A little over a week ago, I boarded a plane at the deserted Shannon Airport to head to London. I was extremely excited about the trip because it was the first place that I would be travelling to outside of Ireland and because I had plans to see Luke who I had not seen in over five months!!
While waiting in the airport, a good 50 to 60 United States Army men and women walked into the waiting area. They were all dressed in their uniforms and we all wondered where they were headed. Were they headed home to be with their loved ones? Were they off to a base camp in another European country? Or were they heading East? Turns out it was the latter of the three. It was crazy seeing all of them in the little Shannon Airport heading to the Middle East and I wanted to hug each and every one of them and thank them for serving our wonderful country.
After getting off the tube in what looked like Chinatown, Sara, Mandy and I walked the streets trying to find our hostel. I ended up asking a cute British fellow for directions and he promptly took out his iPhone and gave us turn by turn directions to the Hyde Park Hostel.
The Hyde Park Hostel: 9EURO a night and you pay for what you get. The three got our sheets from the reception desk and trudged up the four flights of stairs to the third floor(makes complete sense, right?). After settling in (as much as we could) we headed out for a bite to eat. We were all starving from our travels and ordered far too much food that the server/bartender had to ask if we wanted a bigger table. Mandy even almost cut a guys arm off when he tried to take her plate before she was finished, we were THAT hungry. After dinner, we wandered the streets of 'Chinatown' a little bit before heading back to the hostel to get a good nights sleep before our long day of touring.
On Friday morning, we woke up extremely early (really it was 8AM, but that is extremely early for my standards right now) and heading out into the city. The first place we hit was Parliament and Big Ben. There aren't words to describe the architecture of this building or the size of the building. Pictures don't really do it justice either. I always remember seeing it in movies and thinking, 'Oh, that looks cool.' But in real life, when you are standing just feet away, it is breathtaking. The whole area that it is in is just wonderful. The London Eye is directly diagonal from Parliament and the Thames River flows directly in front of both. There are multiple bridges along the river and all of them have different architecture and they are all beautiful in their own way. We then walked towards Westminister Abbey and although we didnt want to pay the 16£ entrance fee(which is around 30$) we got to take pictures outside of it. Buckingham Palace was our next stop. All that I really wanted to do was take pictures with the guards in the fluffy hats and I couldn't wait to get to the Palace! We got there and were disappointed. There were no guards in fluffy hats!! I thought, 'Is that a rumor? No...it couldn't be. People take pictures with them all of the time.' So after being sad for awhile, we took pictures of the normal-hatted guards and of the Palace and we were on our way. We grabbed lunch at a cute cafe and then we headed for Notting Hill.
Notting Hill was my favorite part about London. It wasn't very touristy and it was beautiful. It had so many cute shops, houses, dive bars and a market in the street that sold whatever your heart desired from used books to homemade cheese to knock off designer clothes. I loved it, loved it, loved it and I would love to go back and spend more time in the area.
Later that night, we met up with Mandy's friend, Allison, who is studying in London for the semester. We met all of her flatmates (who all go to Temple) and then we headed out for the night. Allison's friend suggested that we go to Club Koko because they had to live bands and it was only 5£ to get in. It turned out to be an amazingly fun night and the two bands were awesome. Young the Giant was the first band to play and they are supposed to be the next big thing. The Shoes played next and they were awesome!! The crowd was a mix of hipsters, clubbers, foreigners, locals, basically just a mix of the most random people ever. The club had a great vibe and I loved every second of it.
The next morning, we did a few more touristy things before I got on the train to Norwich. Platform 9 3/4 was a huge disappointment. Kings Cross Station is under construction right now and although they still had the platform, it was not real. Now I know what you're thinking...Harry Potter is not real and neither is Platform 9 3/4. But what I mean is that the actual wall was not real. They usually have the luggage cart going into an actual brick wall, but now it is a plastic wannabe brick wall. So sad. We also went to Abbey Road and saw the Abbey Road Studios...so cool!!
After grabbing a bite to eat, I seperated from the group and got on the tube to Liverpool Street Station to start my journey to Norwich...
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