Wednesday, November 24, 2010

London Jubilation

We Love London!
This past weekend 10 Madrid friends and we met up with some Bologna friends in LONDON!!! 


We arrived late Thursday night, and we were surprised to find 4 rows of triple-decker bunk beds and not enough room to stand up at our hostel. They were not so sturdy and quite a tight fit.  Group meetings were conducted on the top bunks because that was the only place where we could sit. However, it was cozy!  A rando came and slept in our room and all were confused the next morning.  We are still not sure who she was. 
Friday morning we arose bright and early for a day of sightseeing!

First we went to the Westminster Abbey.  Here we took an audio tour narrated by Jeremy Irons.  ("We saw the famous dead people"-Rachel)  There was the Poet’s Corner where tons of famous writers are either buried / commemorated.  Many kings and queens of England are also interred here.  We liked the dueling tombs of QE1 and Queen Mary.  

Here is an illegal pic of us and Jeremy Irons

We happened upon the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.  (Lots of scary guys with silly hats –Rachel)  It was super formal, Felicia thought the Queen was arriving, but she was not, bummer.

We ate authentic British pub food for lunch i.e. fish n’ chips and some meat pie.  YUM!
 
We went to the London Eye, which is a gigantic eye.  Just kidding it is a Ferris Wheel.  Rachel almost died in a 4D experience.  (not really, this just sounds like she almost died while time travelling).  We watched a 3d movie about the London Eye and lots of things flew out at us (I guess making it 4D), such as confetti, smoke, water, and Rachel thought she was being attacked by a sea gull and later a fire breathing dragon.  4D was a little too real for her. 
The Eye!
Riding the Eye.
View from the Eye

Anyway, the London Eye was super guay and we were able to view London from above during the sunset!  We guess this is kind of like London’s version of all the church towers that we had to climb in other cities (this time without steps).
After this we walked to the Millennium Bridge (featured in the 6th HP movie) and the London Tower and Tower Bridge.
 

For dinner we met with everyone and went to a ‘pub’ called The Horse where they randomly served Thai food.  It was great!  We made a quick stop at platform 9 and ¾ where we took the train to see the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) unfortunately this train was not the Hogwarts Express. 
9 3/4

The movie was in IMAX and was sooooooooo gooood. Unfortunately, in the middle an alarm rang out and we were quickly evacuated.  After an hour in the freezing cold we got back inside and finished the movie!  Hooray.

 Here are some of us looking sad and cold.(except Felicia seems to be happy about this)

After little sleep and some tight hostel maneuvering we got ourselves to the Tower for a tour.  Some of us left a little early and walked to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  The Tower tour was a bit gimmicky but tons o’ fun!  Our guide was a Beefeater aka Yeoman Warder. 
We were dazzled by the Crown Jewels as we rode a conveyor belt right by them!  The largest diamond in the world was there. We were all jelly cat. 

Rachel and some peeps went to Chipotle for some Mexican and Hilary and some other people went to another pub and got burgers and sausages.

We took some pics walking across Abbey Road! (These were not on my camera and will be uploaded at another time)

And then entered a Winter Wonderland!  This was a Christmas themed fair/carnival.  Rachel says “It was probably the most genuinely Christmas-y thing I’ve ever gone to.”  It was so much FUN!  We got spiked hot chocolate, Rachel doesn’t know if she can ever have normal hot chocolate again.  It really was so delicious.  We also got hot pretzels, something Spain does not have.  AND we went on a ride!!!! 

WOOHOOO!
Stacy and Hilary with a stern looking Santa
Another Ferris Wheel!

We returned and played pool in the pub under our hostel.  Rachel was great, Hilary was not so great.  But it was fun!  After some Indian food we returned and played some more pool!! Everyone went to bed around midnight, except Rachel and our friend Ian, who continued to play pool until 3 am.

After a delayed flight, we arrived back in Madrid.  Although we love Spain, it was much easier to do everything in London because there was no language barrier (even though we did many British accent imitations).  Interactions were so much easier and less stressful in London.

We both want to go back; London was bloody BRILLIANT! 
This week we have thanksgiving and final exams/papers to look forward to!
Hasta la Vista,

Hilary y Raquel

4 comments:

  1. i found this entry to be most hilarious.

    ---anonymous blog stalker

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a blast! Yeah - pool!!! Happy Thanksgiving to you both - you will be in our thoughts. Love, AM

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want to go to London too! And I haven't even seen the new Harry Potter film.

    Love the descriptions...and the commentary!

    AJ

    ReplyDelete
  4. omg love the picture of london from the ferris wheel! I miss being able to communicate too. haha. London sounds great, I'll go back with you! I've still never been! so much great history! miss you!

    ReplyDelete