So
I know it has been a while, and do you know why? Because I’m back in America!
The end of our trip has happened and I have been sitting back in Auburn,
Alabama trying to think of what words could describe the experience I’ve had. It’s
been a great two months, and I couldn’t think of anybody else except for the
people I was with that I would rather do the trip with! I have had so many
great adventures with these people, and I’m blessed that this trip took me
along. Ireland will have a special place in my heart. So what happened in
London? Let me tell you!
So
our second day after getting in to London was a free day, so we decided to make
it the biggest day! We had a test on that Thursday so we had to make the best
of London before hunkering down to study. We took the tube to Westminster and
got out to see amazing views of Big Ben and parliament. It was a seriously
gorgeous day out, sunny and perfect, which has been our good luck on this trip
(we took good weather everywhere!). We decided to walk to Buckingham palace
through the gardens rather than up the crowded streets and ended up being able
to see the end of the changing of the guard. For anyone who has never been to
London, this is a must see! It is colorful and fun to see the band march
through the streets and exciting to see the palace surrounded by so many
people! We made it out of the crowd to take pictures near the gates and split
up to walk through Green Park to get ice cream for lunch. We came back together
after sitting on the grass soaking up the sun to walk further downtown. We
ended up in Knightsbridge, where I stayed last time I was in London, and I
loved seeing the upscale transformation that goes on once you leave the park
district. We, of course, had to stop into Harrods so that our group could be
amazed at the pure size and depth (both size and department-wise) of the store!
We kept going to the Victoria and Albert Museum which has great collections of
The Great Exhibition (1851 World’s Fair) and a fair amount of design history
including some pieces I got to see at the Milan Furniture Fair. We got to go
through the museum at a good pace, seeing the ceramics, ironworks, and even
their great fashion exhibit (that I wish I got to see more of since it was
under construction). We then left from the V&A to go shopping for our
theater night the next day. I just needed some nicer shoes since I had to throw
out some in Edinburgh due to the fact that mine were falling apart. All the
girls in my group found something they liked so we heading back on the tube to
Tower Hill and to a dinner of pizza.
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| Awesome view coming out of Westminster underground |
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| Outside the gates at Buckingham Palace |
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| Inside courtyard of the V&A |
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| Ceramics at the V&A |
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| Harrods from outside |
Tuesday
we had a somewhat planned schedule, so first up was walking across London
Bridge to the Design Museum. A museum I had never heard of, but probably one
the best I had ever been to (but I might be a little biased!). The museum was
undergoing some construction so the only exhibit we got to see was the Designs
of the Year 2015 exhibit. We got to see the top voted designs of this year
including the BMW i8(!!!), Current table (a table that photosynthesizes energy),
a streetlamp that plays with your shadow, a 3D printer that uses just sun and
sand to create, and a lot more. So basically we got to see a whole bunch of
very cool and new design that intrigued us all. Next we did a group lunch and
then met back up at the tube to go to Seymour Powell, a prestigious design firm
in England. We met up with one of the employees there and he gave us the run
down on what they do there. Their list is extensive and interesting, so it was
nice to explore their work for an hour or so. We then were released to go back
to the hostel, where we had about 15 minutes to change and look nice to get
back on the tube and go to Picadilly Circus. Circus only begins to describe
what we experienced get to and back from the theater. We went to see The
Phantom of the Opera where it has been running for 29 years in the historic Her
Majesty’s Theatre so we expected crazy and we got it. We made it to the theater
relatively unscathed (minus a fall by Shari due to someone tripping her) and
had pretty good seats on the ground floor set back a good deal. We got to see
the whole stage minus a couple of the high up parts of the musical, and I
really enjoyed the whole production! After the show we headed back to the tube,
which is where the craziness set in, and we got back to the hostel exhausted.
