What a weekend. So busy. So stressful. So sightseeing. I’ll admit, London was pretty and clean and the food was good and there were a lot of fun surprises, but the transportation was just the worst. Very hard to figure out the best deal and the best times to do things. I was a mess. Thank goodness Jackson put up with me for the most part. I know I wouldn’t have!

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My favorite part was Saturday afternoon and evening. We saw the London Eye, a Jamaican stunt group nearby who used a little girl as a prop (scary), walked over one cool bridge after another, saw Big Ben (okay technically not – apparently Big Ben is the name of the actual bell inside the clock tower, not the clock or the tower itself, and we did not see the actual bell, so I guess we didn’t really see Big Ben!), wandered to Westminster Abbey on accident, found what we thought was St. Paul’s Cathedral (it wasn’t) and made our way to Buckingham Palace. All this just to make the meeting point for a free walking tour. But we gave up about five minutes away and decided to take our time to the palace.

This is the best I could do for a picture with the Buckingham Palace guards. Is that good enough, Mama?

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Then the best part: the metro stop for Buckingham Palace was plastered with signs and arrows to a Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We didn’t think much of it, but I thought it sounded Christmas-y and interesting, maybe a Christmas market or something, and we wandered over.

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Holy guacamole, Batman. This place was rad. It actually was an entire winter wonderland carnival-fair thing,with rides and shops and lights and Christmas trees and fair food and OH GOSH JUST SO AMAZING. About ten steps into the park, we bought a roasted duck wrap. Best. Thing. Ever. We wandered and oohed and awed and Jackson really wanted to go on a ride, but they were £6 each, which is about $9, which very nearly qualifies as robbery. So we just bought more food instead. Fudge and a bratwurst. We are classy. We really wanted to check out the circus they had (with a  full circus tent!)  but we had reservations for late-afternoon tea, so we made our way out.

(we bought some)

This was a slow-moving carousel for drunk people!!!

The rough life of not being followed around by a personal photographer but being too embarrassed to ask a stranger to take this picture

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Tea was equally wonderful, though admittedly neither of us had tea, and the atmosphere was not very tea-like. Rather, it was a classy little Indian type restaurant, and I had a mango chilli cocktail. Whoops. (Finally, I have found a drink I like. It was the first full drink of something I have managed to finish without wincing or choking or giving up.) Jackson had a grilled lamb burger and cider, and I got the three course set dinner: watermelon quinoa salad, super spicey tilapia, and chocolate mousse with caramelized bananas. It was a success. And we had a special couple’s table out to the side. Probably one of the more romantic dates we’ve had!

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Lastly, we explored a gigantic bookstore in search for a novel written by my Creative Travel Writing teacher. It was called Waterstones and it was wonderful, though sadly, they did not have her book. Ugh. I will have to continue my search, because I want her to sign it before I fly  back to Seattle!

(This isn’t the book my teacher wrote. It’s just an adorable one that has a positively hideous cover in the US version. Ugh.)

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So yes. That was the best part, in my opinion. We did other things too, though. All the sights and sounds of London. A double decker bus tour. The London Underground. The London Overground. Oh! And this:

I am a Ravenclaw, and I prefer to leap my way to Hogwarts, thank you very much! (The print was absurdly expensive, but Jackson only managed to capture a blurred landing of my jump, so what choice did I have?) It was pretty hilarious. They provided the school scarves for the photo, and then they had a guy standing there who threw the scarf up so it looked like you were running through the wall. Ha!

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Our hostel was great, too. Free breakfast, and it was a lot cozier than the Generator hostels I’ve been staying in, though it was a ways out of the city.

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We didn’t make it to any museums, but er did that on purpose to not have a repeat of our much-too-indoors Paris experience. In hind sight, Paris had much better weather, and Jackson and I both nearly lost a few fingers and toes on the open-top bus, but eh. It was fun! What more  a  you want? (besides sun and a possible ten degree increase in temperature?)

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OH AND IT SNOWED ON SATURDAY.

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Okay. Now for some pictures I forgot to talk about:

The interior decoration of King’s Cross

Wand shop at Platform 9 3/4

The Ravenclaw Diadem, which you could purchase for just a few thousand pounds

The Tri Wizard Cup!!!

A pretty clock tower. Can’t remember which one. Ooops…

King’s Cross from the outside

The royal horse guard

Jackson and a lion in Trafalgar Square

A British post box. So cute.

Jackson geeking over Sherlock

The London Underground! We wanted to find 221B Baker Street (Sherlock’s address) but didn’t have time during our short stay. We barely made our plane, if I’m honest.

St.Paul’s Cathedral

When we finally made it onto our $75 tour bus ride

 

 

A view of The Shard and The Egg! (London has quite some eccentric architecture.)

The Tower Bridge!

The London Dungeon: sounded fun, but not worth forty dollars at the rate we were going…

The Shard! And The Jackson!

Another strange building

About to cross the Tower Bridge

Check. Out. That. View. Man.

The Tower of London! The caster which housed King Henry VIII. Gosh, I love that guy.

Toasting with some proper medieval goblets

Oh, and we went to Harrods! It was insane, and I bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

The seats on the Underground

My view as we left London! So long! I probably won’t miss you!

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Well, I’m off to study for my Danish final tomorrow!!!! Goodnight!

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Venlig hilsen/ best regards/ cheers!

Lizzy-wa