i lalalove london
Again, I must apologize for the lack of updates. Everything's moving so quickly here, I seem to have little time to reflect. As many of you already know, I turned 21 this past Friday and I celebrated by going to London! Joanne (another exchange student here, from Scotland) and I left early Friday morning for the hour and a half long flight to England. We arrived, took the train into town, and found our hostel. We were both exhausted, but our beds weren't ready yet, so we dropped our luggage off and went out to explore the city. First, we had a delicious English breakfast at Covent Garden. We wandered around for a bit, check out some of the shops, and then headed over to Harrod's. That place is incredible! We spent an hour or two wandering around looking at all the Christmas decorations and, of course, the designer clothes. Next up was Oxford Street for some more shopping... I really wish the pound wasn't so high because I found so much that I absolutely loved! I did pretty well though - I only bought a few Christmas presents and a pair of flats. Around 2pm we headed back to the hostel and climbed into bed (we had gotten up at 4 amto get to the airport on time). We woke up around 5, took showers, got ready, and hit the town again. We went to one of the main squares (can't remember the name right now...) and ate some delicious indian food. We hopped back on the underground and went to Westminster to see Big Ben and ride the London Eye. The London Eye was really spectacular at night, and it was so cool to see Big Ben.
Funny story about this picture. I had recently taken the batteries out of my camera, so the date and time weren't set. When I turned on my camera to take this picture, I asked Joanne what time it was. She looked at her watch and told me... it wasn't until a few minutes later that she realized how stupid my question had really been: I asked the time to set my camera before taking a picture of one of the most famous clocks in the world.
After the eye we headed back to the hostel to *really* celebrate my birthday. Although I've been of legal age to drink for 3 years in Europe, the 21st birthday is something special in America and I intended to have my first drink. One drink turned into many and let's just say that a good time was had by all.
Saturday morning was a little rough...everytime I drink too much I swear that I'll never drink again. Anyways.... I finally got out of bed around 2 and we headed over to Madame Tussauds wax museum. We had a lot of fun posing with the different people like the queen...
...and Hitler and Churchill....
We had a quiet night on Saturday... London is too expensive to go out!
On Sunday we finished up our tour of the city. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. And we had fish and chips for dinner!
big ben
tower bridge
the palace
All in all, a great weekend. I'm so glad I went! I even ran into a guy that I had class with 2 summers ago in Freiburg. He's from Mexico. How crazy is that? That's the 3rd time I've run into someone I know in Europe - once at Versailles, once at the Louvre, and now on Oxford Street in London. I feel so worldly!
Click here to see the rest of my London pics....
Funny story about this picture. I had recently taken the batteries out of my camera, so the date and time weren't set. When I turned on my camera to take this picture, I asked Joanne what time it was. She looked at her watch and told me... it wasn't until a few minutes later that she realized how stupid my question had really been: I asked the time to set my camera before taking a picture of one of the most famous clocks in the world.
After the eye we headed back to the hostel to *really* celebrate my birthday. Although I've been of legal age to drink for 3 years in Europe, the 21st birthday is something special in America and I intended to have my first drink. One drink turned into many and let's just say that a good time was had by all.
Saturday morning was a little rough...everytime I drink too much I swear that I'll never drink again. Anyways.... I finally got out of bed around 2 and we headed over to Madame Tussauds wax museum. We had a lot of fun posing with the different people like the queen...
...and Hitler and Churchill....
We had a quiet night on Saturday... London is too expensive to go out!
On Sunday we finished up our tour of the city. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. And we had fish and chips for dinner!
big ben
tower bridge
the palace
All in all, a great weekend. I'm so glad I went! I even ran into a guy that I had class with 2 summers ago in Freiburg. He's from Mexico. How crazy is that? That's the 3rd time I've run into someone I know in Europe - once at Versailles, once at the Louvre, and now on Oxford Street in London. I feel so worldly!
Click here to see the rest of my London pics....