London 2011

Ever since my first trip to London, England, in 2008 my life has changed. I knew I wanted to travel, beyond a shadow of a doubt, anywhere I possibly could. Every time something with a London back drop is on TV or a picture, it makes my heart soar.
So, this year, Chris and I were talking about places we'd like to go some day and he finally applied for his passport.  He's the kind of person that doesn't make plans very far in advance...so, one night after talking about London and he had received his passport, we got on Kayak and looked for flights.  The previous weeks we had found flights for as cheap as $495!  But prices go up the less time you have before going.  We found a good deal that would take us to London 4/26-5/5 & Jacksonville 5/5-5/9.  We bought the tickets right then and there, and went to our jobs and "requested" that time off.  We didn't know at the time, but we were going to be there for The Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton.

We left Little Rock Tuesday, April 26, close to 2 pm, arrived in Detroit at 5, left there at 7pm, and finally arrived in London Wednesday, April 27 around 7:30 am.  I learned from my first trip is to stay up with the local time so that your body won't feel the effects of jet lag too much.

Wednesday:
We bought our Tube passes, found a place to get breakfast in Piccadilly.  We were so exhausted that we just sat there for a long time before we eventually got up to start walking around the city.  We walked to Leicester Square and checked out the Empire Casino.  We decided to find a hostel, as we decided we'd just wing it once we got here, so we went to an Internet cafe and did a little research.  We found some places near the Hyde Park area and started there.  After our second try at a hostel, we decided Smart Hyde Park Inn was a good price.  We picked the 18 dorm room and it was quite different the hostel we stayed at on my trip to Washington DC.  We decided to nap, probably not the best idea, but we did it anyway.  We finally got up and went to a pub called Whiskey's and had fish and chips.  It was dark by this time, and I didn't get to see Westminster at night last time I was in London, so we hopped on the Tube and went there.  We walked around there and Southbank.

We saw Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye.

Thursday:

We at breakfast at the hostel and decided to stay there another night.  We at at a little cafe en route to checking out LA Fitness that we saw the previous day.  Chris is big into working out so that was a definite must on our trip.  We went back to the hostel to look up trips to Paris on Eurostar and ended up booking not only a day-trip there, but also one to Stonehenge and Bath.  After a short nap, we went to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and the Natural History Museum.  After that, we went to Chinatown and at from a circular-style buffet for very cheap and it was really good!  I mentioned it was circular because I have never seen one like that before.  We walked to Leicester Square and saw their Cinema prices were 13.75pounds ($22.90)!!  Went back to Bayswater and went to an Italian place called Nino so I could have dessert and a latte (dessert and coffee became a staple of every must-dos).  It sounds really gross, but we finally showered and it felt so good to be clean!  Our first night we slept in the same pod even tho we each had our own, and tried to on the second night.  We got to laughing for so long after a "that's what she said" moment...knowing you are supposed to be quite since it's night time and others are trying to sleep only added to the giggling, esp on my part!

Friday:

Chris tried the Traditional English Breakfast (fried eggs, toast, hashbrowns, beans, bacon, mushrooms, and stewed tomato) and I had a waffle with fruit, very good.  We were running a little "late" so after lunch we literally hauled ass to Hyde Park to watch The Royal Wedding.  We had NO idea where it was, but we followed what sounded like something being televised and watched were others were headed.

Watching with over 100,000 people!

After the wedding, we ate at Pret (wish we had these in the States).  Took the Tube to St. Pancras/Kings Cross station and found the Harry Potter thing.  I'm not into HP, but Chris is and explained the symbol of the Death Eatters (?) to me after seeing it drawn on something.

A policeman saw us looking for this and explained how we could find it...

Gearing up for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

We walked with no direction from there to a residential looking neighborhood.  We found a nice, small square with apartments making up the square to sit and chill for a bit.  It was really nice to see London as a home, rather than just a city.  While walking, we found what I'm convinced is a Banksy!  I googled this image after find it, so it's still unconfirmed, and I forgot to write down where I found it.....but it's somewhere near a Best Western and a few other hotels.  

