The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”
-J.M Barrie, Peter PanKristin, Chelsea and I all flew in to London together on Thursday night. We were soaking in our free drinks and allowance of two carry-on bags we had on British Airways, since we've been flying discount airlines lately that charge you extra if you sneeze!
Mark and our best friend Lauren were waiting for us at the train station when we got in and it was a very happy reunion to say the least! Mark and I headed to his flat where I got to meet some of his roommates. One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was getting to see where Mark lives and meet all of his friends. That night we went to a 3-story pub with a live band playing some great Blink-182 hits. It was a great introduction to jolly old London.
We got up the next morning and headed to the main sight-seeing things. First we walked through Trafalgar Square, which Mark walks through everyday on his way to class! After that we saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. I just love seeing all of these iconic places that I've always heard about. And I was obviously loving standing outside Westminster just imagining how it looked when Pippa held Kate's dress on her wedding day.
Having a blast at Trafalgar Square
Lauren and I climbing lions and stuff
Had to do it
Saying a quick hello to the Queen!
After all the walking and the seeing of sights we had to take a break and get some food. Obviously we went to a cute little pub and ordered fish & chips which were AMAZING.
We spent the afternoon walking through Kensington Gardens. I really wish I could have been there when everything was in bloom because I imagine it would be beautiful. However, despite the weather we still had fun taking a stroll and saw some cool statues!
Peter Pan
The boy who would not grow up
This bronze, a gift of Sir James Barrie OM 1860-1937,
the creator of Peter Pan, was placed here
1st May 1912
The Peter Pan Statue was my favorite part of Kensington Gardens
Although we were frozen like popsicles after walking through the gardens we had to make one last stop that day - Abbey Road. My friend Kristin is the biggest Beatle's fan ever and if we didn't make it there I think she would've cried the whole way home. After walking in the wrong direction for a while (you'd think being in a country where everyone spoke English we'd be able to find our way around!) we made it to the famous Abbey Road crosswalk.
Residents of this area HATE tourists, because traffic is always getting stopped for people to pose for pictures. I'm proud to say that we were one of those tourists.
Got the picture!
Running after getting honked at
After stalling traffic Mark and I split up from the group to go get ready for our evening on the town. He bought us tickets to see Les Miserables in the West End! The West End is basically Europe's Broadway, and it's here where all the great theater happens.
To talk about how amazing the show was would be an entirely different blog post. We loved every minute of it, and I obviously cried about 5 times, so that's good. Seeing the show might have been my favorite thing I did while I was there!
The next morning we woke up and met up with the group at Tower Bridge. It looked so familiar, and I realized why once Lauren reminded me that it's the bridge the Olympic rings hung from this summer!
All the girls at Tower Bridge
We took a scenic walk down the bank of the river after that and stopped at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which was one of the things I was most excited to see while there! Mark and I took a tour of the inside which was really great.
This Globe is actually the third one. The original theater, which was built in Shakespeare's time, burned down during a performance when they tried using a cannon as a special effect. Not sure who's idea that was in an entirely wooden structure with a thatched roof. The second one was rebuilt a year later, but later destroyed by the Puritans who thought theater would lead to a life of corruption. The current Globe Theater is an exact replica and was built in 1997. It's made completely out of wood and was made entirely by hand, just as the original one. No modern tools or technology was used to build it!
View from the best seats in the theater!
Outside the Globe
We continued walking after that and crossed Millennium Bridge, which is destroyed by the Death Eaters in the final Harry Potter movie, so that was cool. We made our way to St. Paul's cathedral where I attempted to feed the birds but it wasn't going too well.
We then persuaded the boys to let us make a little shopping stop at Harrod's. It was an enormous department store and I was completely overwhelmed the entire time. We saw clothing by Alexander McQueen and Oscar de la Renta, and held Louboutin shoes! It was unreal trying to fathom how much everything we were looking was worth!
Then it was time to make a trip to Kings Cross station, because what trip to London would be complete without a little Harry Potter? We all took our picture at Platform 9 3/4 which was so fun :)
We didn't do much else that night because we had to wake up around 3 am to make to the airport for our 6:45 flight. Despite a few minor scares we all managed to make it there with time to spare!
Being in London was so much fun and it's the first place I really felt like I needed more time. There is so much to just walk around and look at there and I was trying to soak it all in while attempting to walk quickly to the next warm location. I would definitely like to go back some day and see not only more of London but of England in general!
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