good ol' London

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We took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station where we met up with Courtney Landi, one of my old field hockey teammates from Bryant. On the way looking out the window I felt like I was traveling through streets of Harry Potter. The houses looked just like its aunt and uncles! Thirty minutes later we were safe with our tour guide Landi! We went to her flat in Waterloo, which is a basically a dorm. Court has her own room with bathroom and shower, a cute little desk, and her bed in the corner with pictures of all her friends and of course me on the wall! Her flat is a college campus. There's security guards at a desk 24/7... the elevators talk to you... doors closing, seventh floor, doors closing. I guess they just like to hear their accents? I had my first experience with fish and chips and a cider beer!

My first day in London… basically saw EVERYTHING! We started off at the London Eye, on to Big Ben, Parliament, the Summer House, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus (shopping), the Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe theater, a modern museum, Buckingham Palace, and Abbey Road. Woooeeee. Court took me to this fast food sandwich chain called Pret that is amazing! They’re freshly made sandwiches, wraps, soups made every day. I got a jalapeno chicken wrap. That night I met Court’s friends from London. We went to her school pub which was actually pretty cool.. it’s a place where students from King’s College and can and hang out, get food, and drinks. We played this game shoulders… pretty hard to explain without visualizing it.. but basically you go around in a circle and make up different rules for different numbers and try to get to 21. After that we went to a karoke place but I was fading… I was beat so Court and I left.

Tuesday in London… Court and I went Covent Market which reminded me of Quincy Market Place… there’s all these little shops and live performers. We ventured out to Hyde Park, it was beautiful outside! We soaked up some rays and people watched. The most entertaining were two dogs… a poodle versus a hotdog dog… the hotdog dog couldn’t move very fast and would flip over. We tacos that night and later cookies and stayed in and watched a throw back, Winning London with MaryKate and Ashley.

Wednesday I took a picture next to Parliament, got even closer and found our way back to Hyde Park. This time we brought bagged lunches from Pret, I got an avocado and chicken sandwich on multigrain bread and looked for Peter Pan! He was hard to find in the park… we walked by “Speakers Corner” but apparently no one had anything to say that day… walked around the outskirts of Hyde Park and finally found the statue of Peter Pan who we sat and ate our lunch with. Then we went to the department store called Harrads. It was HUGE! All these designers… I picked up a t-shirt… plain, white, nothing special…. 92 pounds! That’s over a $100 for a t-shirt… you can only imagine how much the JimmyChoos and handbags cost! In Harrads there’s also food markets, chocolate store, Krispy Kreme, Pizza, Gelato… you name it they got it. They even have a place to get your dog groomed… there was a little westie in the window, it reminding me of Ally <3  That night I made chicken Florentine and we relaxed again.

Thursday we didn’t do much either just walked around the city. Got a late start, Court made me French toast! We went window shopping but didn’t get anything. Nothing to exciting that day. Some of the days are blurring a bit together… we might have done more but I may have just wrote about it in a previous day… whoops!

Friday we met up with Kat! We went to Platform 9 and ¾ and tried running into the wall to Hogwarts. After that we bopped around the city, saw some more sites, went to Covent Market again and listened to this guy who played guitar and song some of Londish songs… “Here comes the sun” reminds me of London. We split pizza from Pizza Express… this is when my Italy withdraws hit me… I don’t think I will ever find pizza as good as my spot in Firenze… the pizza could not even come close to comparing! To make up for it we went to a multiple story pub called O’Neil’s that night. It was fun, two gay guys bought me a drink, and they were hilarious. I loved picking up on the London sayings like “that’s rubbish” or “I don’t fancy that.” We walked back and saw Big Ben and Parliament lit up at night. It was really pretty.

Saturday morning…. Slept in. Woke up to a call from my mom asking me if I was in a safe location… apparently the news back home showed tear gas and thousands of protesters. We didn’t do anything that day but you could hear the sirens and helicopters busy around the city. Made French Toast for brunch and were lazy all day. We went out for Chinese food that night at a place called “Culture.” The waitress seemed to be in a rush, the food came out really fast. I got chicken chow mein and wonton soup. The soup was great, chow mein… eh not bad. That night we joined Court’s friend Pat for a cider at a pub called White Horse and called it a night.

Sunday we went to the Tower of London where hundreds were executed. It’s the site where they sliced off traitors heads and paraded them on the London Bridge. We got to see the Crown Jewels, the White Tower which was present in the medieval period, the Bloody Tower where prisoners were kept and tortured. Our tour guide was humorous. Did you know that there are 20 towers? 6 outside, 13 on the inner wall and the White Tower in the middle of all the towers. We got Ben and Jerry’s after! Haven’t had real ice cream since January, I had Chunky Monkey and Fairly Nuts. Yummm. I got fish and chips again that night but it wasn’t as good as the first night but what can ya do!

Monday woke up and I was off to Firenze… should have gave myself more time considering I almost missed my flight! It began with going to the North Terminal to find British Airways… Meridan Fly who’s a sub of BA wasn’t there… had to take the shuttle to the South Terminal to wait in line for an hour to check in, run through security, right on to my plane. I finally made it! And the check in guy hooked me up, I had 3 seats all to myself! Before I knew it I was back in Firenze, went straight down from Mimmo’s for my favorite pesto and bread. Great ending to an amazing trip!

Fun sayings:
"Your mind is rubbish" use while at a bar
"Mind the Gap" getting off the subway
"Fancy ......" when you really like something or you don't fancy it!
"Give me a ding" Call me

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