Wouldn't you say this is a work of Banksy too?

We walked from there to where I stayed last time near the Angel station.  We went back to Nino for dinner before heading to Leicester Square to Empire.  We didn't stay because it started raining and would have to walk back home since the Tube closes at 12:20 am.  While en route to Leicester Square, at the Tube station this man started winking and blowing on me.  Chris was oblivious to what was happening, and this guy swung his hand and it hit me in my butt-crack!  I thought maybe it was just an accident, but he continued to blow on my neck (Chris was in front of me, and dude was behind me, and this was taking place on the escalator), so I stepped down to be in front of Chris and as soon as we got off the escalator I hooked my arm with his and started walking as fast as I could, all the while he was saying "You don't know if we're going to right way...." and I was like "I don't care, and I'll explain in a minute, but just follow me."  After finally getting away from the creeper, I explained what happened.  I didn't want to cause a scene or else I would've told the guy to screw off myself...  Anyway.  We rode the Tube till it terminated and walked to Bayswater from High Street Kennsington.  Chris has amazing sense of direction, by the way.  If I was the one leading us, we'd still be walking around trying to find our hostel.  We decided to go ahead and stay thru Wednesday am at our hostel.

Saturday:

Waffle Palace has become our regular breakfast place.  I tried the English Breakfast finally.  It was surprisingly good.  I've since tried to recreate what I could of it at home, but it's just not the same.  I went back to the hostel to take a nap while Chris went to the gym.  We went to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, all thru South Bank until we reached Shakespeare's Globe Theater.

Buckingham Palace, if the flag is flying, The Queen is home.

Tried to get the guard in the picture, but my crazy hair covered him up.  On another note, isn't Chris handsome? 

I love this picture.

Westminster Abbey...Will and Kate just got married here a few days prior.

Big Ben 

London Eye. 

All the colors are so vivid.

It's kinda hard to take pictures of yourself and someone else and try to get something else in the background too... 

neat gate...

After walking to The Globe Theater, we took Waterloo back to where we kinda started.  Chris was starving and tried some Turkish (?) food while I just had some tea.  We went to Camden town and walked around there.  I wish we could've gotten there earlier in the day or at least got to go back.  It's a really different part of the city, where all the "freaks" are.  I mean freaks in a very lovingly way...as in Punks, people heavily into music, arts, etc.  I kind of feel at home there.  I fell into the tourist trap and bought a shirt...its has the Banksy design of the girl releasing a red heart-shaped balloon.  We took the Tube to the London Bridge and walked down the deserted business district.  We ate at some random Pub by the Liverpool Station.  We both had Cumberland sausage and mash, and let me tell you....it was FANTASTIC!  We took the most ridiculous way home due to the Circle Line being close for the weekend, and I'm sure my idea didn't help either.

London Bridge is falling down....

Tower of London Bridge

Chris made a :) with my dessert.

Sunday:

Ate at Waffle Palace, and then I napped while Chris went to work out.  We went to Greenwich so we could see the Prime Meridian, but we didn't get to stand on the line because it was 10pounds.  I really don't remember it costing anything last time I was there, so I was pretty pissed off about this.  Whatever...it's just a line.  I just wanted our picture taken there, but it wasn't worth that much to me.  We walked around an area where vendors were selling food and things.  We ate some Mediterrean food...I had Lahmacun (Turkish pizza) and it was so ridiculously good!!!  Oh what I'd do if I could have that again here in the States.  

In Greenwich with London in the background.

