A four day London sister-fiesta!! Only four days to see ALLLLL of London? Challenge accepted.
Thursday, November 21, 2013:
I think my greatest worry of this entire trip was that I wouldn't be able to meet up with Laura after her flight got in because she wouldn't be able to use her cell phone once she stepped into the UK. Before she left the States, I had written out thorough directions and a contingency plan in case Plan A didn't work out. I made sure she understood it. I repeated it to her about a thousand times and I was still a wreck. Worried sick. We were to meet two hours after she landed at Heathrow and I would pick her up at the Earl's Court tube station. Thankfully, the plan went off without a hitch. We met at Earl's Court station (after I spotted a British actor from one of my newest favorite British TV shows getting on the tube! I kinda went a little bonkers - silently, of course!) and we proceeded to drop her stuff off at my flat before we headed to Euston Station to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour! I'll let the pictures do all the talking, but let me just say, I acted like a big friggin' nerd-face whack-attack. And I loved every minute of it!
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Waiting, bright and early, at my Bayswater station
for the District Line to Earl's Court. |
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Catching the shuttle from Watsford Station to the Studio.
WE'RE SO EXCITED! |
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| All decorated for Christmas at the HP Studio! |
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| The cupboard under the stairs. Yup, first thing on the tour, and I died! |
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| The Mirror of Erised, like the REAL one! |
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| Me and Laura in the Gryffindor Common Room! |
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| The Potions Classroom! |
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| Hagrid's Hut! |
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| Me and Laura in The Burrow! |
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| Umbridge's Office! Run the other way! |
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| Creepiest friggin' thing I've ever seen! |
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| Butterbeer frenzy! |
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| Probably shouldn't be drinking and driving! |
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| Driving the Weasley's hot ride! Ow ow! |
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Maybe my FAVORITE picture of all time!
Seriously, I might be making this my wallpaper. |
After an exhausting day at the Studio, marveling at all the ridiculously awesome novelties, we traveled all the way back to the city and went to Jaime's at Westfield. We had a delicious dinner and then walked around the mall to marvel at the beautiful Christmas decorations and ice skating rink. We needed to head home to get some sleep - we had another series of very full days ahead of us! Sweet dreaming of Quidditch and puking pastilles.
Friday, November 22, 2013:
Get ready - this might be the most action packed day that ever existed. We literally attacked the city with gusto. The day began, uhh a little later than we had anticipated, with yummy egg sandwiches while we got ready for the day. We grabbed a Starbucks (YAY Toffee Nut Latte!) and walked over to Portobello Market. After making our way up and down the market, we headed off to
St. Paul's Cathedral, a stroll over the Millennium Bridge and past The Globe Theater over to Borough Market.
At Borough Market, a food market full of food stalls and specialty items, we tasted and sampled yummy yummy food like coconut sticky rice with mango, coconut pancakes, cheeses, and mushroom pate. It was like Food Tour 2013! We then walked over to Tower Bridge and Tower of London.
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| Starbucks on Portobello Road in Notting Hill! |
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| Trying on hats at the market! She looks like a guard at Buckingham Palace! |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| Pics from the Millennium Bridge |
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| Pic of the Bridge from the South Bank. |
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| On the Thames! |
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| The Globe Theater |
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| Walking through Southwark... |
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| Most ridiculous sticky rice ever. Those are our 'amazed' faces. |
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| Meringues the size of my head! |
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| Wanted to lick the cheese - I got some crazy eye balls from other patrons. |
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| Tower Bridge! |
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| Woohoo!!! |
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| Yippeee! |
As the sun was setting (very quickly, thank you daylight savings!), we made our way down the Thames to view the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey at sunset.
We then walked over to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus so that we could go to Fortnam and Mason for high tea!
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| When in doubt... |
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| pinkies out! |
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| Christmas Decorations on Regent Street |
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| and some more on Oxford Street |
Afterwards, we walked up Regent Street and down Oxford Circus to look at the Christmas decorations. Thankfully for us, Hyde Parks' Winter Wonderland opened up just today so we shuffled on through, enjoying the German beer and the bands!
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| "Jam"min out, man! |
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"Please sir, I'd like some more!"
We bought too much jam and snow and couldn't afford any more beer.
Sad faces! |
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| "Nobody drink the beer! The beer has gone bad!" |
The fair closed at 10pm so by the time we got back to Bayswater, it was only about 11pm, waaaayyyy too early to call it a night on a Friday. So we went to the pub, The Black Lion, so that I could introduce Laura to the bad decision that I like to call 'Aspalls'.
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| Ahhh, refreshing Aspall's at The Black Lion. |
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| Cheers! |
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| Cheers! |
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| Camembert is the smelliest cheese EVER! |
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| UGH! The smell is making me sick! |
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| Yeah, we don't remember taking this picture. |
Three Aspalls later, and neither of us remember stumbling home. Ahhh... good times!
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Snuggling in my baby twin bed.
Hooray for beer making passing out and sleeping in a twin bed so easy! |
Saturday, November 23, 2013
After not eating properly all day, not drinking ANY water throughout our 10 mile hike and then drinking a substantial amount of beer and Aspall's it was not surprise that we wanted to DIE the next day. HANGOVER FROM HELL!! Thankfully, we covered so much ground on Friday that it minimized our to-do list for Saturday. We crawled reluctantly out of bed at like 10 (waaaaay behind schedule of course) and got dressed to head over to Bill's on High Street Kensington, for which we had to walk through Hyde Park and past Kensington Palace to get there. It was another beautiful day and though we felt sooooo sick, the walk through the park was really nice.
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| Kensignton Palace |
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and Bloody Marys (nothin like hair of the dog!) at Bill's and then took a bus (and sat upstairs) to St. James's Park and Buckingham Palace. Laura was not impressed.
We took some photos and then walked to Harrod's (which was swamped with masses of people so we didn't stay long!). Just wanted her to see the Christmas Shop and the Toy Kingdom.
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| Only two guards? The Queen is not in! |
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| Fall in London! |
Then we caught a bus back to my neighborhood and went to Itsu for sushi and then back to my flat for a movie and a nap. And boy did we nap. I'm surprised we rallied. It was looking pretty grim. But we managed to get up, get dressed, and get over to Covent Gardens by 11pm. I felt like I was back in college. Nap till 9pm, wake up, get ready and go out at 11. Yup, that's about right.
We had a drink at the Globe Pub and marched on over to Roadhouse for yet another ridiculous evening of debauchery and wild times. God, I love it there. We closed the club down, oh yeah, lights on getting ushered on outta there, and then got home by cab around 4:30am. Not bad for having had such a rough and hungover start!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
For Laura's last day, we slept in a bit, finished packing and then grabbed some sushi at YoSushi. I took her to Heathrow and we said our goodbyes. It was only about three days, but we really did so much and had so much fun. Now only about 2 1/2 more weeks til I head home, and with how quickly time has been flying, I know I'm going to blink and my departure day will be here too.
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