This blog post is really late, but that's okay. No big deal.
Last weekend, December 3-5 we took our final weekend trip to London, England. We weren't exactly sure if we were going to be able to go or not because Britain had gotten a lot of snow earlier in the week and Easyjet was canceling tons of flights. Luckily, Easyjet let our flight, and only our flight go to London on December 3rd.
Our flight was pretty delayed and we didn't end up leaving Rome until 4 PM in order for us to land in London during a clear spot in the weather. The flight crew was pretty funny. First of all, they spoke ENGLISH which was like music to my ears. They also tried to keep the flight humorous because of all of the delays etc. When the lights went out in the plane to prepare for our descent into London, the main flight attendant said, "If you are scared of the dark, scream now or press the light above your head." That gave Casey and me a good laugh. Since the airport had been shut down for the previous two days, it was PACKED, so it took us a while to get through. Since London wasn't used to getting so much snow as they had gotten in the past few days, the trains were running slow too. We waited outside in the freezing cold for our train to Victoria station in London. We finally got to Victoria station and then hopped on the "Tube" or underground to go to our neighborhood, West Kensington.
Since we got into London so late, we didn't get to our hostel until like 9:00 PM. All of the pubs were closed for dinner, so Casey and I ended up finding this really good kebab restaurant and we got take out. They gave us a lot of food for the price we payed, but we were starving, so it was fine. Before we left the restaurant, I asked the guy behind the counter for plastic silverware. He looked at me really confused and then asked, "Are you from America?" After I responded yes, he said, "I could tell because here was call it plastic cutlery" with a smile. Casey and I got a laugh out of that and then we went back to the hostel. We had a little picnic in our hotel room and then went to bed so we could get up early the next day to got and see the sights.
Saturday, we left the hostel around 9:30 AM and took the Tube to Victoria Station. Outside the station, we bought tickets for a hop on/hop off bus company. We got on a red bus that had a live tour guide that spoke in English over the PA as opposed to the blue bus which had an earphone system talking in different languages. The first stop we made was at Hamley's Toy Store - a 7 story toy store celebrating it's 250th Anniversary decked out for Christmas where people can play with the toys. We got lost in there and dropped some money there too. Typical. There were toys all over the place and it reminded me of the store Duncan's Toy Chest in the movie Home Alone 2.
We got back on the bus and stopped in London for some lunch at Pizza Hut!!! We missed it so much and it was delicious! They also gave us FREE soda refills!!! I missed refills so much! After lunch, we continued on to see Big Ben and the Parliament Building and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey was closed, so we couldn't go in, but we got to see the outside. Big Ben was so neat to see up close. I also got a small film clip of the bell chiming at 4:00 PM. After we finished there, we walked across the bridge of the Thames River and rode the London Eye - the big ferris wheel on the river. The line moved pretty quickly, and we got placed in this compartment with about 10 other people. One revolution takes about 30 minutes, so it's a long ride. You get this amazing view of London and it is so big and beautiful.
We hopped back on the red bus line after we got off the London Eye and drove past St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. We got off at Buckingham Palace and took some pictures. It was pretty dark out by the time we got there, so we couldn't take an pictures with the fun guards. We quickly hopped back on the Tube and went to Tower Hill station and bought tickets for a Jack the Ripper tour. The tour started at 7:30 PM and took us around the city to some of the scenes on the murders and told us the stories of possible identities of Jack the Ripper and left us with the mystery of it never being solved. It was pretty neat, but was raining the whole time, so that kind of sucked, but it was fun. The tour guide was great and very into the story! We got a little lost on the way back to the Tube station, and I refused to ask for directions. Casey looked at me and said, "Fine, you be a typical man, and get lost. I'm asking for directions." Needless, to say she got us back. I still claim that I would have gotten us back...eventually.
The pub was closed again by the time we go there for dinner, so yet again we ate at the Kebab place. Casey and I didn't mind because it was so good.
London definitely is a place where you need to spend multiple days - one day to sightsee is definitely not enough! You need at least four or five days for sure. I want to go back to London some day because I loved it so much. It was a blast and a half and a great way to end our weekend trips.
The flight back was typical, but Casey and I both agreed that we were happy it was our last time flying on some crap-ass discount airline for a long time!
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