We left Greenwich and went to the Tower of London.  We didn't go in it, I didn't think it'd be worth the money...and I've already seen it before.  We went back to the hostel before going to the Empire so Chris could play some Poker (avid poker player).  We stopped at a local shop so I could buy Hello! Magazine so I could read about the Royal Wedding and he got a snack.  Well, this snack must have had the kind of nuts he's allergic to because after an hour of playing he came out all red from an allergic reaction.  I immediately started to panic...he called his mom and she said pretty much the same thing I was thinking out-loud like take some of my benadryl (I had been itching a lot and started taking that since being itchy was keeping me up at night) and if it got worse just go to the hospital.  We took the Tube as far as we could (because it terminated), and took the bus the rest of the way home.  We grabbed some waffles from Waffle Palace and took benadryl and went to bed.  Everything turned out okay, thankfully.

Monday:

Got up early to catch our bus to Stonehenge (which is a REALLY windy place).  It so cool how it's just there...and nobody can really explain it.  Aliens.  haha  :)  After Stonehenge, we headed to Bath.  It's a really pretty town.  We walked around and ate fish and chips again.  I really wanted to experience "afternoon tea" or what ever you'd like to call it while in Bath, but time didn't permit, so I thought I'd try again another day (which I ended up not getting to do, just like I could never find Shepard's Pie!  what?!).

stonehenge.

I was sad all his wool was gone...and that I couldn't go pet him.

Awesome right? 

Roman Bath House.

My favorite picture of Chris and me.  Bath.

We got back to London, and I had some ginger cake and ginger lemon tea (wasn't a huge fan), and Chris ate a Big Mac.

You ever start out having a really good trip, and emotions run wild and you just have a bad day for no reason?  It had nothing to do with anything...I guess "nature" (if you catch my drift) played a huge hand in feeling on the verge of tears for no reason for some of the day.  I was in my bunk (it was 3 high and mine was the very top) and I had just got done taking a shower and was putting on lotion I guess is the reason I had taken my rings off.  My black (glass) ring fell off my bed and broke.  That was it, the cherry on top of my emotional roller coaster day.  I almost lost it, but Chris comforted me.  So far in the trip he had be supportive of doing whatever I wanted to do, and when I got irritated (which was rare actually) he just let it roll off his back and didn't get irritated back at me...he just chilled me out basically.

Tuesday:

We got up SUPER early to catch our ride to catch the Eurostar to Paris.  We met a nice couple for Australia, Sarah and Scott, on holiday from teaching in China.  After getting some Euros, we figured out how to get to the Eiffel Tower.  We should've rode it to the top, but we didn't.  It was pretty awesome to see it in person.  We took a river cruise where I fell asleep during some of it.  We saw the Arc, the Lourve (which was CLOSED!), and went to the Notre Dame Cathedral (ended up being the only place we saw from the inside as well).  We ate lunch and went to another place for crepes.  It was only slightly difficult communicating with people....and the American in me came out wondering why everything was in French and didn't have English as well.  Duh.  It was the first time I've been outside of an English speaking country.  Bizarre.  The Metro is crazy!  Everything was in French (of course) which made it difficult to get around, but Chris figured it out pretty quickly.  We got back to London, ate at a pub, and went to bed.  Remember how Chris had an allergic reaction to nuts? Apparently I was having something going on with me as well.  I had be developing a rash at the bottom of my neck...totally made me self-conscious since there was nothing I could do to hide it.  I'm guessing now, maybe it was exposed to too much sun?  I'm not really sure, but hopefully this won't happen again.  It was horrible.

Aww don't we look corny?  :) 

Mid-jump...I'm not sure why I like this picture, I just do.

Jump!

Arc de Triomphe

The Louvre.

The Louvre.

Of course it was closed on the day we decided to go.  Life. 

Love locks  <3

Notre Dame.

Notre Dame.

Our crepes (his was chocolate banana, I believe, and I had lemon) and my coffee/hot chocolate.

