Day Two- The Classics

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First and Foremost- a list of things I’ve noticed about London so far:
1. there are a LOT of adorable ice cream trucks everywhere
2. There are a LOT of Americans
3. Everyone reads the paper on the commute home, literally everyone
4. If you call the Eye a “Ferris wheel”, you will get many many dirty looks

Had a bit of a sleep in this morning after a jet-lagged night. Trude and I were both awake from about 2:30-4:30am, time we put to good use planning the day to come. Trudi’s sister Bec and her boyfriend Taylor arrived yesterday as well, and we all headed off to the city at around 10am. We split up once we got there and decided to regroup at the London Eye at 1pm for lunch.

We left the tube station and found ourselves in the middle of a bustling, loud street. Trude and I realised once again that all we had as a map of the city was a small, area specific map I had picked up at the airport (which, by the way, did not include a map of Highgate, which is why we didn’t use it yesterday). We used street signs to make our way to Leicester Square, which in itself was a little underwhelming, but we found the M&M’s World store which was an awesome first monument to visit in London!! I never realised I needed so much M&M’s merchandise until today.

After the M&M’s World (and after I took a very subtle picture of policemen wearing those hilarious helmet-hat things), we went into Extreme Tourist Mode, holding the map out in front of us as we made our way to Trafalgar Square. (Side note- I’m sure most people reading this will be aware of Max’s Monopoly addiction, an addiction that has reeled me in and made me very, very conscious of all the Monopoly properties in London. Due to this I’ve made it my personal mission to visit and take a photo with as many Monopoly properties as possible during my stay. It’s going well).

Anyways, Trafalgar Square was absolutely beautiful, and it was such a hot day even the dirty-teal colour of the water in the fountain looked like a dream. By the time we’d finished taking photos it was almost 12, so T and I decided to mosey over to Southbank to wait at the London Eye for Bec and Taylor. We found an adorable Frozen Yoghurt Bus on the way (I think the owners literally bought a double decker bus, painted it pink, and turned it into a fro-yo shop). We got some fro-yo (vanilla with strawberries and mango), and found ourselves right next to the Carousel along the Thames. So naturally, after ingesting quite a lot of dairy, T and I just had to have a go on the carousel (it was £2.50, I’m convincing myself it was a worthwhile spend and refusing to check how much it came to in AUD).

For lunch we went to Wahaca, a Mexican restaurant that we later found out had recently closed all their London stores (and then obviously reopened some) due to a few pesky E.coli scandals.
After lunch T and I had a long look at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (even though both are absolutely draped in scaffolding). Afterwards we headed to Buckingham Palace, where we waited for quite a while JUST in case the Queen had to run an errand and came outside.

We then wanted to go to Churchill’s War Rooms, but when we got there the line was massive and a guide told us it might be closed by the time we got to the ticket office. We were disappointed at first but then he told us that tickets are actually cheaper if we book online anyway so it’s been added to the list!

By that time it was 4:30pm so we decided to head home. Played many many games of Uno with Trudi’s cousins and had a lovely dinner outside, in the sun, til 10pm.

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Comments

[Am I bovered]

Classic
Your mum passed on some photos and all I can say is that you’re a classic !! Looking very cool.