London Calling

This past Thursday morning, I woke up early and headed out to the airport! I was flying into London, Stansted, to visit Heather (my Kappa “big” sister) for the weekend! Heather is currently completing a year-long graduate program at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Norfolk, England, so once I arrived at Stansted, I boarded a bus headed straight towards the UEA campus! The bus dropped me right into the middle of campus, and then I was finally reunited with Heather! I got to see her town, where she was living, and meet her housemates and her friends. I also discovered they sell Cool Ranch Doritos in England, so all in all, I was a happy camper.

Pretending to be Hermione 

On Friday morning I explored the UEA campus a bit while Heather was in class. While the campus is mostly cement, I managed to find the University of East Anglia Estates which consisted of a pretty pond and a nice walking path. Once Heather was done with class, we headed back to her house, and then went to the Norwich Train Station for our train into London. Our train arrived at the Liverpool station, but the first thing we did was transfer using the Tube and head to Kings Cross Station to visit Platform 9 ¾! They had a professional photographer there, along with the various Harry Potter house scarves you could wear for the perfect photo opportunity. After sadly realizing that we never did get officially accepted into Hogwarts, we headed over to the hostel to check in.

Dad, for your own benefit, please don't check the credit card statement

Later in the afternoon, we went shopping at Harrods! We wandered throughout the entire department store, making sure to stop at every floor. While I did purchase some stereotypical Harrods souvenirs, I also made a real "adult" purchase! I had done some research beforehand, and discovered that Lonchamp Le Pliage bags are cheaper in the UK. I had my eye on a certain bag for awhile, so going to Harrods was the perfect excuse to finally buy my new bag. After shopping at Harrods, we headed over to Covent Garden and ate outside, right next to a street performer! His name was “Dynamike” and he was juggling pirate swords while riding a unicycle. After dinner we walked around the Theatre district and ended up at Trafalgar Square, which was pretty with the fountains lit up at night. As we were walking through the square, all of a sudden I turned my head left and saw Big Ben!

The previous night we had decided on doing a 48-hour hop on/hop off tour, along with tickets for touring the Tower of London. We headed to the main office for the sightseeing tour, collected our tickets, and hopped on the bus. We rode the bus to Buckingham Palace so we could watch the changing of the guard. It is amazing how elaborate the ceremony is! My personal favorite moment of the ceremony was when the Royal band played Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” After the changing of the guard we were planning on getting back onto the bus and continuing on to Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. However, there was strike in downtown London that shut down much of the city for a good portion of the day. We waited a long time for the bus before deciding to just walk along St. James’s Park towards Parliament and Westminster Pier to take advantage of the boat cruise that was included with our bus ticket! The boat cruise up the Thames River was lovely, and dropped us off right at the Tower of London.

Field of Ceramic Poppies

The Tower of London is currently installing a art/memorial exhibit for 100 year anniversary of World War I. The art exhibit is called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, and consists of 888,246 ceramic poppies filling the moat. We did a free Yeomen Warder tour of the Tower, and learned some of its “darker” history. Then we entered the White Tower, which houses some very old and very cool armor and weaponry. We ended our time at the Tower of London by visiting the Crown Jewels. The queue line was informative, and even had a video loop that showed Queen Elizabeth II's inauguration back in 1953. The crown jewels are so extravagant, it is almost hard to believe they are real!

221B Baker Street

After dinner, we had planned to head to the top of The Shard to get a 360-degree view of the city. We got there easily enough, but the tickets were much more expensive than anticipated, so we decided to pass. We ended up walking down towards the river and finding a series of restaurants that had outside seating and an excellent view of Tower Bridge. We sat down and enjoyed dessert before walking along the river for a bit. We got a nice close view of the HMS Belfast and kept walking for a bit before heading across the London Bridge on foot (unfortunately, we did not walk across the Millennium Footbridge at any point during our stay, but we did ride under it during our boat cruise). We ended the night by making a quick pit stop to see 221B Baker Street, and no, Sherlock and Watson weren't home.

We got up early once again, packed our bags, and headed back to the hop on/hop off tour so we could ride it all the way through. We got back on at Trafalgar Square, and enjoyed a two hour tour throughout the City of Westminster and London (they are technically two different places, it's pretty cool; look it up!). We had lunch at a "traditional" English pub and I finally indulged in some classic fish & chips. We ended our afternoon by riding the Tube over to Waterloo and walking around the bank near the London Eye. After that, I went to the Victoria Station and took the Gatwick Express to the airport for my flight back to Prague.

This weekend was the first time I have ever stayed in a hostel. This one was huge and was located in an old court house. We didn't interact too much with the other guests, and didn't even get a chance to meet all our roommates, but overall it was a good first experience (thankfully, because I will be spending many more weekends in hostels). Overall, my favorites were shopping at Harrods, walking along the Thames River at night, and seeing the Crown Jewels. I also discovered that Big Ben is my favorite London landmark, because as I went through all of my pictures, I realized that approximately a fourth were of Big Ben, and yes, they were all exactly the same. We definitely made the most of our weekend in London, but I have already started a to-do list for the next time I visit!