Wednesday:

Our last day.  We checked out of our room and back into a 20 bed room.  We saw Sarah and Scott on the way to Waffle Palace which was crazy to actually run into people we "knew."  We had to put more money on our Tube passes before heading to the Aquarium.  I was slightly disappointed because I wanted to see sea-horses, starfish, and jellyfish which they did have, but I wanted to see a lot of them.  But everything else was pretty amazing.  I touched a starfish  :)  We got snacks at Eat. which I freakin loved.  I had Matcha and found some at home to make what I had there.  SO tasty.  We walked to and thru St. James Park, laid around in Green Park, walked thru Hyde Park, and Kennsington Park before ending up back at our hostel.  That's a lot of walking if you didn't know.  I wish I knew how many miles we walked.  We decided to eat at Whiskey's, but changed our mind once we got there and ended up walking for an hour trying to pick somewhere else.  We finally decided on a kebab stand and I was determined to find Turkish pizza, but only found one place that had it...we took the Tube unnecessarily back to Bayswater from Nottingham Gate, just to walk right back that way.  It wasn't as good as the first one I had, but still tasty...even tho after he made my food, I saw him scratch his balls....oh well, too late, I had already devoured my food.  We had dessert at Cafe Diana.

Thursday:

We got up and started our walk around 4:30 am to get to Piccadilly Circus to catch the Tube to Heathrow, but found a bus to take us to Piccadilly.  We got there early like the everyone says to do and it took hardly any time at all to check in.  We at a little breakfast while waiting 2.5 hours (hey, we were just trying to be safe!) before boarding our 11 hour flight.  We had a layover in Miami.  Robert picked us up from the Jacksonville airport.  I finally got to meet my god-daughter, Persephone.  We at some Chinese food and hung around the house.  It was the first time Siobhan and Robert have met Chris, but awesomely enough Chris is super polite and easy to talk to.  It didn't hurt that Chris is a hugely into movies and Robert is a big movie buff as well, so they had some common ground to get them started.

My god-daughter, Persephone, and me.

Friday:

Chris finally started being able to hit the gym daily while in Florida, and luckily there was a Powerhouse (he uses them at home) pretty close to Siobhan's mom's house.  So while he was there, we went to visit with her mom.  That night we went over to one of their friend's houses, Lee, before heading to a bar called Kickbacks for a couple of hours.  We then went to Lee's to play a game.  

Me, Siobhan, and Crystal

Saturday:

Siobhan, Robert, Chris, and I went to the beach for a while.  I think Elyse might have gone too, I'm not sure...but I know she went to eat with us.  They all made fun of me because I ordered something that was mild, but I thought was a bit more spicy than I like.  I'm kind of a wimp like that.  Chris went out with the guys to watch a fight at the bar while I stayed home with Siobhan and Persephone.

Sunday:

I went swimming at Siobhan's mom's with her, Elyse, and Stephen while Chris worked out.  We pretty much just had a really lazy day.

Monday:

Our time was up, we had to get back to the real world.  Our trip back home was the most miserable I have ever felt in my life.  I didn't want the trip to end.  While waiting for Michelle to pick us up from the airport, I was near tears, but held it in.  After taking Chris to his truck, Michelle and I went to our favorite restaurant and I got to tell her all about our trip.  Right after she took me home, I went to my bed, laid on my bed, buried my face, and began to cry.  I've had the right amount of sadness and relief of being home, but never had that happened to me.  

It took me a few weeks to pull out of that funk, but I never fully recovered.  Maybe that's what got the snow ball rolling...hmmm.

We had a lot of fun, and he was a great travel companion as well as a gentlemen...and lets not forget, fantastic navigator.  Hopefully, he thought the same of me.  haha  It was a completely spur of the moment trip that I am so glad to have taken.  It makes me look forward to going......anywhere! and getting lost in a city (which is pretty much what we spent most of our time doing).  It made me less afraid and more adventurous.  And I'm pretty confident I want to live in London for at least 6 months at some point.  Probably not right now since all those riots are going on or any time next year with the Olympics happening...but sometime...probably right after I tackle New Zealand.   :)