bar, tables, chairs, chandeliers, walls, glasses. They give you huge capes with hoods and gloves attached before you go in, but you can still only be in there for about 40 minutes because it is so cold. It was really cool. Afterwards we met up with Brianne’s cousin, who is studying abroad in London, and his friends. We went to a pub called The George, which was a very English pub. The George is London’s only surviving coaching inn. Chaucer began his Canterbury Tales here and Charles Dickens was known to visit.

On Friday we did a bit more of the bus tour. Saw Buckingham Palace, the US Embassy, Notting Hill, and Kensington Palace. Again it wasn’t the greatest weather and we ended up venturing off on our own for some exploring. We were planning on doing the Beatles Walking Tour, but after a few wrong turns we just missed it. Instead we went into the National Art Gallery to get away from the cold. Great thing about London- all their museums are free! We saw paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, and a million other artists. We decided to see a West end show Friday night and it is amazing how many shows they have to see! We got cheap tickets for the “stalls” to see Wicked, so we were up really close to the stage but on the far side. Wicked is a musical about the witches of Oz, a prequel to the Wizard of Oz. I had seen it before at home and was surprised at how exact the two shows matched up. They didn’t even have British accents!

After the show we went back to the hostel to make some grill cheese and chatted with all the travelers at the hostel. We met people from all over including, Madrid, Morocco, Germany, Scotland, Australia, Canada, and even the states. We spent the night hearing ridiculous stories from an Aussie who is a world traveler. Earning enough money for a plane ticket and going wherever there is good snowboarding. We heard stories of his tent burning down, flipping his car over after driving around Australia with no breaks, and being chased by a crocodile. You never know who you are going to meet in a hostel.

The next morning we went on the Buckingham Palace Walking tour. We saw the changing of the guards, a very ceremonial event. We unfortunately couldn’t get our picture taken with one of the guards because apparently a few weeks ago a guard attacked a mocking tourist. So now they stand behind ropes and the tourists have to stay a few feet away. We then made another tourist must see stop and went to Kings Cross Station for a picture by Platform 9 and ¾. You Harry Potter fans will understand that one. Julia laughed at us, but took pictures of Kristina, Brianne and I attempting to make it to Hogwarts. We went to Harrods, the biggest department store in the world. It is seven stories and has everything you could possible think of, from Tiffany’s necklaces, to Armani children tee shirts, to Ferrari bicycles and an amazing food floor. A huge store! We also went to the National History Museum and checked out the Human Biology exhibit to brush up on our Anatomy, as classes start on Monday. Saturday night we met up with Brianne’s cousin again, and went to Kings College Bar. We tried “SnakeBite,” a drink that people have been recommending to us. It is Carlsberg beer, Long Horn cider and black current syrup. Surprisingly really good!

We slept in a bit on Sunday, and “checked out” at eleven. It was a beautiful day so we hit up a few of the tourist spots like Big Ben again and took some pictures in the nice weather. We headed down to Camden Market, which is similar to Canal Street in New York City, with all the stalls set up with street vendors. I had been wearing my rain boots all weekend, and made a great buy at the market of sneakers :) Later Julia and I went to the Imperial War Museum. We only had an hour left as it was closing but what we saw was really interesting. They had a “Childrens War” exhibit and how the kids experienced WWII and went through the Blitz experience which demonstrated how London experienced 57 days of bombing. It was a really interesting museum, I just wish we had more time- [Chris you would have loved it!].

Our flight was at 6 am the next morning, and we didn’t have to leave for the airport until 2am. So we went back to our hostel even though we were no longer paying customers. We took over the couch area for the next eight hours or so and hung out all night, eating the last of our pasta and grill cheese, drinking the endless amount of English tea, and chatting with all the other guests. Julia talked our Canadian friend into letting us watch the latest episode of Greys, so at 1am we spent out last hour in London catching up on US television. We walked to the bus stop, took the night bus to Victoria station, Took the bus to Stanstead airport, flew back to Cork, took the bus to Cork city, and finally the bus home to our flat and got home about 9:30am. I slept all day Monday and woke up in time for class Monday night.

This week is RAG week at UCC. “Raise and Give,” it is a week full of charity events to raise money, but the Irish use the occasion to go out and drink. Unfortunately I have come down with some sort of virus and have spent most of my time in bed sleeping. Hopefully I will fight it off soon enough and in time for my birthday!

But that was my trip to London! I will get pictures up ASAP!