Why hello from London! I'm blogging cause I have extra internet time and also a random hour free. Awesomesauce. The quote above is from our tour guide in the Tower of London, which was FREAKING AWESOME. But more on that later.
So our flight left at 8am on Thursday from the Cork Airport, meaning we needed to leave the apartments at like 5:30am. Yeah, fun fun. I finished my last of many essays at like 1am, then walked over to Katie and Rafa's. We had the great idea to stay up all night, which turned into staying up til 4am watching a weird movie with Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, and other stars then passing out for an hour. So yeah we were pretty tired. Made it to our hostel (Hyde Park Inn), where me, Katie, Rebecca, and Rafa are staying. (Dannie, Alyssa, and her bf Brian are down the street). We're in a 20 person co-ed room, which is a little strange, but also cheap so all is well. The guy at the front desk def doesn't really speak English really well, so most of the time we just smile and nod. But he's funny, and he got us all together in a room, so w/e. Free wifi and a giant tv make it rather awesome. And the shower is hot and drains well so I actually look forward to showering haha. We napped for a while, then Rafa, Rebecca, and I wandered around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, right by our hostel. It's so pretty! The Albert memorial thingy is huuuuuuuuge and all covered in gold and gorgeous. That's what I want when I die, obvs. We went to this Thai noodle place for dinner cause it was the cheapest (pounds are super expensive, and London just compounds the problem) and zomg prbs the best pad thai I've ever had. And I got Rafa to love the peking duck. An awesome first dinner here. Our street has 2 subway stops on it, and it's full of restaurants and such so we have a huge selection...this was such a great hostel to choose.
Friday we got up early, but very leisurely. We took our Original Bus tour around the city- it was great cause it was hop on/hop off and the buses came every 15 min. And there was a tour guide on all of them spouting off awesome facts. London is so old!!! It just strikes me when people mention that buildings were RE-built in like the 1400s, which is sooo long before the US existed. And it's strange cause there are all these modern buildings right next to St. Paul's Cathedral or something. Also there are so many palaces that I've heard about in history books, like St. James' Palace where King Henry VIII lived and now Prince William grew up, just standing in the middle of the city. This is one of the few places that appears exactly as I imagined it. It's a little surreal.
We hit most of the big sites, though we didn't go into them cause zomg so expensive, but the outsides were certainly impressive. I don't really wanna quote all the facts I learned haha but I swear they're fascinating. Even so I def don't remember them all lol...failblog. But we sawWestminster (where coronations and royal weddings are held), Buckingham Palace (where Queen Elizabeth II lives), Fleet Street (from Sweeney Todd- the guide pointed out where his barber shop was!!), and a million other awesome places. Dad, we saw the hotel where Peter Sellers (who played Inspector Clouseau) died. Westminster is prbs my one big regret, but I don't wanna spend £15 to see the inside of a church. I would rather, ya know, eat. However, I'm def springing for the Tower of London. It looks amazing and historical and huge, and I do love jewels haha. We took a ferry to Greenwich where we stood on the Prime Meridian. Aw yeah being in both time zones at once. Win. The ride back was warm and the rocking almost put us to sleep, so we decided to take a break and resume our exploration later (I mean, it was like 6pm). Rebecca and Dannie went to a Mozart concert while Katie, Rafa, and I went back to the hostel to eat and rest. Katie and I found this DELICIOUS fro yo which was buy one get one free with our student cards AND it was healthy cause I got strawberries on mine. It balances out the chocolate I've been craving.
So Katie, Rafa, and I tried to go find Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross but there's so much construction!! We seriously looked like everywhere I though but apparently we missed it, so we're gonna go back at some point. Quite disappointing. We saw Big Ben at night and the London Eye, and everything is so lit up in multiple colors which I approve muchly of. We finally found Alyssa and Brian again haha. He studied here a year ago so they'd been doing their own thing mostly. Kinda early night in (like midnight) since we decided to go see the Changing of the Guard on Saturday morning.
Well that's it for these two days, but more to come, def. We're not wasting a minute, and I could totally stay here longer. It's true what I've heard- London is amazing. I love it so much, and I don't usually like cities haha.
Slán go fóill!
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