A quick weekend in London

I just returned from a lovely weekend in London with Liz, Candice, and Kristen. We were very much looking forward to seeing London because we couldn’t wait to hear people speak ENGLISH. Since Liz and I don’t have class on Friday, we took a flight out on Thursday afternoon. We were proud that we managed to get to Madrid Barajas, check in and board our flight all by ourselves! London is one hour behind Madrid, so our tickets read that our flight left at 4:20 and arrived at 5:45—tricky.

We landed at London Luton airport, which is a little over an hour north of central London. Thinking ahead, we had booked a bus service from Luton to central London, saving us about £90 on a taxi. We were dropped off in an area called Victoria, and took the nearest tube to Clapham, where our hostel was located. After figuring out how to buy a single ride ticket, we took our first ride on the undergroud. No joke, it really is a tube; the train itself has very low rounded ceilings. Luckily, Liz and I are really short…I don’t know how tall people ride the tube! When we reached out stop, we walked the few blocks to our hostel, which really ended up being a fairly nice bed and breakfast. Who knew?!

           

Liz and I had booked a two person room for Thursday night, and then booked with Candice and Kristen for Friday and Saturday night. So, we were put in a strange attic room on the top floor, where the two sides of the roof came together. Our ceilings were slanted, plus the room was tiny, so we literally kept bumping into each other and hitting our heads on the ceiling. It was a laugh. We grabbed dinner from a (surprisingly!) nice restaurant down the street. Liz and I had prepared ourselves for the worst, not hearing a single good thing about British food. However, we had a very tasty dinner on our first night.

The following morning, we woke up early to make sure we accomplished everything we wanted to do that day. We walked to a nice coffee shop up the street, ordered some lattes, and studied our map, circling the places we wanted to go. First, we bought a 24 hour pass for the Underground that was only £6.60. It was so useful and saved us a ton of money! We started at Harrod’s, the famous, high-end department store in Knightsbridge. The store takes up an unbelievable one million square feet for its 330 different departments. Harrod’s offers a very wide array of products and services including apparel, jewelry, perfume, furniture, home appliances, food, candy, spa services, and that isn’t even the half of it! We were in awe as we walked through the store, each room more outrageous than the last. Our favorite was the Food Hall, which seemed to house every type of cuisine under the sun. We got to sample a pink champagne truffle in the dessert hall—amazing! Next, we took a nice stroll through Hyde Park. London’s weather was surprisingly mild; I had basically packed for the tundra, but it was in the 50s with just a little rain.

Then, we clearly had our priorities straight, heading to the beautiful, upscale area of Sloane Square to go to Bliss Spa to make eyebrow waxing appointments! I have been to the Bliss Spa in Manhattan and was so excited to remember their London location. I didn’t trust anyone in Spain to wax my brows, for fear of extreme miscommunication, resulting with me with no eyebrows at all. After Sloane Square, we made our way to the adorable neighborhood of Nottinghill, which was full of cute cafes and beautiful boutiques! Afterwards, we rode the tube to Charring Cross to eat at our favorite Mexican-American chain, Chipotle. It was nice to have a little taste of home in London. Since it was close by, we walked through Piccadilly Circus, which was nuts. Imagine a toned-down version of Times Square—not one of my favorite places, but still cool to see. My favorite square was Trafalgar, there were great views of Big Ben, the National Gallery, several statues and beautiful fountain.

That night, Kristen and Candice arrived and we got ready for a night out in Piccadilly. When we were ready to come back to hostel, we realized that the tube closed at midnight and it was already 2 a.m. So, we had to take an infamous double-decker bus back to the hostel. We rode next to some bizarre locals on the top deck and I, for one, couldn’t wait to get off the bus because I was feeling really nauseous. It turns out I had food poisoning because I got sick ten minutes after getting off of the bus! Ugh, it was awful. Luckily, I felt better in the morning and we were able to make the journey out to Tower Hill to see the Tower of London and the London Bridge. I wish we had had enough time to tour the Tower of London, but we had a lot to fit in that day. It was also £20 to tour, which converts to about $35, meaning it was a little too expensive for us!

We then made our way to the Millennium Bridge, which was featured in the movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Check out the scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF_zCWAG2R0 Pretty cool to walk over! Nearby was the Globe Theater, they happened to not be giving tours at the time, so we walked around the outside and explored the interesting gift shop. Next, we took the Underground back into central London to see Parliament, the London Eye, and Big Ben. It was about mid-afternoon and the sunlight illuminated Parliament beautifully! It was funny when we heard Londoners exclaiming over the sudden burst of sunlight. I was really disappointed that Westminster Abbey was closed for sightseeing—I hear it’s beautiful inside! We were dying to see where the royal wedding was going to take place. On our way back to our hostel, we stopped by Buckingham Palace, which is gorgeous. We had missed the changing of guards because it happens once a day apparently. Oh well!

That evening, we met up with my friend Steph, who goes to Fordham University, but is studying in London for the semester. It was great to see her and have her show us around. Candice also knew some Loyola soccer players from London, so we also met up with them and had a great night out. Liz and I were forced to pull an all-nighter to catch our 9 a.m. flight Sunday morning! Although we were exhausted, it was totally worth it. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend and I would love to return to London someday!

Harrod's

The fish section

A double-decker bus

The Royal Theater

Outside the Tower of London

Parliament and Big Ben

Actually using the phone!