Foggy London Town

Hola everyone! So last weekend I finally got to travel outside of Spain and I went to London, England! It was sooooo much fun! It is such a cool city. The flight over wasn't too bad but the passport checking people were really rude and mean. I later found out that they are supposed to be like that because they don't want any immigrants and they try to ask you dumb questions to get you to trip up. I didn't appreciate it and I just wanted my passport stamped. After we got out of that mess, we soon realized that every other person from London is really nice and very willing to help you get you wherever you're going. In order to get to the place we were staying, we had to take the Tube, which is the metro. My friend and I ended up running into a couple from Madrid that has a summer house in San Juan, which is 10 mins by bus from Alicante. Their English wasn't that good and we talked to them for awhile, and they were wondering if we could translate for them so that they could get an "Oyster Card" which is the Tube pass. We were able to translate and get them their Oyster cards! Casey and I couldn't believe that we actually were able to use our Spanish, because we were afraid that we would just speak English all weekend. After a Tube ride, we met up with Casey's cousin and we went our for a drink at a Pub. I tried a Strongbow which is like a Cider beer. I really liked it. We told her cousin about the passport people and she told us that they are always mean. She also told us that it is said that you always have 3 cameras on you in London. We were like ahhhh Big Brother!! She said that they just want a safe city. Crazy...After the pub, we went back to her dorm to get some sleep and great ready to start a brand new day in the city!

The next day, we got some breakfast at the Tube station and starting our site seeing tour. Right when we got out of the Tube, the first thing we saw was Big Ben, and we were like wooooowwwww. It was just so cool to finally be able to see it. We started walking because we wanted to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and everyone says to get there an hour early. We made it into Tralfagar Square where the National Gallery is. We asked for directions to the Palace and started the long walk. Once we got there, which was right when it was starting, we saw tons and tons of people. It was crazy. We decided that we wanted to get closer because we couldn't see anything from where we were. We were actually able to get up to one of the gates, and so we were able to get some pictures and a guy in front of us was taking a video of what was happening so I just watched it haha. It really wasn't anything that cool and sometimes it was hard to see or know what was going on. BUT, the guard band played "Singing in the Rain" so I was super pumped about that! We decided that we wanted to move on to other things, so we walked back to the square. We went into the National Gallery for a little bit and that was cool. Then we went to the London Eye, which is like a huge ferris wheel. It takes you up really high and you can see the whole city. That was really cool and I was able to take some good pictures. After the Eye, we went to the Westminster Abby. We had to pay to get in so we decided not too. A little later, 2 more of our friends arrived and we met up at the Tube station. We took the famous phone booth pictures and we were lucky enough to get ones with Big Ben in the background. For lunch, we got Fish and Chips, which is just a fried piece of fish and french fries. It was really good, and we all got pictures with it. Later that night, we went out on the town. Our first stop was at a pub, and of course, I got some Strongbow. Then we made our way to the Ice Bar. It was really cool because everything on the inside was made of ice, like the bar, the seats and the glasses! The drink I had was called the Reactor. It was delicious. After that, we went out to other bars and clubs to experience the night life in London.

The next day, we had a huge list of things we wanted to do. Our first stop was at Platform 9 3/4 which is from Harry Potter. We all got our pictures in front of it and I did a sweet jumping picture with it haha. After that, we got on a double decker bus and went to Camden Town. It was a weird and crazy place. All of the buildings of the shops were decorated with huge. Then we got back on the bus and went to Abbey Road to take the famous Beatles picture. We got some good ones and it was so cool. So many people were walking across with their friends on the other side taking pictures. We signed the wall that was in front of the Abbey House. I signed mine and I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn't come out too well, so hopefully my parents can fix it up so that it shows up. After that, we went to Saint Paul's Cathedral which was pretty cool. We were able to get in but we kinda had to hurry because a church service was going to be starting soon. Our next mission was to see the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. On our way we passed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and a sweet Pirate ship. Turns out, the London Bridge is pretty lame and the popular bridge is the Tower Bridge. We took tons of pictures and crossed the Millennium Bridge and the Tower Bridge, but not the London Bridge. Our last stop was the Tower of London, which was used as a prison back in the day. It was pretty cool. After all of our sight seeing, we went out again for one last night in London.

It was such a good trip and so much fun, because we saw so much in such a short amount of time. I definitely want to go back, and hopefully I can some day! My plans for this week are going to Valencia on Wednesday and then going to Switzerland on Thursday through Saturday. I'm really excited!! I hope everyone has a great Saint Patrick's Day! <3