London Town!!!

Here we go again!! London-bound!! 

Basically by now I'm so far past exhaustion it's become ridiculous.  But who cares?  I was on a flight to London with the American crew and we were ready for Londontown!

At this point I have just become a PRO at packing my backpack... half the time I don't even bother UNpacking it because I have to turn around and do it all over again!  So with the backpack ready to go, the PB&J's in one hand (a staple in Allie's travels), and homework in the other (I had to at least look like I was taking school seriously, right?), we headed out late Friday night.  Fast forward 7 hours, and you'll find us checking into our uh-mazing hotel at 2 am.
           Okay, 1) I would just like to reiterate the fact that it was 2.  AM.  That's 2 hours after midnight.  Cinderella's carriage turned back into a pumpkin hours ago. Exhausted Allie doesn't find that very appealing.  And,
                     2) Hotels are ridiculously cool.  Trust me.  After spending more nights in hostel beds rather than my own bed during the month of October, suddenly hotels seem like the cat's pajamas.  Yeah, I just put "cat" and "pajamas" in the same sentence.

Anyways, by the next morning I had had my rest and was itching to go.  As by our Irish Mammy's instructions, we had a huge breakfast (she said it was free... why not take advantage?) and practically had to roll ourselves out to the hop-on-hop-off buses: aka your real life London double-decker buses.  Holla! 



Big Ben and the London Eye

 Off we went to the Tower of London:  home of the crown jewels, site of multiple be-headings (think of King Henry VIII), and teeming with thousands of tourists... which made it hard to spot MS KENDAL SWANSON!!!!  Can you believe it?  Thousands of miles around the world and I still manage to run into my old suitemate!

Castle, anyone?


After the Tower of London came the Tower Bridge: one of the more famous bridges in London.  I know, I know, you're thinking, "what about London Bridge?"  I mean, there is a nursery rhyme and pop song written about it.  I hate to break your heart, but

Tower Bridge

London Bridge.  Yeah, that cement thing.

By now it's already late afternoon in London, and we had to get to Abbey Road before the sun set.  So off we went again!!  Maybe if we'd gotten on the right bus, hadn't stopped at KFC to pee, didn't get lost down the streets of London in the rain, and hadn't walked straight past the recording studio without realizing it, we would have made it while there was still light out.  But hey!  It was an adventure and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)  Besides, we still made it to Abbey Road.  That's one more for Around-the-World Bingo!

I'm basically a Honorary Beatle

Then race back to the London Eye, navigating the Tube and running between stations.  I'm telling you, this was a whole different experience at night.  Definitely amazing.

Instead of staying in London like everyone else, Kendal and I headed to her campus in Reading.  Too bad it was dark.  I couldn't tell you what Reading was like to be honest.  Guess a second trip is in order hahaha.... but it was so great to see a familiar face.  I miss you guys at home!!!

Day 2 in London: wake up an hour late for the train, rush back to London to pig out on another breakfast, sneak through the Tube because my day pass went MIA... and that'd be my morning.  Then it was
   > the Globe Theatre,

        > the Tate Modern (queue Picasso, Warhol, Dali),
             > across the Millenium Bridge (don't worry, I wasn't freaking out or anything.... it's not like the Millenium Bridge wasn't in Harry Potter or anything....),

                  > St. Paul's Cathedral ("oooooooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" ... really wishing I was as legit as Princess Di so I could get married there)

St. Paul's

                       > KING'S CROSS STATION (everybody FREAK OUT)

I guess Hogwarts will have to wait another year... my magical powers couldn't get me thru the barrier

                            > ordering a London Fog in London.  Yes, it can be done.  But don't call it a London Fog.  They get all confused and flustered.  Calmly explain that you would like an Earl Grey latte with vanilla flavoring and then they can handle it,

                                 > and then heading over to the Camden Market, where we conveniently lost track of time and MISSED the bus to the AIRPORT.  Shit.  Well, I can honestly say that I am now fully competent at navigating London transportation.  Learning experience?  Most definitely.  Talk about cutting it close.  Weee!  Again, not an adventure until something goes wrong, eh? 

The trip just whizzed by, and now, sitting at my computer back in Limerick, I can't help but feel a little bummed that my month of crazy travels has come to a close.  What a month it has been!  Not even people who live in this part of the world travel as much as we did!  Across two time zones, three languages, four countries, and six new stamps in my passport, we managed to do it all. 

Now what?  Now I guess school gets a little bit of attention.  And I might have to rediscover Ireland.  It is where I've chosen to study after all.  And especially after all of this travel, it feels more and more like home.  And I love being home.