London

LONDON
Once we landed at our airport, we realized we were not actually in London yet, but a city nearby called Gatwick. We had to take a shuttle for 40 minutes to London, and then navigate our way through the Underground metro system and find our way to Golders Green, where our hotel was. It was dark by the time we got to our hotel but we were determined to not waste any time. We quickly called a cab and went to Leicester Square (the huge party square) to try to find a place to go that night. We ended up getting a really cool, young cab driver named Peynum who told us all the good places to go out. Of course, as soon as we got out of the cab we were harassed by club “promoters” who were trying to get us to go to their clubs. Since we didn’t actually know where to go, we ended up listening to this random guy and went to a place called Storm. What a mistake. It was terrible. Needless to say, we ended our night somewhat early and went back to the hotel.

On Sunday we visited the Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Bridge, and the Tower of London. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go inside of Westminster (closed on Sundays) and didn’t want to pay 20 pounds to get into the Tower of London. We just enjoyed ourselves and walked around all day exploring. Westminster is HUGE! I did not realize how massive it was until I was standing next to it. The London Bridge was definitely my favorite part of that day, though. It was so pretty and somewhat warm that day which made strolling across the bridge very relaxing. That night we decided to stay in so we could catch up on some much needed sleep.





On Monday we went to a famous pub for lunch called “Dirty Dick’s” and got cheeseburgers and a beer. My Dad would be so proud of me because I actually drank a dark ale, instead of a light beer! Shout out to you Dad! Monday night was our favorite night in London. We went to a club at the top of a building called “The Penthouse” which was actually the club Peynum had told us to go to in the first place. At first it wasn’t too crowded because it was a Monday night, but by the end of the night it was a ton of fun. The bouncers loved that we were from America (and especially that I was from California) and eventually let us into the VIP section! We had so much fun just dancing and goofing off. We ended up meeting two really nice boys named James and Lawrence. We hung out and danced with them until the wee hours of the morning.

Because we had been out so late the night before, we got a very late start on Tuesday. We did get to see Abbey Road, Westminster at night, and ride the metro all around London. The three of us had a blast at Abbey Road (the famous crosswalk on the cover of the Beatles album). At first we couldn’t find it, thinking it was on a small road. Boy, were we wrong. Abbey Road is so busy! Not with tourists, but with cars flying by. It took us so long to take a few pictures walking across the crosswalk because we had to wait for a break in the traffic. Eventually a nice American family showed up and offered to take a picture of all of us and we finally got our perfect picture. They also took a video of us singing “Hey Jude” while crossing. We looked like such tourists, but we didn’t care because we were having so much fun!



That night we didn’t want to go out because we wanted to wake up early to see Buckingham Palace before catching our train to Paris, but we had been dying to go to the Icebar London. We went for a 45 minute session at this Icebar. Just as you'd imagine, everything is made out of ice! The walls, seats, floors, bar, even cups! It was a really cool experience.



Wednesday morning we took the Underground, or “The Tube” as the locals call it, to Buckingham Palace. We were taking a bunch of pictures outside of the palace when a group of about 14 people riding horses started trotting down the road. Well, right in from of the palace doesn’t look like a road, but apparently it is, and can you guess who was right in the way? We were, of course. We were all so confused about which direction the horse people were trying to go that at one point the main lady yelled to Colleen, “Get out of the way! You’re gonna get MASHED”! We were all dying of laughter for a good 10 minutes. After taking a few more pictures, we got on our train that brought us from London to Paris.

"Get out of the way! You're gonna get MASHED"!


London turned out being my favorite city I've been to so far. It was also a plus that everyone spoke English and were able to understand us :) I'm contemplating finding a job there and moving!