Lunnnnndunnnn

I just got home from a long weekend in London! Five girls and I left on Thursday and flew into Gatwick airport. Ryanair was our airline and that was an experience in itself. Ryanair doesn't print your boarding pass for you, you are allowed one carry on bag, any food or drinks must be purchased and they sell perfume, lottery tickets, and smokeless cigarettes on the plane. So strange.
We took a train to our hostel which was right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was my first hostel experience and it wasn't too bad. All six of us had a room to ourself...but squeezing six girls with one sink, one mirror and one outlet in the same room was interesting to say the least. We explored the St. Paul's Cathedral area, the London Bride, London Tower and the Tower Bridge. We went to dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (YUMMMM) for dinner.
On Friday, I had my first bowl of real English porridge and hopped on the TUBE to the Natural History Museum. (I dont know what it is, but the porridge was soooo good I had it the next two days for breakfast). The tube was a bit challenging to figure out but thank goodness my dad taught me how to navigate on the subway when we were in NYC a few years back. The Natural History Museum was very interesting and we could have spent all day at museums around London but there were so many other things we wanted to see. After the museum, we went to Harrods, the world famous department store. I bought a few pieces of chocolate, it was the only thing in the whole store that I could afford! We spent the afternoon on Oxford street shopping and then went to a pub near the hostel for dinner. I had the best fish and chips in the world and a pint of strong bow, English cider. On Saturday we bought tickets for a hop-on hop-off bus and saw many of the sites around the city including the Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Somerset House, Westminster House, and Hyde Park. We also went on a river cruise to get a different view of the city.
We went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and were surprised to see TONS of people crowded around the gates. It turned out that it was the Queen's 84th birthday and there was a parade in her honor. After the changing of the guard, many bands, horses, and carriages passed in front of the palace. We saw the Queen pass by in her carriage and then she went on the balcony of the palace and stood with the royal family and waved at us :) Cannons went off and planes flew overhead. It was an awesome coincidence to be there on this day. I wasn't able to bring my nice camera or zoom lens on the airplane, as we were only allowed one backpack. I wish that I would have had it to take pictures of the queen and the guards because we weren't that close. I only had my little point and shoot camera, so my pictures aren't that great.

We went out to a pub for dinner again and I had cottage pie. It doesn't look appleaing, but tastes delicious. It is meat, veggies, mashed potatoes, and gravy all mixed together.
It was another coincidence that the World Cup is taking place right now and the USA played England last night. "Football" (soccer) is HUGE in Europe and we were informed that the World Cup is bigger than the Olympics to many Europeans. We went to a bar and there was a screen set up outside with a huge crowd of people. We quickly found a group of American fans and had fun cheering for our team. There was alot of yelling, chanting, and singing going on between the Americans and the people from England. Team USA held their ground and ended up tying with England.
This morning we got up early and packed our bags. We walked a ways back to the train station to find it closed. We asked where a different station was, walked there, only to find it....CLOSED. We had two hours until our flight and we couldn't find a train station. Thank goodness I had a map and found a different station. We walked two miles to London Bridge, got on a train and made our flight back to Ireland.
I'm exhausted, but it was a great weekend!

I tried to label my pictures but halfway through the captions switch up to the top of the photos. Sorry!


Kelly and I in Front of Buckingham Palace


The changing of the guard

The Queen on her 84th birthday, Prince William is to the left

St. Paul's Cathedral


Natural History Museum, Huge Dino

Chocolate from Harrods

Harrods Dept. Store

Street in London

Classic telephone booth pic :)

Shakespear's Globe Theatre

Bunk beds in our hostel...very difficult to get in and out of!

Kelsey and I on the Millenium Bridge


At the train station

House of Parliment

Tower Bridge, most famous bridge in London (often confused with the London Bridge which is an ugly, plain bridge)

At the pub!