London and other traveling adventures

So I am finally documenting my London trip! I went last weekend, from Thursday night until Monday morning because my morning class was canceled. I went with my roomate Adrianna and our friend Kari from the exchange program at ABS. We now know about taking the RER to the airport you need to buy an extra ticket.... ooops!



St. Paul's cathedrale

London was a really neat city but I unfortunately had some issues while I was there. For some reason I have been sick for the past week with what seems to be strep and going to London made it worse. Of course I wasn't going to just not go but I probably should have taken it easier than I did. My roomates friend lives in London and goes to the London School of Economics so luckily we were able to stay with here. Friday morning we woke up nice and early and walked around and saw some of the sights. We went to a really neat Modern Art museum called the Tate and it had some really cool/weird stuff. It was also so so nice to hear English all the time and not have to try so hard to communicate with everyone... it was a nice taste of home :) This is a picture on the bridge that was in the Harry Potter movie, in the very begininning where the Death eater tear it apart. It was awesome!! 

Buckingham Palace

After we went to the Museum we walked around London and saw St. Paul Cathedrale, and we ate at Convent Garden which so so beautiful. They had some great shopping, restaurants and really cool places to just grab a coffee. After that we took a short nap and went out to eat where I got an offical "fish and chips plate" it was sooo good and they served it with a British favorite of mushy peas..... not my idea of cuisine haha. But they have so many awesome British pubs and everyone starts drinking at about 4 pm. Later that night we went out to this really awesome club that Adrianna's friend got us the hookup because it is really hard to get in. It was fun but I felt really sick so I left to come home early, and I also had some really strong feelings of homesickness. Not sure why since everyone spoke English but I felt really out of my element not knowing anything :(  I think it was just a combination between being sick and hitting the 3 week mark which is notorious for homesickness. But I was surprised with how clean and nice London was..... There was not as many homeless people nor trash/graffiti as Paris. Even though Paris is a beautiful city, there are still some major not so nice parts but London was really clean.



Big Ben



 After going out Friday night I went sightseeing on Saturday. I saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palance, Hyde Park and some other cool tourist attractions.Buckingham Palance wasn't as big as I thought it would be actually but it was still really awesome to see! It was was really cool to see all of the London tourist attractions because it is something that I have heard about my whole life in movies and in school. There was also a rally going on about the Arab world's revolution that is going on right now. I know that it is a big deal everywhere, but it is especially huge in Europe because there are so many "Maghrebs" North American Muslims that live here. There were important speakers, people waving flags and banners and so many people that it was pretty cool to watch for a bit. London is a huge city... unfortunately it is the most expensive city in Europe.  

Horse Calvary

I thought Paris was bad! I also saw the horse calvary museum which had guard on horses stationed at front, the ones that aren't allowed to move. It was interesting seeing people mess with the guards and the horses, that would sometimes have some attitude! Later that day I finally met back up with Kari, Ali and Adrianna after getting in a disagreement but I think things are a little better now. We went to this delicious Italian restaurant in Chinatown London, which actually was really neat. They had tons of decorations and Asian restaurants, shops and bars. Really random place to have an Italian restaurant but it worked. The other girls went out for the night while I stayed in and caught up on some sleep because I was feeling pretty sick.


Sunday morning we slept in a little bit and then we went to the Springfield Market? Think that is the name haha. It is this huge flea market with food, drinks, clothing, shoes, souvenirs, everything you can think of is here. I got a really cool souvenir "Keep Calm and Carry On" Quote book, and 2 dresses for 10 pounds, thats about 16 dollars! I also got a little present for my mom and dad. For lunch I got what is called a "jacket potato" which is a baked potato with all sorts of different things on it. I got a baked potato with chicken, pesto, artichokes and brie.... it was amazing!

After the market we went back and got dressed up for afternoon tea. I'm not a tea person normally but it was all about the experience. We each ordered our own tea (came with our own teapot) and we got delicious finger sandwichs and scones, and then followed our tea up with desert. I got a lemon mint tea that was really cool... Adrianna got a rose tea that was filled with actual roses! We also started off with a glass of really champagne fixed with berries as well. The name of the tea place was called "The Rose Room" and it was really nice and elegant, even had a harpist playing! The price tag was a little hefty but I feel like it is a must do in London.

Monday morning we had to leave really early..... left Ali's flat at 4:50 unfortunately. But over all, other than some issues I had it was a good trip and I really liked London!