Wow London! I am delightfully surprised :)

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Before starting with my wonderful time in London I have to mention my flight from h*l*!! Having no problems mentioning the airline, Virgin Atlantic, I want to make sure all those who are looking into their flights to Austria think twice about booking a flight with them. First the entertainment system was broken for half of the flight!!! I know it’s not really their fault but come on, who brings stuff to do on an international flight when the movies airlines offer are so good?!?!?! Then during the last ¼ the plumbing broke. Ya. Now that’s a serious problem! Finally when being to land something was going on with the runway (I know not really their fault) but we were forced to circle above the airport for 45 minutes – with no toilets – until the problem was fixed. So moral of the story, don’t take Virgin Atlantic to Austria, except if you are going first class then you have your own bar which would totally make up for all these other problems!

Well I was in London for just 2 and ½ days and I fell in love! It might have something to do with the fact that my umbrella was never needed, so I never got a touch of the typical London weather (thank god). I love everything London has to offer, it has so many cultures, historical sites, and places of interest – much like NY, however without the dirt and the people are much nicer 

In just two days in London I was able to make a big dent in the “Things to Do in London List.” I saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham, St. James Park, Oxford Street (shopping!), Westminster Abby, the Houses of Parliament, etc. I also got the chance to see the Crown Jewels  They are beautiful, obviously. When you see them you are on a moving walkway for security reasons, so you only get a glimpse of them for a couple seconds. But when some of the crowns in there had individual stones that were hundreds of carats each, you can understand why. For lunch I went down to the Waterloo area and found an amazing outdoor market which offered food from all around the world. I had the most delicious Moroccan chicken in a warm pita, that unfortunately was so good and juicy it spilled all over my pants… lol. While at Parliament some special event was going on with English paparazzi and everything. I got to see the crazy English hats up close, wow they are big, lol. And man I wish we had that tradition in America. Didn’t get any members of the royal family unfortunately, which was my one goal while I was in London.

On the second day I toured Hampton Court which was the home to King Henry the VIII (known for his many wives, 2 of which he beheaded). After being obsessed with the Tudors I was very excited to see this place and it was by far one of the best castles I have seen to date. King William and Queen Mary lived here later and changed parts of the castle out of the Tudor style so literally 3/4s of the caste is Tudor and ¼ is another style (similar to Versailles). The difference is very noticeable from the outside as well as the inside. The castle has acres and acres of gardens which were almost more impressive then the castle itself! The most popular item in one of the gardens is the great vine. It was planted by Queen Victoria and it is a grape vine whose vines actually grow inside of a green house, but the base of the vine is in the ground about 10 feet away, and the root system for the vine covers an area that measures about 15 ft by 20 feet. All you see if soil, nothing else is allowed to grow there because they don’t want it competing with the vines. The vines are so big it actually is in the Guinness book of world records. It took almost a whole day to explore King’s Henry’s apartments, and learn about his wives (there were 6!). I even caught a glimpse of King Henry VIII himself! Well an actor but still after knowing Henry’s reputation it is crazy to think women would be attracted to him, or maybe they were after other things, haha. Next we went through William and Mary’s apartments and Mary’s especially were very ornate. The kitchens were big and they even had a fire going where they used to roast all the meat, the workers would have to turn their body weight in meat for hours next to this hot fire. They also served the best food at the castle, I had a traditional British meat pie, which was shaped like a huge muffin and was filled with gravy and beef  yumm.

That night my gracious hosts took me to a local pub so I could try a variation of a “snake bite.” Instead of cider which is typically used, I had a lager with black current juice. It obviously made the beer sweeter and delicious. I also got a taste of some of the more obscene locals, I thought all of the English were polite and delicate but now I know differently. Such an example would be farting very loudly and then blaming it on the dog.

But in all I loved London, I wish I had not of teased myself by only spending 2 days here, but it was better than nothing. Thank you to Emma (who I met during my Australia travels last year) for letting me stay and driving me to the train!! Let me repay you in California 

Now on to Milan!!

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