Let's start from the beginning. I had to wake up at 2:30 am on Friday morning. When I went into the kitchen to get breakfast I ran into my flat-mate who was just coming in for the night. It was very strange. After a 45 minute bus ride I made it to the airport. After getting through a much easier security process than in America, I had to walk through a giant duty-free store before getting to a main lounge area where everyone waits together, regardless of their flight.
The flight itself was so different than any flight I've ever been on. First of all, there are no assigned seats. Secondly, the flight attendants are like Vanna White. They strut down the aisle selling cigarettes or lottery tickets. Also, when the flight landed on time, trumpets blared and there was an announcement about how we were on another on-time flight!
When I got to the airport I asked someone for directions to my bus and could've sworn I saw Prince Charles sitting there. That was just 1 of at least 3 times I thought I saw him. Once I got off the bus I made my way to the underground, got an Oyster card (I now have subway cards from 4 different cities!), and went to the hostel.
After Harrison and I met up, we got a traditional English Breakfast and some much needed coffee. Next we went over to Harrods, the biggest department store ever!! There is this big Egyptian Escalator area with fancy decorated walls and statues and stuff. There is also an entire section dedicated to toys, another for Christmas, one for pets (and a pet spa, coming soon!) etc.
Buckingham Palace was next on our list! It was raining so the guards were standing in their little houses instead of outside of them. The one we were focusing on kept swaying, so much for standing perfectly still! Then we wandered over to Piccadilly Circus to look around before continuing on to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was closed but looked at the outside and got some good shots of Big Ben.
On Saturday Megan was with us and we began our weekend of tourist attractions! We took the underground to the Westminster Cathedral. It was really beautiful. On the inside the bottom half was "recently" re-done, decorated, and fancy! The top half was still the really old dark brick. It was cool to see the transition between the "new" and old.
Then, back to Buckingham Palace! The weather was still amazing so we had a great morning for the changing of the guard. I had no idea how elaborate the whole process was! They closed off the streets around the palace and groups of guards marched in either playing instruments, riding horses, or just plain marching. Then the band played some songs within the fenced in area before they all marched back out!
After the changing of the guard we went back to Westminster Abbey (which was closed again!) before continuing on to Portobello Market in the Notting Hill (where we're pretty sure Keira Knightly's house was in Love Actually) area. It was probably the coolest thing we did. There were booths set up along the street selling almost anything you could think of! There were prints, antiques, clothes, jewelry, furniture, and Robert Downey Jr!
After dinner we finally found platform 9 3/4! We had tried to find it about 4 times before we finally asked someone who knew where it was. It was very exciting!
On Sunday morning we went to the Tower Bridge and took a bunch of pictures. We were also lucky to be there when a tall boat went through so we saw the bridge open up and then close too. Then we wandered over to St. Paul's Cathedral and Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. We had lunch at this "American" place which tried so hard, but wasn't nearly as good as real American places. I never thought American's could be snobby about their food. Mexicans can be snobby, Italians can be snobby, but Americans? Megan and Harrison said that their burgers were not very good though. Oh well, I enjoyed the milkshake.
After looking at art at the National Gallery, Megan and I went back to Harrods until it was time for our bus to leave for the airport and then we came back to school!
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