Friday, February 18th, 2011
My trip (return trip to London) was a blast and I enjoyed every minute of it. On Friday, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to see the sites of London, which even though I had seen before was still very fun.
On the way to the metro, we stopped at a Starbucks which are conveniently placed 5 minutes apart from one another in London. After we went to Starbucks, we headed over to see Big Ben, the London Eye, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. After we saw the main sites, we walked over to Buckingham Palace. Sadly, we were not able to see Liz....
Once we finished with Buckingham Palace, we continued with our tour of London by going to see the London Bridge, which I learned is actually not the bridge that you think it is. London Bridge is actually just a plain old bridge (except for the fact that it is the oldest in London). The bridge that everyone thinks of, which is the bridge in the back of this picture is the Tower Bridge. On our way to see the Tower Bridge, we stopped at a Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts, which were very, very good!
It was beginning to get later into the day, and we were planning on eating an early dinner so that we could go see a play in the West End (which is the Broadway of London). We went to see Trafalgar Square along with Leicester Square (both just big famous squares) and then we headed back to our hotel. On the way back to the hotel we stopped and had Mexican for dinner. This was amazing and was a very nice change from Italian food. We had chips and salsa, and nachos, guacamole, and tacos.
After dinner (even though it was like 5:30) we went back to the hotel so that the girls (Casi and Katie, our other friends didnt get in until the next day) could change before we went and saw Jersey Boys, which is Casi and Katie's favorite musical. Jersey Boys is the music of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons and is a musical about their lives. It was very cool and I was surprised at all the songs that I knew. Since I bought my ticket in London and not online, I had to sit by myself, but I met some nice Brits, who I talked to before and after the show.
This is the end of Day 1 of my London adventure.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
We started today by getting up early and heading out to the outskirts of the city of London to take a tour of Wimbledon which was very cool. We got to see the museum with the trophy, and we also got to see the Center Court where the major matches are played.
After our trip to Wimbledon, we headed back to central London to meet up with our teacher from school who is in London with the GLS class that is a year below us. We met him for lunch in an area called Covent Garden which has lots of shops and places to eat, along with many different street performers. Our teacher, Lane also brought along some of the other students from UT, so it was fun to get to see some people from school and hear about their experience in London. We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch (it was much less authentic, but was still very good). Once we were done with our late lunch, the girls went to Covent Garden to shop while, Lane (our teacher) and the other guys from UT that he brought along went with me into Covent Garden to see some of the street shows (which were awesome!). While we were walking around we got cookies at Ben's Cookies (I had White Chocolate and Cranberry). Once we finished there, we met up with the girls and then headed over to see where the other GLS students were living along with where our teacher was living.
After this we headed back to meet our friend Megan and her two roommates for dinner near our hotel. We decided to eat somewhere close to the hotel because one of her two roommates had gotten stuck on the metro and was having trouble getting to where we were. I know this may be a shock, but we decided to have Mexican one more time! After dinner, which ended around midnight, we headed back to our hotel.
In the morning, Katie and Casi left and I met up with Megan and her two roommates Mary and Jemma (who is from Australia) and we went to see the sites with one of Mary's friends named Doug. We saw the same major sites, and then around midday, the girls and Doug went to a soccer match and I met up with my friend Jenna Thrash for lunch. We went to my favorite London restaurant called Giraffe. For lunch I had: Edamame (sauteed in soy sauce and chili oil), a barbecue chicken quesadilla, and then for desert a waffle topped with ice cream and a caramelized banana. (truly amazing!)
After this, I swung back by our hotel to shower, and then I met up with Megan and we had a small dinner at a pub before topping our night off with a trip to the move theater to see Harry Potter. It was very nice to sit in a theater and eat popcorn (we had assigned seats which was weird).
We then went back to our hotel because we had another long day the next day!
Monday, February 21st, 2011
To start the day off, we met Doug and went to explore the downtown London area near the London bridge, ending with a trip to a pub to have some fish and chips. After our fish and chips we went for a quick trip to the British Museum and then went to meet with some people we knew from UT who were in London. We also got to see our teacher and the head of the GLS program.
(In that small paragraph I listed a whole days events)
To end the day in London, we went to see Les Miserables (the musical). Megan's friend Mary loves it and basically forced us to go see it, but I am so glad that I did. Plays on the West end are only second best to Broadway. The musical was truly amazing! It is the longest running musical and the performances along with the story were stunning!
We went back to our hotel, stopping for dinner at Subway, after the play, where we relaxed till for about an hour.
As I end this post, my day was just beginning in London, because to catch my 6:15 AM flight back to Italy, I had to take a taxi to take a bus to the airport. So instead of leaving at four, I left for the airport at midnight.
In my next post, I will tell you about my lovely visit and 6 hours that I spent in the airport in London (which actually was not that bad)
To end Ill just tell you that they have weird flavors of potato chips in London like prawn flavored and steak and kidney pie flavored. Both weird, and both are not very good.
What were the name of the Mexican restaurants?
ReplyDeleteIn London we ate at Loco Mexicano twice and then here in Rome we went to La Cucharacha. There was another one in between in London that I dont remember
ReplyDeleteBen, it's really interesting to read about the things you are doing. It brings back a lot of memories, some good, some not so good. I remember getting assigned seats at the movie theater in Austria. Must be a European thing, too! Did you eat at the Museum Pub near the British Museum? Steve, Sam (age 6 months) and I got kicked out of there during our visit! They don't really like small children in England (or at least in London). We carried Sam around in a little sling called a Snugli and in almost any pub we went in, when they saw him, they said children were not allowed. Of course, he was asleep most of the time, but I guess they were afraid of what would happen if he woke up! We stayed at the Hotel Russell on Bloomsbury Square, about 5 minutes from the British Museum. They have a "lovely" high tea in the King's Bar. Keep having fun! Love Cathy
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