Last weekend, I went with Anna and Virginia to what may be my favourite city I've ever been to — London! After we got out of French class on Friday, we went to grab some food at a really good and cheap cafe near the school (I got curry chicken pasta that was delicious!) and headed to the airport shuttle! After going through security at the airport, we had to go through customs where we were so excited to get another stamp on our passports. Then as we were waiting to board the plane, we met a guy from right outside London who was telling us things that we should do. We thought it would be fun to make up English alter egos and see if people would believe us. Originally, we wanted to pretend we were the daughters of a prince or something, but after the guy told us that no one would ever believe us, we decided to go with the much more believable story that we were all cousins meeting up in London and Hugh Grant was our uncle! I was Sophie from Brighton, Virginia was Georgina from Essex, and Anna was Caroline from Birmingham. We spoke in English accents for a lot of the weekend and people actually believed it! We had a bunch of people come up to us asking for directions because they thought we were from there!
After a quick plane ride, we took the airport shuttle from the Stansted airport to the Victoria coach station near our hostel. I loved driving on the left side of the street! The shuttle took a while because the airport was far away and there was some rush-hour traffic, but we got there around 7:30 at night. And along the way we got to see some residential parts of the city and Oxford Street that was all lit up in Christmas decorations and looked so pretty! We had a little trouble finding our hostel at first. Then Virginia said "wouldn't it be funny if it's like in Harry Potter where the house isn't numbered and there's a secret way to get in?" Then we were walking along, and saw #68, #69, #70...and then 71 wasn't numbered and it skipped to #72!! Then we noticed a sign on the door of what should have been 71 saying that it was not a hotel and we had to go a little further down the road. I guess they must get people knocking on their door all the time looking for the hostel!
We got checked in and then headed over to a nearby street that the girl working at the desk recommended to us. We found a cool looking restaurant called Giraffe that was full of young people. We ordered some cocktails first. I got something called an "amarettini" that was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my life! It was amaretto with crushed strawberry puree, pomegranate juice, double cream, and crushed up amaretti cookies on top. I copied down the ingredients to try and recreate it at home! For food, I got a salmon and haddock fish cake that came with salad and chicken wings. It was delicious! After eating, we each got another cocktail while we tried to come up with a game plan for the night. Our waitress and the bartender both helped us out and recommended some cool places to go and told us how to get there. They were so nice, and I noticed that everyone we met in London was really friendly and usually funny too! (The only rude person we met was in our room in the hostel...I will get to that in a little while.) We decided we would go check out Soho!
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| our drinks at dinner |
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| me with my amarettini at dinner |
We went back to the hostel to change and then found the underground. We found out though that the Tube would be ending for the night at midnight which was a half hour away. So instead of Soho, we decided to just walk around and check out our area! Our neighbourhood, Belgravia, was so pretty. I found out that we were actually in the most expensive and exclusive part of London which was pretty cool! We followed Buckingham Palace Road for a while and then took another street to try and see the London Eye. We came across a bunch of red telephone booths which we absolutely loved! After a little while of walking and pretending to be the British nieces of Hugh Grant, we turned a corner and then out of nowhere I spotted Big Ben! It was so cool!
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| Big Ben |
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| Big Ben |
Then we walked just a tiny bit further and there was the London Eye! It was all lit up and looked really cool. As we were getting pictures of the London Eye, I was looking down at my camera for a second and I looked up right as a guy was walking past me. He looked so familiar and I was almost positive it was Harry Styles! (For anyone who doesn't know, I have a little bit of an obsession with One Direction. And by a little bit, I actually mean a lot haha.) My eyes got wide and I kept looking back to see if it was him or not. I was so convinced that it was him and was disappointed I didn't see him sooner so I could get a picture with him! (Once we got back to Lyon though, I saw online that One Direction was in LA at the time, so I guess it was just a Harry look-alike!)
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| the London Eye |
We walked over by the London Eye and took tons of pictures. We decided to head back after a little while because it was so cold out and it was really windy on the Thames River. Even though we had only been in London for a few hours at that point and had only seen it at night, I was already in love with it and knew for sure that London is where I want to live after I graduate. I had always loved England and English culture and thought I wanted to live in London, so this weekend just confirmed that!
We walked back and it actually felt really safe at night. In Lyon, there are usually some sketchy guys or homeless people in the streets at night, but I loved that in London you didn't need to worry about gypsies coming up to you begging for money or creepy guys harassing you. It was also so nice to understand everything and not have to worry about attempting to speak French! Also, on the walk home, I stopped at an ATM and the language options that came up were English and Cockney. I was so interested to what happened if I did it in Cockney and it was so funny! Some examples of what it said were "Some Moolah for ya sky rocket" and "Sausage and Mash with receipt". We had a lot of fun with that!
When we went to bed that night, only one of the three guys in our room was there, but when we woke up in the morning, they were all there — and one of them was not a very friendly person. After showering, we were all getting ready quietly and needed to turn on the light. Two of the guys were fine but one of them kept sitting up and turning the light off on us! We had to keep fighting him and he was swearing at us, but I kept turning the light back on anyway and told him if he is going to travel and stay in hostels with strangers, he needs to be a little more adaptable. It wasn't even early! It was 9:30! I think he was the only unfriendly person we encountered the whole weekend, and he wasn't English, he was French — typical. Once that was over with, we headed into the kitchen for breakfast. They had toast with jam, Nutella, and PEANUT BUTTER!!! I was so excited!! I had a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich and then had a second peanut butter sandwich! It was so good!
