Cheers, London!

So this weekend confirmed two important things for me- One, couples on their honeymoon should never travel budget airlines, and two, I cannot return to London until I am a million times richer than I am right now.

On the way to London we ran into very unfortunate travel delays.. despite being near a couple who were on their honeymoon. I really thought they would be bringing us good karma for being on their honeymoon and yet delays were just announced, and then announced and then announced. So really the lesson to be learned is that you should never, ever fly RyanAir for your honeymoon. I think I would get an on the spot annulment if I found out my husband had booked that. But after about 2 hours worth of delays we were finally off and were able to get into our hostel at around 3:30 in the morning in London where it was about 30 degrees colder than Rome. Not a warm welcome per se. But we were extremely excited! The view coming in for landing was incredible, London was so lit up and just sparkling. 

Sleeping in a tiny room in bunk beds in the hostel just me and Kelly was very much a throwback to being freshman year roommates in our tiny McCormick room. Another guest asked us on the way out how much we liked the place and we both basically shrugged.. we will always have stayed in smaller rooms (and for significantly longer periods of time) after our year in McCormick together. The other guest didn't seem as happy with her experience.

The next morning we got up and headed over to the Borough Market. We used the tube and everything and were extremely happy with how easy the maps are to interpret and for how convenient it is. The Borough Market was probably my favorite thing we did the whole trip. We circled the whole thing probably two times stealing samples which I suppose you could call breakfast. We chose these chicken wraps that smelled, and tasted absolutely amazing and had that for lunch while we continued to look around. One of the best things that we sampled was this honey- but we also came across a sign for Chocolate Wine which we asked for a tasting for. It was wine, brandy and chocolate and tasted just like drinking liquid chocolate but thinner. So good! We had a lot of fun just trying stuff. 

After we finally dragged ourselves out of the Borough Market - hot cross buns in hand (because we just couldn't resist paying a little homage to the fourth grade elementary school recorder classes) we began to wander around London. I loved London so much. Maybe it's the nostalgia for Harry Potter but it's actually probably the adorable way that kids say "Mum."

Statue in King's Cross Station

London Bridge!

St. Paul's Cathedral

We spent part of our day at the London Museum which had a lot of great exhibits. I particularly liked the one about the London fire. It had a picture of this little guy below- a symbol of gluttony as a reminder of the fire. People believed that it had been caused by the indulgence of gluttony because rumors were that it started at Pudding Street and ended at Pie. 

We spent part of our day at the Tower of London. One of the best parts was seeing the inscriptions that prisoners had wrote in the walls, but beyond that we got to see the Crown Jewels that were there for a special exhibition. I didn't know all that much about the crowning of the monarch or anything like that, so I was impressed by the luxury of the crowns and coats and the whole exhibit felt a bit like Disneyland as you wound through all the rooms. Definitely a fun part of the trip. 

Later that afternoon we went over to the Tate Modern. One of the exhibits was "Poetry and Dreams" which was just about too weird for Kelly and I both. We spent most of our time in that exhibit making up the stories of whatever made people dream these odd dreams that they were now depicting. Ended up hilarious.  After wandering through all the exhibits- we headed up to the top for a beautiful view of London at night. These iPhone quality pictures.. 

That night Kelly and I went out for Indian food. Who remembers the days that all Mary McNellis would put in her mouth was chicken, uncooked vegetables and pretzels? Certainly my Mom. But no more! Try all kinds of strange things including lamb tikka, chicken tandoori, naan and all kinds of things like that. 

The next day we got up to go explore the other end of London. That began with Harrods, which I am endlessly in love with. I don't know if we even saw half the rooms, but each of them had amazing things in them. We spent tons of time wandering around wondering why in the world there is not one of these closer to us. All the knowledge I had of Harrods came from those Confessions Of A Shopaholic books- which makes 100% sense now because I too would be a shopaholic if I had one close to me. 

Glitter doughnuts- would have brought one home for you Stephanie if you still lived down the hall! 

Because department stores have clock rooms.

& flower shops.

We walked through Hyde Park and Green Park over to Buckingham Palace where we were fortunate enough to see the police march around the square. 

Big Ben & Westminster Abbey.

We went over to Trafalgar Square and the square IS beautiful. And immense. We wandered through the National Museum there too for a while.

We spent the rest of the day shopping up and down Oxford Street and basically dying over the terrible exchange rate. Nonetheless we still had a lot of fun and loved London even if we did not love the pound so much. And on the way out of King's Cross Station we got to see a movie being filmed! So we'll have to see later if we recognize what movie it is. I'm praying it's a Harry Potter prequel or sequel but we'll see! 

And because my parents let us watch Friends from a young age, and our dog is named after a Friends character, and therefore I would practically be a sinner if I didn't- I was obligated to take the Joey Tribiani "I'm going to have to go into the map!" London picture.

It was wonderful to come home to Rome, as always. But not so great to come back to midterms. Not only because I am in no way prepared for them, but also because it means that we are already more than halfway done! It's a terrible thing to think about, but this Thursday night Meghan, Kelly and I leave for Spain! So at the very least we have the thought of tequila and tacos to get us through this rough week. 

As a final note- Happy Birthday (in about an hour Rome time) to my amazing older brother Jimmy! I'm having such #whitegirlproblems over missing you turn 24. Try not to have any of your own. Love you!