London Baby!!

So my latest jaunt was  to London, England and I loved it! I definitely think London is one of my favorite cities I've ever been to. Here are some reasons..

1. The boys in London are by far the most good looking boys I've ever seen in my life. And I'm not just talking about every one in fifty, I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE. So that's obvious why I enjoyed walking around so much.

2. It has the fun city-ness of New York but such gorgeous buildings to go with it. It's the best of both worlds.

3. The tube (the subway) is the easiest thing ever to navigate. We never once got lost or confused.

4. I am fascinated by their accents, I think it may be my favorite accent. I was telling Colleen, even the trashiest people looked fancy just by the way they spoke.

5. The weather was beautiful, couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

6. It was so much fun to walk around on the week days and see everyone in their fancy suits, heels and bags. They all look like they stepped right out of a magazine.

7. The royal couple..enough said. It took all my might to not buy a mug with their wedding picture on it.

The one think I did not like..

The pound is almost double the American dollar..not cool!

So we flew into London on Friday morning and jumped right into our sight seeing.

We started at the Tower of London Bridge. It was so neat to see, I couldn't believe how beautiful a bridge could be. You should be ashamed Walt Whitman..

 This is the view from on the bridge!

This is the Tower of London, we did not go in because we were lacking money and time. 

 We also crossed the London Bridge, also extremely disappointing. Then we walked around for the rest of the day and found a fun outdoor food market and the Southwark Cathedral. We were pretty beat from traveling all day so we took it easy, had dinner at this Chinese noodle place, then headed back to the hostel to get to bed early.

The next day we got up bright and early to do some serious sight seeing. We began at Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. 

 This is a picture of the park that is right across the street from Buckingham Palace. It was so nice to see fall leaves, it made me feel a little at home.

These are the gates right before you cross the street to get to Buckingham Palace. Just breath taking. 

 Buckingham Palace.

 The Changing of the Guards. This was a very cramped and slow moving process but it was still extremely interesting. 

 Westminster Abbey, this picture can't even do this place justice! I wanted to go inside but they were about to close for the day and the line was extremely long. It's alright, I'll just do the tour next time I come to London. 

 The Big Ben!! We couldn't find it anywhere on our maps and were very confused then we were crossing the street to go to Westminster Abbey and I turned to Colleen and I was like, "Is that it?.." and we couldn't believe it! I didn't realize how intricately decorated that thing is.

 Such a beautiful view, you just don't see things like this back in the states.

 This was probably my favorite place in all of London, Kensington Gardens. We got sandwiches and soup for lunch and brought it here to eat. It is just so peaceful, yet full of life with all of the people hanging out. J.M. Barrie, the man who wrote Peter Pan would come here to relax and it's here that he began writing Peter Pan.

 The Peter Pan statue that was donated to this park. If you know me at all you know how deep my love for Peter Pan and the story of not growing up is. I think that is a big reason I loved this park so much.

 Later that night we headed back to the hostel a little bit earlier, with the intention of going out that night. I got on my lap top and did some homework while Colleen read and by the time we knew it, it was already 9:30pm. So we decided to just hang out at the hostel and get drinks. We still had a great time!

The next morning we got up and headed for the Globe Theatre. This was the thing I was looking forward to most on the trip but sadly, it wasn't as grand as I expected. The tour was 12 pounds and the guide took us into the audience, talked to us for about 20 minutes, let us walk around on the floor in front of the stage, then said goodbye. It was kind of a let down but there was a whole exhibit and everything inside so we got to see that which was nice. 

This is one of the theatre doors.

 They were re renovating the theatre since it is off season which compromised some of the beauty of the pictures.

 It still was so neat to be there though!

 This is the outside of the theatre.

 Colleen and I sat down to watch a clothing demonstration, thinking that they would be dressing one of the two assistants but instead they asked me if I would be the one to be dressed. I agreed obviously; they were using a costume that would have been used for Ophelia, from Hamlet.

 I think I may keep this look up, it's pretty sharp.

 Later that day we headed toward the National Gallery to see the Leonardo Da vinci exhibit, not realizing that exhibits could be sold out. So instead we just walked around the Gallery and saw other gorgeous pieces of work. This is the outside of the building.

 After the Gallery we headed to a carnival that was being held near Kensington Gardens and spent the night there, it was a good time. 

Overall I had a great weekend and I loved everything about London, minus running to my terminal Monday morning. We didn't leave ourselves with enough time to get to the airport and almost missed our plane. We made it just in time thank god. If the cost of living wasn't so high I could absolutely see myself moving to London!