God bless the English speaking city of London.

three days after we got back from rome, katie and i were set to embark on our first trip just the two of us to LONDON!!! we were so excited about: speaking english, british accents, sight-seeing, starbucks, and speaking english. getting there, however, was half the battle. we got to have our first experience with ryanair, the airline that has really cheap flights for us poor college students. we heard from people that you get what you pay for and while you pay a very low fare to fly, don't expect a great experience service-wise. you have to pay to check a bag, there is one REALLY long line (actually it's more like a blob) to board the plane (which really stressed me out). also, the airport we have to fly out of is in pisa. so first things first, we had to take an hour train ride to pisa. then we had 4 minutes to make our connecting train and we missed it so we had to wait almost another hour to take the next train to the airport. however, while we were waiting, we met two very nice gentlemen who had just been in italy for the week and live in london so they gave us some advice on what to do and gave us their numbers in case we needed anything or had any questions while we were there. so sweet!

found out going through security that their limit for liquid/gels/aerosols is lower than the U.S. so me and katie got half of our toiletries thrown away. (the limit is 100 ml in case you are every flying in europe.) we boarded the plane, sitting a row away from each other and once we were all seated with our seat belts fastened and our seats in their full upright and locked position (I don't know if they actually said this, it was all in italian…), we got to wait on the runway because there was an air traffic control strike in france and since we were flying through there, we couldn't go until they said we could. sooooo a little over an hour later we were on our way. luckily we sat next to some awesome people on the plane and got to learn some italian and get another list of places to go in london town. once we finally got on a bus and checked in at our hostel, we had been traveling for 9 hours. day 1 and we were already exhausted.

so this was our first hostel experience and it was an interesting one. we were in a mixed dorm so we weren't quite sure what to expect as far as roommates go. we had a sink in the room, a shower connected, and the restroom was in the hall. the storage was under the bunk beds and you were suppose to bring your own locks. oops. sorry we are amateurs. we found out we only had one roommate that night after we had already gotten ready for bed. in walked tony, a sweet spanish boy who had been in london for a month looking for a job. laying in bed in my clothes (i forgot pajamas…), with no make up on and my retainer in, we got to chat with tony briefly before we went to bed.

we got up the next morning determined to go find a starbucks. since we had to pay for the internet in our hostel, we decided to just walk to the train station and figure it out once we got there. we had researched the deets on seeing a broadway show with a student discount and found out if we showed up at the box office the day of the show at 10:00, we could get the best available seats for a really cheap price. and did we ever. we were told we were actually right across the street from the theater so we went back inside to wait a few more minutes and FOUND A STARBUCKS RIGHT INSIDE! oh my goodness we were so happy. we waited outside for the tickets and got 8th row dead center. man were we pumped! this was already an awesome day! we then got on the tube/underground and went to the meeting point for the fat tire bike tours. since it was a weekday, it was a smaller group of people which made it even better. we learned A TON on our tour. i don't know why we haven't taken more tours where we have gone because it was very informative and made everything even cooler. below are some of the highlights:

the first of many

beginning our tour through kensington gardens

kensington palace: the apartments in the back are where william and kate will move in. the construction kinda sucked...

perfect timing for the horse guards

the building on the left was used to film the king's speech and the one on the right is where prince charles and camila live. it's also where harry lives and where william lived before he got married!

the prime minister's house. this area that is covered with dirt now is where the beach volleyball matches will be played for the olympics

westminster abbey

the school that a ton of famous musicians went to such as the band bush, gavin rossdale, dido, and more that i forgot.

us and ben :)

the london eye

the beautiful blue bridge in st. james' park

rollin on through hyde park

Alba Memorial facing Royal Albert Hall

 after the tour we had a beer at a pub with our new friends from the bike tour and left early so we could go hit up some CHIPOTLE before wicked that night! we got off the tube at the wrong stop (which was my fault. katie is the directionally-savvy one.) so when we were asking around where it was, no one knew!!!! *gasp* we finally found it and savored every ounce of that guacamole and hot sauce and steak and YUM YUM YUM IT WAS DELICIOUS. definitely not as good as chipotle in the u.s. of a. but it satisfied fo sho! wicked was amazing, incredible, no words, wanted to cry the singing was so beautiful hahaha this is the girl that played elphaba:

that night we went home and crashed because we were exhausted from the day. the next morning we woke up to a couple deciding to share a bunk above katie's. to make the situation even more awkward, they only spoke french to each other so we didn't talk at all once they finally got up. we had to move hostels anyways because that one was booked for the weekend so we grabbed our toast with nutella, said goodbye to tony, and peaced on outta there. since we couldn't check in to our next hostel yet, we decided to go watch the changing of the guard at buckingham palace. once we got there, we realized an hour and a half later that there was a sign on the other side of the fence that said:

