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Published: November 4th 2009
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So I just returned from an incredible weekend in London, and I’m already ready to go back! Not only did I get to spend an entire weekend surrounded by badass British accents, but I got to actually understand what they were saying (a real luxury I’ve learned to treasure in the past month!) We also got to enjoy some American favorites…beer (we were getting a little wined out in Italy), Diet Coke (no more Coca Cola Light!!) Starbucks (enough said!) and fried food (yay grease!)
So we arrived in London on Thursday evening and we easily found our hostel which was pretty much the best hostel ever! It was in this old Victorian house that was absolutely gorgeous, and it was hopping! We met so many people from all over the world and hung out in the common room making new friends and watching scary movies (nothing beats that on Halloween weekend!) We hit up a pub for the first night and got some delicious cherry beer that came highly recommended (thanks Nat!)
The next morning we headed off to the British Museum, which I’ve only wanted to see since forever! Well, kind of just since I saw “The
Mummy” and pretty much loved it! The Egypt exhibit was sweet and mummylicious! E and I hit up the Ancient Greece exhibit and relived our Greek Art over again- black and red figure amphora’s galore…Dr. Parrish would be so proud! We got booted out of the museum by the fire alarm (Elyse and I were shopping in the gift shop and had to get told to leave by an employee...oops! it was a very low key alarm!) After the museum we headed over to get some looks at Parliament (lots of guards with BIG guns) and Westminster Abbey, which were both gorgeous! We grabbed some lunch at a local pub and had our first fish ‘n chips in England, complete with mushy peas (YUM!) After lunch we grabbed some Starbucks- Halleluiah for London! We were seriously deprived….a chai tea latte has never tasted better! We walked around the Thames river for a bit and then split up so half the group could go do more sightseeing while E and I hit up the Tate Modern where we saw some amazing modern art by masters such as Picasso, Derain, Pollock and Kandinsky (Elyse was excited, she hadn’t seen a Kandinsky yet
in Europe!) Afterwards, we hurried back to the hostel so we could get ready for our sweet Blood and Tears Walk tour….a night tour of the “dark” side of London! Our guide was great and we wandered around the dark alleys learning all about the ghosts and murders of London, including Jack the Ripper and Sweeny Todd (Fleet Street!) After the tour we went to a Thai restaurant that we heard was delicious and I got my favorite thing ever- Thai curry!! Another reason why I love London- tons of Thai and Indian restaurants! The night ended with a drink at a pub, naturally! When we got back to the hostel the night activity guy that works for the hostel, Tamer (aka our new best friend), was putting in Friday the 13th, so a bunch of us chilled in the lobby and scary-movied it. Another great day in London!
On Saturday (Happy Halloween!), Elyse and I decided to sleep in to prepare for the awesomeness that was going to be Halloween in London! We did a little shopping in the late morning and then Shannon, Lizzie and I headed off to the theater to see WICKED!!! This was definitely
a highlight of my trip…we had 16th row on the ground floor and the British accents made everything so much better! None of us had ever seen it or knew anything about what everyone pretty much considers “the best musical ever!”, so we were excited! So now I’m pretty much jamming to the soundtrack 24/7.
After WICKED we met Elyse and Sara back at the hostel to get ready for that night. We were all rocking our sweet Venetian Carnivale masks and were looking pretty good doing it! We totally had the best costumes! Our original plan was to grab a quick drink at the hostel and then head out for some Halloween pub crawling, but a quick drink turned into dinner, which turned into after dinner drinks with tons of new friends which evolved into a bunch of us hanging in the hostel bar all night. It was the perfect amount of people and we met people from all over the world- Australia, Germany, France, and even some fellow Americans! Tamer had told us all that at midnight he was going to take everyone who wanted to out a club, so we basically hung out in this bar
for 5 hours drinking the Halloween drink specials and lots of delicious hard cider until midnight! At midnight we piled into 4 mega size taxis and headed to the club with our passé, only to find that being at the hostel was just as fun! We danced and hung out a while and then made our way back to our hostel in the wee hours of the morning, all together a GREAT Halloween!
So it is pretty much the most understated statement ever but, London was incredible! I absolutely loved it and miss it already! There is so much to see and I feel like I only got a snipit of the greatness that is London Our first hostel experience was amazing and I loved just being able to meet so many people from all around the world!
This weekend is a new country-Germany! The land of my ancestors! Stay tuned!!
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Mom
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I wanna go to London!!!
Do you remember how Uncle Tony's bird, Stinker, likes to say, "I wanna go to Hawaii"?.........well, I wanna go to London!! What a wonderful blog, Steph. It looks like you and Elyse were once again in museum heaven! Loved looking at all your pix, as usual. Your Carnivale masks were so cute! I really loved the music from Wicked, too. We'll have to get the CD. Is there one? Love, Mom