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| The London Bridge |
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| The BMW i8 |
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| The Current Table |
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| The group of us going to see Phantom of the Opera |
Wednesday
we had less of a big day. That morning we all took a break from studying to go
to the London Eye where we all piled into one of the cars (whatever you call
them!) which are massive! I can’t imagine going on a busy day! We picked a
pretty good day to go, because it finally started to look like normal weather
in London (that is to say it was rainy and foggy) so none of the tourists
seemed to be interesting in standing out in it. We had fun walking around the
car pointing at sights and taking A LOT of photos of each other, monuments, and
even giving the mandatory photo near the end of the ride some thought. We made
faces and some of the boys even mooned the camera so I think the photo
operators had some fun with that! After we got off, we all headed back to a
Tesco to pick up snacks and lunch before settling in our rooms to cram for the
test on Thursday. We had just received the last PowerPoint that day do we had a
lot to learn before being ready to take the test. Ashley’s parents had flown in
and wanted to take us out to dinner so later that night Shari, Hunter, and I
went with Ashley to meet them at a nice restaurant. We had amazing fillets and
it was probably the fanciest thing I ate on the whole trip! We got more
studying in that night before heading to bed.
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| The London Eye |
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| Me and a rainy London view |
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| Most of the group goofing off on the London Eye |
Thursday
was our last day and the day of the last history test. We got the test out of
the way in the morning and I felt pretty good about what I knew. After we were
done with the test, Shannon, Becca, and I decided to take the tube to see
Kensington Palace. A lot of people don’t know very much about Kensington, but
basically it is where William and Kate live when they are in London, but it is
split up so that the public can tour part of it where Victoria and Albert used
to stay. The first thing you see when you walk through the front doors after
going through Hyde Park is a great light sculpture that has crystals
intertwined in it. There are many things on exhibit at Kensington that include
collections of Victoria and Albert’s personal and work items that have been
saved, an exhibit on old English traditions including dress and accessories,
and even a pretty extensive look at fashion for Her Majesty, Princess Diana,
and Princess Margaret that includes pieces they have worn. It was interesting
to go through and know that people still live in a Palace right in the middle
of London. After touring Kensington we walked the length of Hyde Park talking
in the sun again and walked to another Primark. For those that have never been,
it’s hard to explain. We have no equivalent in America because they have so
many clothes, shoes, accessories for SO cheap. And they have all sorts of
styles so it’s really hard not to find anything that you don’t like. Anyways we
had a bit of a last day spree enjoying the fact that Primark is just plain fun
to walk through. We took the tube back to Tower Hill and met up with the rest
of our group for a tappas meal that was incredibly fun. Tappas is when you
order a bunch of small appetizer-like food and share them with a group. We were
really good about splitting things and since we were on one really long table
it was fun to just pass things down the table. Later that night, we had made
plans to go out and celebrate but everyone had to pack and was pretty tired.
Instead we stayed in the hostel drinking, but ultimately having a really chill
nights just being with everybody for the last night. It was a good night to end
on!
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| The light sculpture in Kensington |
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| The signs in Kensington, complete with the creepy Princess Di wallpaper |
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| Our last dinner together |
Friday was the day we had to leave.
We took the tube to Heathrow, leaving only a couple people behind because they
had plans to keep travelling. We checked bags and went through security with
little to no problems (to all of our reliefs, because of our experience from
the flight over!). This time since we didn’t have to switch flights, we were
all basically around each other on the flight, and I even got to sit with my
friend Shari on the way back. On the flight Shari and I managed to start 2
movies together (we were really good at matching the time up!) so we watched
The Theory of Everything and If I Stay. The flight was made easier to handle
because we watched the movies together, and I did some reading as well to break
up the time a little bit more. We landed early in Atlanta, and going through
customs and getting our bags was surprisingly painless for everyone. My sister
picked me up, and we took 3 other people home to Auburn (with a bit of a delay
since we got off track on the road).
Now, for the rest of the week I am
going to move out of my room into the other room in our condo, and wait around
until my sister’s graduation this upcoming weekend. I have plans to meet up
with Shari, because we already have separation problems but other than that I
am sad and also a tad bit relieved to have a break from those friends for a
whole summer. We were all joking that it will be good to have a break from each
other, but we are going to miss each other and the adventures we went on! Thank
you for reading about my last two months, and I really enjoying have a blog to
write out what’s been going on! It’s like having a travel diary with an
audience. I have a couple of packing tips and other tidbits to write about, so
stay tuned if you are interested!
