It was the first long weekend of the semester and we decided to knock out London (and apparently the use of our feet for the next week or so) on our list of "must sees". To say it was a LONG weekend would definitely be accurate...lets just begin on Friday when we realized on the ride to the airport that Alex may not be making it to London with us...
As we all know, I have been the weirdo itinerary bound planner for all of our shenanigans. I took everyones cards and booked the London passes (which are highly recommended for anyone spending a few days there), hotel and pub crawl. Since Alex happened to be in the room I thought it would totally be fine to have her book her own flight...come to find out she not only booked the wrong flight TO London (6:30 am instead of 8:00 pm..?) but she also booked the wrong flight back to Germany. Our families should probably just be happy that we didn't strangle each other arguing about this. We ended up somehow getting her on the flight with us to the city but going back we had to leave for the airport at 3:50 am and as she got to her flight (after going to the wrong gate and getting driven by security so she wouldn't miss it) the rest of us sprawled in the airport waiting area for 5 hours. Good thing people watching is prime in airports eh?
Other than this minor (kinda not minor) mix up, the trip as a whole was great! We were able to see as much as we could in two days including the: Tower of London, Tower Bridge (we went to the top!?!), Globe Theatre, Trafalgar's Square, Covington Garden, London Bridge and tombs, Benjamin Franklin's house, Big Ben, Abbey Road, Westminster Abbey, St. John's Park, Buckingham Palace, Platform 9 3/4, Kensington Palace and gardens (*hot makeout spot...see below), and of course the London Eye. There is clearly a reason for our feet feeling like they are currently falling off but it was all totally worth it. It was amazing to actually be part of the history we have learned about our whole lives. Alex kept laughing at me for getting teary eyed when I'd realize all the people who had walked on the same places we were walking on at the time...like I said it was a long weekend. We also managed to go on a pub/dance club crawl Saturday night where we met people from all over the world! Definitely an interesting time.
As for the last necessary story of the trip, we must talk about the London bridge experience. It was the last thing we were doing before everything was closed and of course we had no idea how to get there so we were literally running around London back and forth for a solid 25 minutes because Hailey "swore she saw it" (we promised not to hold it against her). Anyway, we really didn't know what to expect but as soon as we got in we realized someone in our group was leaving with some pee in their pants. Granted, we did learn a lot about the bridge (it's pretty morbid if you don't know) but the whole underground tombs deal was not really our cup of tea. We made it through though and since we were all drenched in sweat we figured that it was totally acceptable to stay in public. The next move was clearly to get fish and chips (and diet coke).
We totally enjoyed our time but we realized it's not really the place for a bunch of broke college kids...or people who don't enjoy excessive amounts of PDA (*Kensington palace was a hot spot..yummm). As we lay with our feet in the air and our 5 am alarms set we are more than grateful for our experience and ready for more to come!
As we all know, I have been the weirdo itinerary bound planner for all of our shenanigans. I took everyones cards and booked the London passes (which are highly recommended for anyone spending a few days there), hotel and pub crawl. Since Alex happened to be in the room I thought it would totally be fine to have her book her own flight...come to find out she not only booked the wrong flight TO London (6:30 am instead of 8:00 pm..?) but she also booked the wrong flight back to Germany. Our families should probably just be happy that we didn't strangle each other arguing about this. We ended up somehow getting her on the flight with us to the city but going back we had to leave for the airport at 3:50 am and as she got to her flight (after going to the wrong gate and getting driven by security so she wouldn't miss it) the rest of us sprawled in the airport waiting area for 5 hours. Good thing people watching is prime in airports eh?
Other than this minor (kinda not minor) mix up, the trip as a whole was great! We were able to see as much as we could in two days including the: Tower of London, Tower Bridge (we went to the top!?!), Globe Theatre, Trafalgar's Square, Covington Garden, London Bridge and tombs, Benjamin Franklin's house, Big Ben, Abbey Road, Westminster Abbey, St. John's Park, Buckingham Palace, Platform 9 3/4, Kensington Palace and gardens (*hot makeout spot...see below), and of course the London Eye. There is clearly a reason for our feet feeling like they are currently falling off but it was all totally worth it. It was amazing to actually be part of the history we have learned about our whole lives. Alex kept laughing at me for getting teary eyed when I'd realize all the people who had walked on the same places we were walking on at the time...like I said it was a long weekend. We also managed to go on a pub/dance club crawl Saturday night where we met people from all over the world! Definitely an interesting time.
As for the last necessary story of the trip, we must talk about the London bridge experience. It was the last thing we were doing before everything was closed and of course we had no idea how to get there so we were literally running around London back and forth for a solid 25 minutes because Hailey "swore she saw it" (we promised not to hold it against her). Anyway, we really didn't know what to expect but as soon as we got in we realized someone in our group was leaving with some pee in their pants. Granted, we did learn a lot about the bridge (it's pretty morbid if you don't know) but the whole underground tombs deal was not really our cup of tea. We made it through though and since we were all drenched in sweat we figured that it was totally acceptable to stay in public. The next move was clearly to get fish and chips (and diet coke).
We totally enjoyed our time but we realized it's not really the place for a bunch of broke college kids...or people who don't enjoy excessive amounts of PDA (*Kensington palace was a hot spot..yummm). As we lay with our feet in the air and our 5 am alarms set we are more than grateful for our experience and ready for more to come!
RSS Feed