The one with Winning London

Our Semana Santa trip (Holy Week) started on Wednesday night after school.  I gathered all my last minute things, and we headed off to catch the bus to Sevilla.  We took the shuttle to the airport as usual, listening in on some spring-breakers who were clearly studying abroad in Spain.  It is interesting and funny to see all the different people who come to Spain.  Our flight went off without a hitch and got into London around 12 AM.  By the time we got through customs and bought bus tickets to Victoria, it was nearly 1 AM. London Stansted Airport is way the heck outside of London, so it was almost 3 in the morning before we finally nestled into our hostel beds.

Thursday we began our morning with the typical hostel breakfast, toast with Nutella!  Yum :) Because we had such a late night, we slept in decided that the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace would be the first site to see.  It was already packed with people by the time we arrived, and I can only imagine how busy it would be in the summer months when tourism really picks up.  The flag was up, meaning the queen was at home.  We know that she really was 'in' because several ambassadors arrived by horse and carriage to be sworn in; it was all rather exciting!

By the time we moved on, we were quite cold from standing still so long, but we soldiered on.  We headed over to the River Thames to check out Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the Eye of London (the GIANT ferris wheel), basically the obligatory sites in the area.  It was neat to see them up close and in person, but I have to say that my world was not shattered or anything.  We elected to not go up on the Eye of London because it is expensive and we hate the pound! I probably can not say that enough.  It was bad enough when we got to Spain and our $$ were not worth as much, but now we've got Euros, and when you are once again getting destroyed by the exchange rate, it really isn't fun.  So we had a goal on minimizing spending in London. That is also why we only spent two days there...

Anyways, next we hopped on the Tube to head towards Piccadilly Circus.  I don't want to sound like I am whining, because I really did like London a lot, but compared to Times Square, it was just a couple big TVs with advertisements.  Furthermore, we were getting hungry, so when we saw someone carrying Wok to Walk take-away, we spent a good half hour walking the streets trying to find the restaurant.  We weren't successful, but we weren't too torn up about it.  We walked to Trafalgar Square to check it out, and from there we caught the Tube back to Victoria station to get some food there.   We were walking to the food court when it caught my eye...there it was, a burrito restaurant (golden halo, angels singing!).  We have been missing Mexican food, despite our weekly fajita night, so a burrito was definitely on the menu.

After lunch we took the Tube out to Abbey Road to get the required picture of us crossing the street in the same place as the Beatle's cover.  It is actually hilarious and worth going to watch other people do it.  There isn't a stop light or anything, no sign for pedestrians to go, so the cars have to stop for you, but tourists are all standing there milling about for a chance to get their picture taken crossing the street.  Everyone wants their "own" picture, so it is all about timing and such.  Funny.  I got my picture, and we headed to King's Cross to see about train tickets for the following day.  We thought about crossing over and trying to go to Hogwarts at platform 9 and 3/4 but it looked broken, so we just got our tickets and headed back to the hotel.  With some research, I found a delicious fish and chips place, Seafresh.  We got take-away and ate it back at the hostel, complete with salt and vinegar.

Look I can cross the street!

Friday we only had the morning before we needed to pick up our luggage and head back to King's Cross, so we got up relatively early to grab breakfast and head out.  First on the agenda was the Tower of London. I would like to say that it is not a tower. We came up from the Underground, and I literally asked Marissa where it was because I couldn't see it.  It is a castle or maybe a palace, and it has towers, but it is not a tower.  Liars.  Next time I will have to go inside, because it actually looked pretty cool, but we were short on time and funds.  So instead we checked out the Tower Bridge.

Last thing on the list for London was the Natural History Museum.  Ok, I know, we could have chosen from all these great art galleries or museums about the history of London or England, but you know, I love the Natural History Museum.  And this was my (our) trip, so we went to the Natural History Museum. And let me tell you, the dinosaur exhibit was particularly awesome and brought back the strong desires I have had all year to watch Jurassic Park.  And if you are study geology, I highly suggest their rocks and mineral exhibit, because you could easily spend a day there alone, if you are super into that thing.  Then it was adios London, until next time!