I had SUCH an amazing weekend!!!!! On Thursday I skipped my last class and went to London to see Christina!! I got there late because the bus I was taking said it would take 45 minutes to get to where I wanted to be, but it really took 1 hour and 45 minutes and then I had to take the metro but between construction and a transit authority giving me bad directions, I ended up getting there like 2 hours later, but I made it! AND I SAW CHRISTINA AND SPENT THE WHOLE WEEKEND WITH HER!!!!!!!! It was amazing!! The first night we went and got dinner and watched "who wants to be a millionaire" in German. We, of course, didn't understand it but one of the answers was Tellytubby land. lol. So we had dinner, talked and then went to bed.
Friday morning we got up, went and got coffee, and went walking through Hyde Park, saw Kensington Palace from a distance, went and saw this really cool statue in gold and stone but I don't remember the name, and then we went on a guided tour via Christina's travelbook and saw St. James's park, and got a little lost and ended up at the Stable Yard for the police where we asked for directions and the cop told us that we had a "truly dreadful, truly horrendous" map. haha. Then we wandered our way to Buckingham Palace where we thought someone famous was going to come out because there were guards everywhere and the Queen's flag was flying, but we think it was just the changing of the guard. It was cool, but it was also FREEZING cold and there were people everywhere, pushing, shoving, being rude, etc. But it was still fun to see!! Then we went on a walk through another park and had lunch and saw Parliament and Big Ben from afar. After that, we were tired and decided we wanted to go someplace warm so we wen tot Harrods and went shopping which was really fun. It's so easy to get lost in that store!! And then we wandered up and down Sloane Street (like the fashion street with all the designer stores) and then we headed back to our hotel, then headed back out towards Parliament and Big Ben so we could see those at night.
We ended up eating at a little Italian restaurant right off of Trafalgar Square that had hamburgers and other food. Except by hamburgers, it was like beef and pork and funny tasting but that's okay. So we tok pictures of all the cool things at night and then tried to hail a cab but failed because they drive backwards so we were on the wrong side of the street -- we ended up taking the metro back.
Saturday, we got up and took the metro to see Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and Trafalgar Square in the daylight which was cool. I took pictures at Westminster Abbey but not inside which, of course, was the coolest part. But we saw all these tombs and memorial stones for all these famous people -- the royals obviously, Sir Isaac Newton (da Vinci code anyone?), Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen just to name a few! It was pretty cool!! And it was amazingly beautiful, I wish I could've taken pictures on the inside! After Westminster, we went and looked a Parliament and Big Ben before we went to St. Paul's Cathedral because Christina wanted to see the Room of Whispers but it cost 10 pounds to enter and we only wanted tos ee one room and so we decided it wasn't worth it. But we took pictures outside, and then we walked to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, then to London Bridge and eventually to Tower Bridge. It was soooooo cold though! So on one side of the bridge we stopped and got tea, walked across the bridge and headed to Tower Hill. We got there before it closed, but we only had 30 minutes and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to explore everything so we got tickets for Sunday morning and then headed back to Trafalgar Square so we could see the National Gallery.
We weren't at the gallery for very long, but it was cool! We saw the painting that Christina wrote her final art history paper on - which happens to be a painting that we just studied in my art history class, so that was cool. We also saw the pencil sketch by da Vinci of the Madonna and Jesus on a saint's lap. Apparently it was supposed to be a sketch for a painting, but he left it as its own piece of art. We wandered around for a little bit and I saw some of the other paintings that we talked about abut in art history. Then both of us decided that our feet hurt so we got dinner and went back to the hotel.
Sunday morning we got a late start and we made our way to the Tower of London, which I really like! But, of course, you can't have a trip to London without rain, so as soon as we got off the metro, it was POURING rain. I had my really dinky umbrella, which helped a little, but for the most part we still ended up quite drenched. We saw the guards with the fuzzy hats, and the crown jewels and we were going to go see bloody tour but we thought we might not have time to go do other things before I had to go and catch my plane so we didn't end up seeing it. Afterwards, though, we went to Kings Cross station and Platform 9 and 3/4 and took pictures!
Then I had to leave to go to the airport. I had issues getting home -- which is a whole long story which I don't really feel like typing. But I had a FANTASTICALLY AMAZING TIME!!!!!!!!!!! :-D I miss you all, and I come home in about 3 weeks so I'll hopefully get to see you soon!!
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