Happy Friday! Let's recap our trip to London!!
The day after Halloween hit us hard in Edinburgh. Halloween is celebrated in Edinburgh (woohoo!) and it was also Susan's 21st birthday. Obviously 21 has much less of a meaning here than at home, because the drinking age is 18 here... BUT it was still very exciting!! Let's just say that we had ourselves quite a night for the big 2-1 and were certainly feeling it the next day. Thankfully our flight wasn't until 7pm on the 1st so we had quite some time to recover!
So Susan and I set off to London on the plane, and Jenna was meeting us there (she took the train). Jenna got there a few hours before us so I guess she was just chillin on the side of the street basically until we got there. Love that for her. We were all pretty tired so we went to Sainsbury (the grocery store) and got some ice cream, then just hung out in our hotel room. Yes I said HOTEL because we were feelin pretty boujee, and because Susan's parents got us the hotel for her birthday present. So sweet!!
On Saturday, we woke up and went to a cute little breakfast place. It was raining which was kind of a bummer, but alas weather in the UK changes every 15 minutes, so it was on and off all day. After breakfast, we took the tube (train) to Buckingham Palace. It was obviously my dream come true!! I was so excited. AND the flag was up aka the Queen was home so that made it even better. I was sad though because I thought you could go in and take a tour, like at Hollyrood, but you can't when the queen is there. So sad for me. But oh well it was still so exciting!! After that, we started making our way towards the London Eye. We passed by a movie set and apparently Mark Walberg was going to be in it! SO not only was I closeby the Queen, I was also in the same city as Markie Mark. Amazing! We got to the area of the London Eye, and stumbled across a Christmas market. It is so weird to see everything all decorated for Christmas so early! No Thanksgiving to get in the way of the early decorating I suppose. We did a little bit of shopping at the market, and then went to a cider tent where they had different flavors of cider. It was very yummy! I also got some chocolate covered strawberries on a stick, and Jenna and Susan got french fries with toppings. Once we were done eating, we went over to the London Eye and took ourselves a ride! We only had to wait about 20 mins, probably because the weather wasn't great, which was really nice for us. It was a really cool experience, and quite a production! It was very organized and strategic. Very impressive to watch. We continued on our journey by heading to Camden Market. I was obsessing over going to some grilled cheese place that uncle Tommy raves about, and this was where it was. However, the wait was over an hour and we were far too hungry to wait, so we went to a different place. We all really liked Camden though, it was really edgy (so Jenna was all over that), and there were a lot of cool little shops. All that excitement really tired us out, so we wound up getting the tube back towards the hotel. We hung out for a little bit, and then Mary met up with us! She had been in Manchester, England for a concert the night before, so she took a train down from there. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner, and I had gnocchi which was so good. We were all so full and tired that we decided not to go out to the bar or anything, and just go back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.
On Sunday, we woke up, and Mary was feeling really sick, so she decided that she was going to go back with Jenna on the train that afternoon. Susan and I weren't leaving until Monday morning for our flight, and Mary was supposed to be coming back with us. So we all wound up going to breakfast, and then parting ways with them after. I'm not really sure what they wound up doing actually, I think probably wandering around the area of our hotel for a bit and then going to the train. Susan and I went back to the palace, because the changing of the guards was happening that morning. It was so cool! And it was incredible to see so many people in one spot. I know I am the biggest fan of the royals, but it was intimidating to see so many other fans there too!! We started walking around, and saw Westminster Abbey, as well as Big Ben. Big Ben is covered in scaffolding right now, so it doesn't look picturesque at all, which is a bummer. Oh well! We wound up going over the London Bridge, and looking at the Tower Bridge (which is way prettier than the London Bridge). We went and walked around the Tower of London, which was a huge museum/little town type area that was very cool!! We also got to see the Crown Jewels which was soooo cool. The crowns were all so sparkly and beautiful! All that walking made us work up an appetite, so we (again!) went to find this grilled cheese place. This time we went to a different location, which was at Seven Dials Market. This was a really hipster/young area of town. They had so many different stores and places to eat. We wound up getting a seat at the Cheese Bar this time. It was set up like a bar, and had plates of different cheese combos going by on a conveyor belt. You could just pick off any plate you wanted off the belt! I also got a grilled cheese which was really good. It was a really cool concept for a restaurant, and I found out that Susan loves cheese so it wound up being a great choice! It wasn't too late yet, so we wound up going to Abbey Road (where the Beatles recorded and have the famous picture crossing the street). It was really cool to see the recording studio (only from the outside-but still cool), and see what celebrities have recorded in there. We didn't take our own rendition of the picture because we are too cool and didn't want to hold up traffic. So instead we made fun of other people doing it. We went back to the hotel and found a place for dinner. After dinner, we went to a ball pit bar called ballie ballerson. It was so cool, there were 2 full rooms of ball pits that were thigh deep. I have never seen anything like this place but it was a really fun time!!
On Monday morning, we woke up at 5 am (huge yikes), and made our way to the airport. We had to take literally a plane, trains, and automobiles to make it back to Edinburgh. But alas we made it, and I had to go to class. Love that we booked our tickets home just so that we could make it to class.
All in all it was a great weekend! We had so much fun and it was super relaxing to travel with them all! I loved London but it would be really stressful to live there all the time. There are so many people!! I have never seen that many people in one area in my life, but it was a great experience and definitely took me out of my comfort zone! Now we are back in Edinburgh relaxing and catching up on stuff (like homework...writing my blog...etc) before our next few weeks here!! As always #stayclassyscotland ;)
The day after Halloween hit us hard in Edinburgh. Halloween is celebrated in Edinburgh (woohoo!) and it was also Susan's 21st birthday. Obviously 21 has much less of a meaning here than at home, because the drinking age is 18 here... BUT it was still very exciting!! Let's just say that we had ourselves quite a night for the big 2-1 and were certainly feeling it the next day. Thankfully our flight wasn't until 7pm on the 1st so we had quite some time to recover!
