Lovely London.

Fact: I love London. It's true. Maybe it's because we had more time there, so we didn't feel the need to cram everything in all in one day. Or maybe it's because of the nice accents. Or maybe it's because they have awesome things like Royal Weddings. Or perhaps of the free water at restaurants. Or all those things combined into one lovely package and then some! 

Day One

Like I said, Erin and I pulled an all nighter before our flight hoping to catch some shut-eye on the flight. Of course a school group (my guess is 8th grade?) piled onto the plane. The scattered themselves all over and then felt the need to shout to their friends sitting 6 rows ahead of them & behind them. Not so lovely. We are on a plane kids, not a bus. Needless to say, we were quite happy to land in England. 
If you've ever been to London you fly into Hethrow because it's right in the city and easily accessible by metro. Well no one told us. So we flew into Stanstead. We had to take a bus which took about 45 minutes to an hour to the metro station in the city. Not so bad cause we were able to see the country side a little bit and also saw the stadium and other buildings for the 2012 Olympics!! But then our stop for our hostel was outside of town. Which wouldn't have been bad, but it was the complete opposite side of town! (Note we were running on no sleep) We didn't plan all that too well. Oh well. But geewizakers we were exhausted! Little Miss Erin was nodding off a lot of the tram ride. She'd jerk herself awake, tell me she was nodding off (like i didn't notice), and then 2 seconds later, her chin would be at her chest again. I love watching people doing that in class. It's so funny! Or when they're resting their head on their hands and it slips off and they practically jump out of their seat? Perfect. I've been there too. Oh they joy of not being rested. 
We weren't able to check into our rooms until 2, so we left our bags at the hostel and headed across the street to a restaurant called The Swan and had a delicious breakfast. We discovered here that people tip in England. I have been spoiled here in Spain because you don't tip! It's so nice! So we had to keep reminding ourselves throughout the remainder of our trip to tip! We walked around the town we were staying in (it was called Hammersmith) and finally were able to check in. After a shower and a nap we decided to meander downtown and see whatever there was to see. 
We saw Buckingham Palace, St. James Park (beautiful), Trafalgar Square, and of course the telephone booths. 

We actually had dinner before 10, which was new, but welcomed. Walked back down towards Buckingham Palace then back to the hostel where we slept like little babies. 

Day Two

Erin and I were rested and prepared for a day full of sight seeing. We wanted to see the changing of the guards, but unfortunately just caught the tail end of it. So we headed down to Westminster Abbey where William & Kate would be saying their 'I Do's' 4 days later. So beautiful!! 

We rounded the corner and saw the House of Parliament & Big Ben!

We grabbed lunch at what came to be our favorite restaurant called Eat. right on the river. Afterwards we went and rode the London Eye! 

Super blurry, but this is hilarious. Our 'pod' was told to get in the photo zone for our picture.
Nobody responded, so Erin & I slowly went to the edge and smiled.
We laughed at this picture for quite some time.

After that great experience we just wondered around London. We walked around Covent Garden, Chinatown, Picadilly Circus (aka the weak Times Square of London), found the US Embassy for Erin, and sat in the sun at Hyde Park. Being a tourist is a tiring job, so at the end of our long days, once we were through with dinner, we were tired and just wanted to go back to the hostel. So that's what we did. Oh and the only place to get wifi at our hostel was the first floor bar. Yup. The first floor was a bar, then the rest were rooms. Weird set up but they make money from it. I was very thankful our room was on the second floor and we couldn't hear all the noise downstairs!

Day Three

We started our day out by going to see the London Tower and the London Bridge (aka the Tower Bridge). 

We explored the 'Old London' area, saw Shakespeare's Globe, ate at our favorite place (Eat.), saw St. Paul's Cathedral, and went to Abbey Road. Abbey Road holds a special place in our hearts. I am almost 100% percent positive I laughed the entire time we were there. When we arrived we watched as people crossed the road, over and over, in slow motion trying to capture the perfect shot. It was a lot funnier in person than me writing about it. You'll have to just take my word on it. They also don't tell you that this road is very busy. So sometimes when cars would stop for you to cross, you couldn't get the right picture because they were in the way. So you'd have to cross again... and again. Funniest thing. 

Me crossing Abbey Rd! Haha

Something really great is it's all recorded. There is a camera set up outside of Abbey Road Recording Studios which shows you live footage of the crosswalk and an archive of the past 24 hours. I just glanced at it again and saw people doing handstands, about 6 men dressed up in suits, and a bride and groom. No lie. Check it out if you want some entertainment. Check it out here! 

After that, we went and saw Kensington Palace and walked around Hyde Park. We saw the Peter Pan playground, but they wouldn't let us in because we were over 12 years old and didn't have kids with us. Lame. I love Peter Pan. Then we had the most brilliant idea to find some of the Harry Potter sites in London!! We ventured to Kings Cross Station and indeed went to Platform 93/4!! Yes, It was AWESOME!

I'm transferring to Hogwarts. Sorry, App.

We went to this place called the Australia House, which the interior was used as Gringotts bank. But they were having some sort of event and we weren't allowed inside. Bummer. We ate at a lovely burger restaurant then proceeded back to the hostel for the evening. 

Day Four

Today we slept in. Luxury. We hit up two museums which we weren't very into. They require patience and a love for that kind of stuff. Which we didn't have then. We ate and then walked down to Buckingham Palace and sat in the sun on the fountain. Everything was so pretty because of the preparations for the wedding. The processional streets had been lined with these huge British flags and the news cameras were finishing up their bunkers all preparing for the big day. I really really wish we could have been there for the wedding. It would have been unreal. But we were there days before, so it'll have to do :) We went to this 300 year old pub near our hostel, on the river called The Blue Anchor, then next door for dinner. We went back to the hostel early for 2 reasons. 1- The Madrid vs Barcelona match was on and Erin wanted to watch it and 2- We had to leave our hostel by 2am to take the city night bus (metro doesn't run at night) to Liverpool Station where we had to catch the coach to the Stanstead airport. Told you it was inconvenient. Our flight left at 630ish. 

Overall, I really really liked London. There was always something to do. I loved the parks and how historic the city was. I for sure want to go back. Thanks for reading all that. Geez, I wrote a lot.