How Messie Sees It: London Lowdown

This post is somewhat late, but it's delayed arrival has given me time to let my punniness marinate in the sauce of my brain, to produce hopefully an enjoyable read.

That being said, I really want to express my gratitude for those of you who have been following my adventure, encouraging and reacting to my posts, and telling my mom how much you enjoy my writing. It truly fuels my passion for putting time and wit into each and every word I write, so thank you from the bottom of my American heart!

Okay, so LONDON. Holy Smokes. I loved it! Definitely my favorite place so far, however, it's hard to compare anything to the crystal clear skies and 80 degree weather we had in Barcelona...

Anyway a little itinerary of our adventure:

Friday:

We fly into London Stansted Airport, yet again an hour and a half bus ride from our hostel. I honestly do not know how we manage to do that every time. Damn.
We arrive to the Astor Victoria hostel after walking 30 minutes in the rain in the opposite direction from the bus stop... 15 minutes before they'll allow us to check in. Fish n' Chips it is!
After lunch we check in, head up to our ALL GIRLS dorm which we did in fact pay extra to have it all girls this time, and find a young woman making out with her boyfriend under Emily's bed. Not ideal. We awkwardly stowed our belongings and scooted outta there.
We took a walk along a river, saw the Parliament Buildings, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and did the London Eye (story to follow photos)

Parliament Buildings

Me holding the Parliament Building ;)

London Eye from afar

Parliament

BIG BEN

Westminster Abbey- Where every monarch gets coronated and Prince William recently got married!

London Eye Bubble

Hazy view from top of London Eye

Okay so the funny London Eye Story...

So to put things in perspective each bubble of the London Eye holds between 20-30 people, and the ride of the circumference is about 35 minutes long. The weather was freezing, low 40s (Fahrenheit) at least, so Em and I are all bundled up, little to no skin showing. Then, out of nowhere, we're halfway through our ride, when some CREEPER is following us around this glass bubble, taking our pictures. I kid you not, this dude was snapping shots like a freaking paparazzi of Emily's and my back. Grody.

Following our jaunt on the Eye, we walked by Buckingham Palace and a few WWI and WWII memorials. Cool stuff.

Saturday:

We woke up early, and walked about 40 minutes to Harrod's! It was unreal, shoes priced at 500+ Pounds Sterling, personal shopping in the Penthouse, and a toy store that would make FAO Schwartz blush
After Harrod's we grabbed a bite to eat, where I realized I had left my debit card in Harrod's. Insert minor panic attack.
Rushed back to Harrod's, found my card, back on our way
Go to Hyde Park, a huge park with various memorials, oober friendly squirrels, and Kensington Palace, home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Will & Kate), birthplace of Queen Victoria (my new hero). Here I was physically hugged by a squirrel. Sounds cute, in actuality, freakiest experience ever of my life.
After seeing the Palace we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our broadway adventure!

Ba Baaaaaaaa

Magazine Caption, "Dirty Harry"

Harry Potter Dolls at Harrod's Toy Palace

Queen Victoria Statue at Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace side entrance

WICKED!!!!

So, a little splurge we made for our trip to London was tickets to see the musical, Wicked. In reality it wasn't really a splurge at all. Our tickets were only 35 Euros, because they were advertised as having "restricted view". We didn't mind, we were just jazzed to see the show! While in line for pre-show drinks, we ran into a woman and her daughter who were apparently avid Wicked followers, who informed us that this night was Elphaba's (the female lead of Wicked) last performance in this role. Honestly, had we not known this, the show wouldn't have been half as incredible. Every time Elphaba took the stage, ovations were given and tears were shed. The crowd loved her, and we did too. At the end of the show, the producer gave a little spiel about the cast members leaving the show, and gave Elphaba a chance to thank her doting fans. It was so touching, I am not ashamed to say I cried.

Following the show we went to a little pub called "The Shakespeare" and shared a nice bottle of red wine, and got a 30-year-old's phone number. Call me maybe? Just kidding! The guy was nice and (surprisingly) not creepy, but he literally asked me if he could give me his number... desperate much? It was honestly pretty hilarious. I still have Sean's number as a matter of fact.....

Sunday:

Struggling a little bit Sunday morning, we headed to get an English Breakfast before seeing the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace
Arrive at Buckingham Palace around 11:30-- exactly when the show's about to start (our maps advised to arrive about 45 minutes early... whoops
Weasel our way to a literally picture perfect spot next to some New Englanders in London for the Patriots International Series game. Their accents were baller.
We revel in the once again unexpected awesomeness that London has given us as we watch the Changing of the guards parade around Buckingham Palace
From the Palace, we head to catch a hop on- hop off bus tour around the major sights of London and see basically everything we had and hadn't already seen before, it was so nice to be off our feet for the day, but it was freezing cold as of course we insisted on sitting in the top deck which had no roof.....

The crowd was UNREAL.

Start of the parade

In front of Buckingham Palace

Piccadilly Circus

2 Butler friends we LITERALLY bumped into in Piccadilly Circus. Incredible.

In front of the Tower Bridge at night

Tower Bridge by day!

St. Paul's Cathedral in Central London

Sunday evening we decided to stroll along the Thames River and see some sights by night. We caught a glimpse of Shakespeare's Globe theatre, the London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. Seeing the sights by night was almost more cool, perhaps because there was no dreary gray sky in the background, or maybe because of the twinkling lights and pre-Christmas atmosphere, but we loved it!

Monday:

Being our longest trip so far, we spent 4 days in London, and on Monday we decided to master the underground "Tube" system to see our final sights
First we headed out to Abbey Road, to take pictures on the infamous "Beatles Walk" and bask in the glory of Abbey Road Studios
We go to the wrong crosswalk and are re-directed by locals..
Along with 30 other tourists, we congest the Monday morning traffic through this fully functioning Abbey Road intersection in attempt to gain a Kodak Moment
From Abbey Road we head to King's Cross station (for those of you who aren't Harry Potter readers, shame on you) and looked for Platform Nine and Three Quarters
Thank God when there is in fact a tourist trap for doting HP fans
Finally we tube back to the Tower of London and do a nice little tour before heading back to good ole Amsterdam

There she is, Abbey Road!

Not what I was expecting, but the infamous Abbey Road Studios

That's me! I'm a Beatle!

So is Emily! We are the new Beatles!

At first glance, no 9 and 3/4....

We found it! Too bad the portal was closed :( No Hogwarts Express for me

Inside the Tower of London, famous for housing many monarchs and murdering many prisoners.. scary

So, all in all I absolutely loved London. The people were kind, the sights were incredible, and the language was English :) We were blessed with some amazing opportunities and took full advantage of the time we had there. I would love to go back someday, and take you all along! I think I'd make a pretty great tour guide now. I'll leave this post with some funny, classic photos from London. Next weekend we're off to Rome, and then Emily's parents arrive! We're in the home stretch now with just 7 weeks left in our Amsterdam Adventure. It's crazy to think how fast it's gone by, but I will be kissing US soil when we get home. Thanks for reading, Love from Amsterdam!