So Susan and I set off to London on the plane, and Jenna was meeting us there (she took the train). Jenna got there a few hours before us so I guess she was just chillin on the side of the street basically until we got there. Love that for her. We were all pretty tired so we went to Sainsbury (the grocery store) and got some ice cream, then just hung out in our hotel room. Yes I said HOTEL because we were feelin pretty boujee, and because Susan's parents got us the hotel for her birthday present. So sweet!!
On Saturday, we woke up and went to a cute little breakfast place. It was raining which was kind of a bummer, but alas weather in the UK changes every 15 minutes, so it was on and off all day. After breakfast, we took the tube (train) to Buckingham Palace. It was obviously my dream come true!! I was so excited. AND the flag was up aka the Queen was home so that made it even better. I was sad though because I thought you could go in and take a tour, like at Hollyrood, but you can't when the queen is there. So sad for me. But oh well it was still so exciting!! After that, we started making our way towards the London Eye. We passed by a movie set and apparently Mark Walberg was going to be in it! SO not only was I closeby the Queen, I was also in the same city as Markie Mark. Amazing! We got to the area of the London Eye, and stumbled across a Christmas market. It is so weird to see everything all decorated for Christmas so early! No Thanksgiving to get in the way of the early decorating I suppose. We did a little bit of shopping at the market, and then went to a cider tent where they had different flavors of cider. It was very yummy! I also got some chocolate covered strawberries on a stick, and Jenna and Susan got french fries with toppings. Once we were done eating, we went over to the London Eye and took ourselves a ride! We only had to wait about 20 mins, probably because the weather wasn't great, which was really nice for us. It was a really cool experience, and quite a production! It was very organized and strategic. Very impressive to watch. We continued on our journey by heading to Camden Market. I was obsessing over going to some grilled cheese place that uncle Tommy raves about, and this was where it was. However, the wait was over an hour and we were far too hungry to wait, so we went to a different place. We all really liked Camden though, it was really edgy (so Jenna was all over that), and there were a lot of cool little shops. All that excitement really tired us out, so we wound up getting the tube back towards the hotel. We hung out for a little bit, and then Mary met up with us! She had been in Manchester, England for a concert the night before, so she took a train down from there. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner, and I had gnocchi which was so good. We were all so full and tired that we decided not to go out to the bar or anything, and just go back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.
On Sunday, we woke up, and Mary was feeling really sick, so she decided that she was going to go back with Jenna on the train that afternoon. Susan and I weren't leaving until Monday morning for our flight, and Mary was supposed to be coming back with us. So we all wound up going to breakfast, and then parting ways with them after. I'm not really sure what they wound up doing actually, I think probably wandering around the area of our hotel for a bit and then going to the train. Susan and I went back to the palace, because the changing of the guards was happening that morning. It was so cool! And it was incredible to see so many people in one spot. I know I am the biggest fan of the royals, but it was intimidating to see so many other fans there too!! We started walking around, and saw Westminster Abbey, as well as Big Ben. Big Ben is covered in scaffolding right now, so it doesn't look picturesque at all, which is a bummer. Oh well! We wound up going over the London Bridge, and looking at the Tower Bridge (which is way prettier than the London Bridge). We went and walked around the Tower of London, which was a huge museum/little town type area that was very cool!! We also got to see the Crown Jewels which was soooo cool. The crowns were all so sparkly and beautiful! All that walking made us work up an appetite, so we (again!) went to find this grilled cheese place. This time we went to a different location, which was at Seven Dials Market. This was a really hipster/young area of town. They had so many different stores and places to eat. We wound up getting a seat at the Cheese Bar this time. It was set up like a bar, and had plates of different cheese combos going by on a conveyor belt. You could just pick off any plate you wanted off the belt! I also got a grilled cheese which was really good. It was a really cool concept for a restaurant, and I found out that Susan loves cheese so it wound up being a great choice! It wasn't too late yet, so we wound up going to Abbey Road (where the Beatles recorded and have the famous picture crossing the street). It was really cool to see the recording studio (only from the outside-but still cool), and see what celebrities have recorded in there. We didn't take our own rendition of the picture because we are too cool and didn't want to hold up traffic. So instead we made fun of other people doing it. We went back to the hotel and found a place for dinner. After dinner, we went to a ball pit bar called ballie ballerson. It was so cool, there were 2 full rooms of ball pits that were thigh deep. I have never seen anything like this place but it was a really fun time!!
On Monday morning, we woke up at 5 am (huge yikes), and made our way to the airport. We had to take literally a plane, trains, and automobiles to make it back to Edinburgh. But alas we made it, and I had to go to class. Love that we booked our tickets home just so that we could make it to class.
All in all it was a great weekend! We had so much fun and it was super relaxing to travel with them all! I loved London but it would be really stressful to live there all the time. There are so many people!! I have never seen that many people in one area in my life, but it was a great experience and definitely took me out of my comfort zone! Now we are back in Edinburgh relaxing and catching up on stuff (like homework...writing my blog...etc) before our next few weeks here!! As always #stayclassyscotland ;)
 |
| susan in the ball pit |
 |
| me in the ball pit |
 |
| Susan and Jenna at the cider pop up |
 |
| Only pic we could take of the crown jewels :( |
 |
| London Eye |
 |
| yummy chocolate strawberries |
 |
| Tower of London |
 |
| Buckingham Palace |
 |
| Westminster Abbey |
 |
| Tower Bridge |
 |
| London Eye |
Comments
Post a Comment