Friday-Day 1: The first step of our journey was a bus from the center of Edinburgh to Edinburgh airport. I HATE being rushed, or worse, late, for anything, so I made everyone catch the earliest bus possible to the airport. I was teased pretty heavily when we arrived at the airport two hours early, but it's better to be safe than sorry. When we booked our flights, we didn't do enough research and chose to fly into London Stansted because it was the cheapest airport. Poor choice. After our flight at 6:30 pm (which was quite nice, considering the price we paid for it), we had a 90 minute bus ride into London. From the bus we took a cab to the hostel and checked it. We walked around Covent Gardens and checked out a couple bars, but decided to call it an early night. On the way back to our hostel we passed what looked like a really cool pub, so we decided to check it out. Well, after being inside for approximately 30 seconds, a fight broke out outside between a few drunk guys and the bouncers. 15 minutes and 5 police cars later, we could finally go to bed.
Saturday-Day 2: We woke up bright and early on Saturday, and it was beautiful day! We began our tour of London at the Tower of London, home of kings, queens, and many famous prisoners. We took a short tour and spent about 2 hours walking around the complex. It was enormous! My favorite part was seeing the crown jewels. We also got great views of the Tower Bridge. After taking tons of pictures, we started walking up the Thames to the London Eye. We crossed the London Bridge, took a few wrong turns, and accidentally stumbled on the Borough Market, a huge outdoor market with tons of vendors. It was so cool! We got amazing falafel wraps and had a great time walking around.
After exploring the market, we continued to the London Eye, the world's largest ferris wheel. The views were absolutely stunning. I didn't realize how large the city was until I was at the top of the wheel. After the half hour ride, Marissa went back to the hostel. Emily and I continued our tour and crossed the Westminster Bridge, where we were able to get tons of touristy pictures of the House of Parliament and Big Ben. We walked through Parliament Square and into Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside the church, but the exterior was incredible and we couldn't get over how big it was! From Westminster Abbey, we went on a hunt to try to find Trafalgar Square. Thankfully London has maps every few streets, so we didn't get too lost. On the way, we passed Downing Street and wondered why everyone was crowded around taking pictures of the gates. We found out later that it was home to the prime minister. Dumb American moment. Anyways, after Downing Street, we continued walking and finally found Trafalgar Sqaure. It was gorgeous! Emily and I had quite the adventure trying to climb onto the statues to take pictures, and I think we had the entire square laughing hysterically by the time we got up, but at least we got some great pictures and a good laugh. There were some interesting protests going on as well, including a "Justice for Michael (Jackson)" demonstration. After walking around the square, we walked to Piccadilly Circus (slightly anticlimactic), through China Town, down to Leicester Square and the West End theater district, and finally back to the hostel. We were completely exhausted by the end of the day, but saw so much that it was well worth it.
Sunday-Day 3: Once again, we woke up early the next morning and it was a beautiful day. Our hostel was right next to the British museum so we started our day there. I love museums and could have spent two weeks there, but unfortunately we only had about an hour. We made sure to see the Rosetta Stone and all of the ancient Egyptian artifacts. From the museum we walked to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. My favorite quote from the weekend occurred when we asked a policeman if we were going in the right direction to the palace. After joking with us and giving us a hard time for being Americans, he pointed down a long street and said "Yeah if you go down there it's the big house at the end." We thought he was hysterical. After seeing Buckingham Palace, it's become my mission to find Prince Harry and marry him. I would definitely not mind living there. Buckingham Palace was followed by a trip to Harrods, where I fell in love with a scarf only to realize it cost 500 pounds. Needless to say I fell out of love with it quickly. From Harrods, we took the tube to Abbey Road! It was so neat to be in such an iconic spot. We got a Polaroid picture of us crossing the infamous crosswalk like The Beatles, signed the wall outside the recording studio, and read messages left to The Beatles on the wall over the years. Our last major stop of the day was St. Paul's cathedral. It was unbelievable! The interior was so beautiful and ornate, and the whole church was enormous.
We walked back to the hostel after St. Paul's (a much longer walk than we anticipated) and prepared to leave. Thankfully we had a cab driver who was a total beast and managed to get through London traffic to our bus back to the airport just in time. I think he could sense three girl melt downs coming on and wanted to avoid the tears. Our flight back home was easy and everything went smoothly.
Overall, we had an incredible weekend in London. We saw all of the major sites, mastered the tube, tried cream tea (possibly the most amazing thing in the world), and got enough exercise for the next two months. Although I loved London and will definitely go back, I'm really glad I'm studying abroad in Edinburgh. I prefer a smaller city that's a lot easier to navigate, and Edinburgh feels much more comfortable. I would definitely not be opposed to living in London as royalty though...
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