Oh How I Love London

In the past when people would ask me where I want to live when I graduate I’d answer New York City. NYC was my favorite place in the world. It had everything I loved, diversity, cool stuff from around the world, and awesome landmarks. Then I went to London.


This past weekend my program sent me on a trip to London and I have no words great enough to describe it! Really it was just that good. I saw a lot of the typical London sites and did I mention that I totally love their money! I thought I was in love with the Euros but the Pounds are so much cooler! I like the different Pence pieces and the designs on them are for super cool.

So on to the good stuff. The places I went the cool things I saw! Be ready for an epically long post and dozens of pictures!

We departed Shannon airport at 7:40. The night before I got 0 sleep because I had gone on a trip with the university to a traditional Irish pub. It was lots of fun but we didn’t get back till 4:00am and I had to meet with my groups at 5:15am to go to Shannon. SO I was quite tired and I really wanted to nap on the plane over… but instead I took pictures.

Bye. Bye Ireland

My First Look At london!!

We were met in the airport by our tour guide for the weekend John. On the bus ride to our hotel I couldn’t help but stare out the window in absolute amazement! I’ve come to the conclusion that European cities are much different than American cities. America has small cities with tall buildings. Europe has huge cities with short buildings. I love New York but London’s skyline was just so……… anyone who’s seen London knows what I mean.

But back to the trip sorry, I was distracted by how in love with London I am. We weren’t able to check in till that afternoon. So after dropping our luggage at the hotel we wandered London. The first place we went was Kensington park. It was so pretty! And there were lots of dogs walking around without their leashes. I still find it amazing that most of the dogs walk around without leashes here and they behave wonderfully.

It was very green but I wonder what it looks like in the spring

After the park we wandered a bit till we could check in. Most of the group stayed at the hotel to nap. I knew that if I napped I’d be out for the day and it was only 4:00. So I went back out with three other friends and we did more wandering before we went back to the hotel because everyone else was getting ready to go out for the night. I didn’t feel much like going out so on the way back I stopped into a small bookstore and picked up a book. The book I picked was Dancing Jax by Robin Jarvis. It’s a very British book because from the way the people speak to the shows and things they reference. I love it. But let me tell you the first night when I was reading it I was alone in my hotel room and the book was sort of creepy and I was a little scared in the hotel room so I put on music and kept reading. It’s a very addicting book.

^ Hotel windo view in the day ^

^And at night^

^I realizeed the second day i was there i could see Bit Ben from my window!^

Saturday we had to be up early because we were going on a bus tour of London. We saw all the very touristy places….

^Buckingham palace^

^Westminster Abby^

^Parliament Square^

^Big Ben^

^Trafalgar Square from the bus^

^St. Paul's Cathedral ^

^Millennium Bridge... Hope my fellow Harry Potter geeks recognize it^

^Tower Bridge^

^Tower of London^

^Eye of London and Big Ben^

After the tour was over a small group of us went to The British Museum. Or as John said, the place full of stolen things. We were walking through the ancient Greece part and the girl I was walking with looks at the wall and was like “look these weren’t stolen. They were gifted to the museum.” Then I pointed out the person who donated them was an English noble. We both had a good laugh about that. But I took a lot of pictures. Here are only a few.

^Rosetta Stone^

^Lely's Venus (Aphrodite)^

^ Three Nereids. From the the Nereid Monument, Xanthos, about 390-380 BC^ 

^Hoa Hakananai'a :: Easter Isand Statue^

^The Buddha^

^Cermonial Crown and Breast-plate. Made in Nepal about 1850-90^

^Ganesha. India. AD 13th Century^

^MUMMIES!!^

^Canopic Jars!^

After the museum since I’m a major Harry Potter geek we made a trip to King’s Cross Station! Annnnnd…… Platform 9 3/4 .

It was sort of really cheesy but I still had to do it!

Sunday I was up early and since I couldn’t find anyone to go museum hoping with me I went out on my own. So thanks to Google maps here’s my Sunday walk.
A = my hotel
B = Sherlock Holmes Museum
C = National Portrait Gallery
D = Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abby
E = Buckingham Palace
F = Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Natural History
Then back to A.

According to Google maps that’s just under 12 miles of walking. Not going to lie I feel like a champ for walking that much.

So the first stop on my trek was the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 21 Bakers Street! It was pretty damn cool. And there was this old British dude that greeted you as you on the first floor and in his very distinguished British accent he’d say “Hello I’m Sherlock Holmes and this is my bedroom and study. Feel free to take pictures if you have a camera.” It was legit.

Next up was the National Gallery and national Portrait gallery. I didn’t take any pictures there, I wasn’t sure if we were able to…. But here are pictures I got off the site (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/).

^Sunflowers – Van Gough^

^Long Grass With Butterflies – Van Gough^

^The Virgin of the Rocks – Da Vinci^

Then I nipped next door to the National Portrait Gallery. I saw some really cool ones but I forget who they were of so sorry no pictures. But I do have pictures of Trafalgar Square. That big tall thing is Nelson’s monument. I learned a lot about him from our tour guide so he’s going to get a post of his own soon.

After the galleries I decided I’d head back toward the hotel but I wanted to get some cool pictures. So I crossed the Thames and walked past London Eye and toward Parliament Square and Westminster Abby. I got some wicked cool pictures. 

But it started to rain as I crossed the Thames again. So I picked up my pace after snapping a few more pictures and tried to navigate home.  felt quite lost at this point so I looked at the street signs and I saw Buckingham Palace and I thought I could navigate back from there. So I trekked past the palace and kept straight on. I saw Hyde part and knew that I was getting close and that I could manage to get back easily.

When I was close to the hotel I still had time so I stopped into the Victoria and Albert Museum. There were some pretty cool exhibits but I just sort of wandered without looking too much because I wanted to hit the Natural History Museum as well before going back to meet with the group and catching the plane.

The Natural history Museum was tots def cool and I want to go back and look around more and take more pictures. But sadly my camera died after only a few pictures… but it was still fun to wander around.

Finally it was time to meet back up with my group so we could head back to Ireland. I was really depressed about having to leave London. I made it better by rationalizing that I’ll be back in a few weeks to visit London Met so it was okay. And I’m actually off now to book a flight back to London for a day trip!!!!!

Cheers,