after that wonderful experience we checked into our next hostel which was like a dream come true. it was in a city park which was beautiful and it was part of the youth hostel association so they actually care about their property, clean sheets, and a good experience. we put our stuff in a locker since our room wasn't ready yet and we went to go see the tower bridge. me and katie were laughing because at first, we assumed since this was london, the london bridge is the really big spectacular one you see on all the postcards but as a matter of fact, it's the tower bridge. the london bridge is literally a sidewalk. nothing special whatsoever haha see for yourself how gorgeous the tower bridge is…

tower of london

we got some fish and chips at a place down the road then decided to take a double-decker bus over to the london bridge just in case there was something to see. there was nothing. however, we did see a beautiful church and upon walking toward it, we found an awesome open air market called the borough market. if you go to london, you HAVE to go hear…cheeses, meats, honey, jams, fish, cookies, brownies, etc. etc. amazing stuff!

the very unexciting london bridge

southwark cathedral- the first gothic style church in london

we didn't spend too long at the market because we knew we wanted to make it to the 5:00 service at westminster abbey. our tour guide told us it's a really incredible service because they have their world-famous westminster choir sing and it truly was amazing. it was a catholic service but regardless, it was really neat to be in there since so many famous people are buried there and its where william and kate got married :)

after the service we went back to chipotle for dinner and once again, it confirmed that it is, in fact, better in texas. we went to a pub to have a drink and as we were leaving, we stopped outside a theater because these three guys were jammin out on their drum and guitars. they played billie jean and upside down by jack johnson and we were LOVIN it! since the tube closed at midnight and we didn't know how to use the bus system, we scooted on outta there after the second song was done and headed home for the night.

saturday was our last day so we did our best to see all there was to see in the last few hours. at breakfast, we met a group of high school kids whose parents were stationed at the american army base in germany. the sweet old man who was leading their trip offered us sack lunches that were left over from their group and we were on our way :) katie had never been to picadilly circus so we went to go see england's version of time square. we didn't spend long there because we knew we weren't going to do any shopping so we went on over to the national gallery which was free admission and housed soooo many painting from the 1500's to today and included many many famous painters such as van gogh, monet, caravaggio, and more! afterwards, we really wanted to take a picture on the giant lions out front. our tour guide made it a joke by saying they are the only country who doesn't care if people climb all over their national monuments but its really true so we decided to go take pictures haha katie had some technical difficulties getting up but once she did, she kicked back and enjoyed the moment.

Picadilly circus

chillin in trafalgar square

two more stops then i'm done, promise!! one of the places our friend on the plane told us to go was the camden market. we got off the train at camden town to a SWARM of people. they had scheduled engineering work planned for that weekend on one of their busiest lines so all the trains were just incredibly busy and on top of that it was a saturday so everyone was out and about going to the market. initially we thought maybe this guy didn't know us very well because all we saw were like gothic clothing shops and tattoo/piercing parlors and i really thought these people were scary. fortunately katie thought maybe we just hadn't gone far enough so we kept walking and sure enough, ran into a freakin awesome market. it had a ton of independent food stands as well as the most precious boutique clothing and trinket shops. we spent a couple hours there walking around then finally we went to………………………………………………..PLATFORM 9 3/4!!!!!! i know harry potter fans, i'm awesome. there was a line but it was worth the 15 minute wait to take a couple pictures! :)

camden market

had to.

we hopped on the tube and went back to our hostel to get our stuff because we thought we were timing our trip back just perfectly but as soon as we got on the train we heard over the loud speaker that there were train delays so we were expecting to be stuck for awhile. since the tube had been working perfectly the whole time we were there, we recognized the Lord was giving us an opportunity to trust Him so we sat back and waited for the trains to start up again. right when the train operator was telling us over the loud speaker to expect long delays and to consider other alternative routes to our destination, the train started going again. my head whipped over to katie and i said "that was random!" and she just smiled and said "no it wasn't." God is good, even in the little things. long story short, we missed our first bus but made the second to get to the airport, security made me throw away my brand new greek honey i got from the borough market, our plane was late so we got great seats once it finally arrived, and after a long travel day, we made it home and were in bed by 3 a.m. :)

so thankful to Jesus for a safe trip and sweet memories with my wonderful friend katie! studying studying studying for mid-terms this next week then SPRING BREAK! this life is so sweet, whether in florence, london, or skyping with the people i love who are thousands of miles away. enjoy today, soak in the sunshine, and be thankful for whatever you have, wherever you are because at the end of the day, these experiences are awesome, but knowing Jesus is always going to be better. ciao ciao! baci xoxo