Italia Adventures!!: "London Baby!!!" -Abby Churchill

London was amazing. From the minute we walked outside the train station and the classic London taxi screeched to a halt in front of us (naturally completely painted to look like the British flag!) I knew I was going to love my time there. Even though it was midnight and I was absolutely exhausted I could barely wait to wake up in the morning and start seeing everything!

And see everything we did...after getting in line early to buy Wicked tickets that next morning we did as much as we could! After we walked into Westminster Cathedral and stood outside Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, we strolled through St. James park with its beautiful flowers and got to see a fox grab a rabbit out of midair as it hopped out of a bush! After that extremely unexpected experience, we toured Westminster Abbey, saw Big Ben and the Parliament buildings, took our pictures in the classic London phone booth, and went up in the London Eye. Everything we did was exactly what I always imagine when I think of London but a million times better just because I was actually doing it!

Because we had indeed bought Wicked tickets for that night, we headed back to our hostel relatively early. However, because we were still trying to fit in as many things as possible, we walked back through Trafalgar Square. This turned out to be my awesome "oops" stop of London. I seem to have one everywhere we visit - a place I know absolutely nothing about when we visit that I somehow end up loving. Looking back on it, I still couldn't tell you what I liked so much about the square except the maybe the atmosphere. It was packed with people but it still kind of felt like we were there by ourselves...it was a very cool feeling. There was also a large countdown clock to the Olympics; it was very surreal to see and it made me wish we could have stayed in London for another couple months!

After doing all of this, we headed back to get ready to do the one thing Emily absolutely insisted on doing while we were in London - seeing a Broadway show. As I mentioned above we bought our tickets to Wicked earlier that morning so once we classed ourselves up a little bit, we were ready to have a tasteful, musical night out on the town. Even as someone who usually doesn't get into the musicals, operas, ballets, etc., I have to admit doing this in London, the home of Broadway, felt perfectly fitting. The performance and just the entire evening was amazing - I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it! Besides even during the slow songs where I was getting a little drowsy, it was absolutely hilarious to watch Abby and especially Emily sitting on the edges of their chairs completely entranced - it was entertainment in and of itself!

Our first jam packed day in London was directly followed the next day by an equally full day of seeing some of the major sites outside the city. My mom had studied abroad in England while she was in school and the one thing she kept telling me I HAD to do while I was in London was take the tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehedge, and Oxford. She said it was one of the highlights of her time in Europe and I will have to say after seeing these three amazing places I completely understand and agree with her! Part of it was just experiencing the English countryside but the best part was definitely actually being able to walk around these world-famous places. Windsor Castle was impeccably beautiful and fascinating to walk through and read about. I had to keep telling myself that I was actually walking down the same paths and hallways that the royal family called home!

Stopping at Stonehedge was also quite an experience because even though there wasn't a whole lot to see, there was a lot of interesting information regarding the history which definitely made it more interesting. I'm still baffled by why the heck those stones were put there but based on what the guides said, I'm definitely not the only one! And, after a two hour journey, we finally arrived at Oxford which is still one of the coolest things I think I've experienced yet. What I think I liked the most was Beth and I didn't go to Christ Church College (probably the most famous part of the university), but instead wandered around on our own. We listened to some of our guide's tour but then decided to just explore on our own which I could have done for another three hours if I would have had the time! My favorite part was seeing the library (have I mentioned that I'm a huge nerd...?) and, the most amazingly, walking through their special exhibit where there were various ancient texts as well as the first book ever written in English!! I was so excited I had goosebumps for ten minutes!! It was a great way to finish off the tour-filled day!

Even though by the start of our third day in London it felt like we had seen everything, there were still couple things on my list that I wanted to do before I left, most importantly, the Tower of London. So, after a morning of tea drinking and tea shopping (two of my favorite things!) we headed over to see all that one of the most famous London sites had to offer. Once I got there, I realized that the two and a half hours we had would never be sufficient but we knew the main things we wanted to see and made sure we hit all of those first. I could have spent a lot more time exploring but getting to see the Crown Jewels and all of the weapons, armory, etc. definitely made it a worthwhile trip! I have never seen those large of jewels or that many ancient weapons in my life - very, very cool! One last stop at the Tower Bridge (huge surprise - who knew it was that color blue?!) and it was sadly time to say goodbye to London. However, I will admit that I was so excited about our next stop that it made leaving that wonderful city much easier!

As always, the pictures :)