The first thing we did was head to the Victoria station for our double decker bus tour! It was supposed to rain that day but luckily, it didn't rain at all! It was cloudy and cold, but that's ok because we got to experience the real London! On the bus tour, we saw the Victoria area and drove by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and lots of other places.
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| on the double decker bus |
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| there was a palm tree in London! |
Once we reached the London Eye, the tour guide told us that we could do a free river cruise on the Thames. So we got off the bus and took the river cruise all along the banks of the river. We saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge that was in
Harry Potter, the London Tower, and the Tower Bridge! It was cool because we got to see so much and get a little history about them too.
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| on the river cruise |
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| Shakespeare's Globe Theatre |
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| the Millennium Bridge |
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| the Tower Bridge |
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| the Tower Bridge |
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| the London Tower |
The river cruise let us off right near the Tower Bridge instead of the London Eye where the tour started. We explored the area a little and then headed over to a little restaurant nearby for some fish and chips. They were by far the best fish and chips I've ever had! After lunch, we saw that Starbucks had started to make all of their Christmas drinks! So we went in to get some peppermint hot chocolate and other holiday drinks while we decided what else we wanted to do that day.
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| fish and chips |
We got back on the bus tour and saw some more cool sights! We got off once we reached Trafalgar Square. We explored there and went into a couple shops. Then as we were walking down the Strand, there was a huge parade of horses! It was really cool! Then as we were walking we came across a little square with ice skating, a big Christmas tree, and lots of other decorations. It's really starting to feel like Christmas! I love it!
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| horse parade on the Strand |
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| Christmas decorations on the Strand |
Once we got near the end of the Strand, we went into the Twining's shop. They had all of their teas out on display and you could smell them. They also had a tea bar where you could sample some teas. It was awesome and I ended up buying some chai tea that was really good. After Twining's, we popped into the café next door for even more afternoon tea! We each got our own little pot which was cool. I got Forest Berry tea that was delicious!
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| afternoon tea |
After our afternoon tea, we decided to head back to the London Eye. We walked and got to see some more of the city along the way. Then when we got there, we rode on the London Eye! It was amazing and we could see the entire city all lit up. And it went a lot higher than I expected!
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| view from the London Eye |
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| view from the London Eye |
Then after our ride on the Eye, we went into a little nearby pub for some dinner where we all got chicken and bacon sandwiches. It had a real authentic pub feel with lots of locals and big groups getting rowdy which was fun! Then after dinner, we stopped in Tesco to get some snacks and drinks for later. They had Reese's so I was so excited!
Next, we started to head back to our hostel and stopped by Buckingham Palace on the way. It was all lit up and was huge! It was so cool thinking how the queen and the royal family are there a lot of the time!
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| Buckingham Palace |
After seeing the palace and fantasising about being royalty, we went back to the hostel to get ready for the Benny Benassi concert that we were going to. Since we knew the concert would go late and our flight was early the next morning, we didn't book a second night in the hostel, but we left our bags there in the luggage room. So we got all our stuff and got ready in the bathrooms and a big mirror that is in the hallway. Luckily the people who worked there were cool and didn't seem to care that we weren't actually guests there anymore!
Once we were all ready, we took the Tube to Brixton where the concert was. When we got off, there were tons of young people going to the concert and other clubs and bars nearby. It seemed like a really cool and trendy area. The street where the concert was is called Electric Avenue, like the song! Once we got inside and checked our coats, we went to the bar. I tried a jager bomb for the first time and it was actually pretty good! Then we made our way to the front and centre and danced like crazy. It was so crowded and there were so many sweaty guys pushing into us but it was crazy and fun! Benny Benassi was really good and even though I didn't know most of the music, it was still a good time. My favourite song was definitely "Cinema."
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| getting ready for the concert |
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| on the Tube on the way to the concert |
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| at the concert! |
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| at the concert! |
Right before Benny finished his set, we headed upstairs to get our coats and leave to get our bags from the hostel and go to the airport. We took a taxi back, so we could say we rode in a London taxi. Then we grabbed our things and headed over to the Victoria coach station. We had left ourselves plenty of time in case we couldn't find the bus or something but by the time we got there, we had about 45 minutes to wait outside in the cold before the bus left. Then once we were on the bus, there was an accident on our route, so the bus driver had to take another route that was way out of the way. We knew the bus would get to the airport late, just not how late, so we were so nervous that we would miss our flight!! Luckily it got there in enough time for us to get through security, buy some British magazines, and get some tea and muffins from Costa. By the way, we were doing all of this in our clothes from the night before since we didn't feel like changing after the concert. We probably looked like "proper slags!" Then once we got to the terminal, the plane didn't leave until over TWO HOURS after it was supposed to! I have decided that I officially hate Easyjet and am never flying them again.
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| Bye England! I will miss you so much :( |
I had such an amazing time in London and I was so sad to be leaving. I liked it the best of all the places I've been. I loved that it had all the comforts I'm used to like being able to speak English and all the food and brands we have back in the US. I love France of course, but being in England made me see how much I miss some things from home. I always had a little bit of an obsession with England and English culture and after finally going to London, I can confirm that it is where I'm going to live after I graduate. It's not just a possibility, it is definitely going to happen! I can't wait until I return! :)
