Spring Break Adventures: London

Hello, London! When we arrived at the the Gatwick Airport, Kirsti and I realized that we had no idea how to get to our hostel (no address, no maps, no nothing) and luckily the information desk was so sweet and even called our hostel to make sure the name we gave him was correct, and once we arrived at our hostel, the desk told us they have never received a call like that before, ha!

Of course, the first place I went to was Starbucks. How I have missed you skinny white mocha with light whip! 

The first site we visited the night we arrived was the millennium bridge, which is beautiful at night. The next morning, Saint Patrick's Day, we visited the Tower of London. I didn't go to the museum to see all the awesome royal jewels. I also expected the tower to be more massive than it was. It all seemed so short and unimpressive.

After a walk around town, we all walked to the Kensington Palace for afternoon tea at the Orangerie.
I had the Chinese green tea, and have never had sugar cubes before! I felt so fancy! Although it was quite expensive (25 pounds - about 40 dollars), it was worth the experience and actually quite filling. The sandwiches were to die for.

Stay classy, folks.

Our hostel was an experience all in it's own. I have never seen so many different races, cultures, and languages spoken in one place. Most of the people that were there were there to improve their english. Which I think is magnificent. I would love to just work at a hostel like this one and just soak in all the different types of characters that fill the rooms.

The hostel was also connected to a bar, and since it was saint patrick's day, I thought I'd try a beer. Nope. I didn't care for it very much, and so a sweet swedish girl name Anna who recommended me (and even bought it for me) a delish sweet swedish cider (Rekorderlig) that came in many different flavors. So good!

London is so gorgeous in the rain!

Big Ben! I also rode the London Eye and saw it from a bird's eye view. I didn't get good pictures since it was so dark, but I was happy to have done it at night and saw the beautiful lights of London.

Abbey Road! It was hilarious to watch people walk the road and have  their pictures snapped not to their liking and so they had to re-do it but the people in cars were getting so frustrated each time.

This is also when I publicly defaced public property for my good friend and Beatles fanatic, Peter. Don't say I never did anything for you!

A cool giraffe and I. I was deeply reminded about my best friend and how much I miss her!

Asides from the aforementioned events, we also went to the Tate Modern museum (saw really awesome surrealist art) and the British Museum which disappointed me because I had hoped to see Hokusai's famous The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, which I had walked TWICE to the museum to search for, but after finally giving up to ask the information desk, they informed me that most of the Japanese art was under restoration. SAD. DAY.

One of the main objectives of my spring break was to NOT EAT ANYTHING ITALIAN. And after my traditional mcdonald's meal, I tried some Vietnamese food. It was awful. Everything was pre-cooked and the noodles weren't even cooked through. But the Vietnamese coffee did not disappoint, so at least it was a halfway decent experience. MORAL: don't eat Vietnamese in London! 

but of course, one SHOULD get traditional british food. And of course I opted with fish and chips. DEEEELISH! It came with mashed peas as well, which I've never had, and it was pretty yummy.

Overall, London was beautiful and very lively. It was awfully relieving to hear English again (although British english is just as hard to understand, and it took a while for me to learn to stifle my laughter when I couldn't understand a darn word)! The three whole days we stayed just wasn't enough to see London to it's fullest. But as a general theme that I cannot stress enough, no amount of time that I will spend in a city, or a country, is going to be enough to explore and really know and understand them. It takes so much time to get a feel for a certain place. I really hate being a tourist. 

Paris, you're next!

"When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London." - Bette Midler