London

The Canadian flag in the background is misleading. I was in fact in London this past weekend! We were a little apprehensive about this trip because it was our first trip we had planned outside of Ireland. We left from Shannon Airport on Saturday afternoon, and we were in London by about 2. We took a bus from the airport to London, it was about an hour drive. We got dropped off and maneuvered our way around London to go find tickets to a play for that night. Because it was so late in the afternoon we had trouble getting the tickets we wanted. Originally, we wanted to see the play Wicked, but no seats were available. We decided to go for Chicago. We had really nice seats! The play was amazing, and I'm not really that much of a play person. I was so impressed by their set as well. It was all black with not much going on. I kept thinking to myself that it was really plain looking. After the play began, I realized it was anything but plain! After the play ended we walked to grab a bite to eat and headed back to the hostel early for our big day ahead.

Sunday we decided we were going to take a tour because we didn't have that much time to spend in London. We chose a company called the Big Bus Tour Company. It's a double decker bus that has two lines that take you all over London. You pay for your ticket and you can hop on and off anywhere between these two lines. A Boat cruise down the Thames river was also included, and two free walking tours. I'd say we got our money's worth. Seeing everything we wanted to see on our own would have been an impossibility. We stopped at Trafalgar Square first. They have these huge lions, which is obviously a perfect place to be touristy and take a picture! We all took our turns climbing up on the lions and snapping a picture. The thing is that these lions are pretty hard to climb up on. It looks way easier than it actually is. There is little to no footing, and not much to grab on to. (probably done of purpose so tourists stay the hell off it, but as Americans , we're always up for a good challenge) On this particular morning it had also rained a little, so the stone was very slippery. Lauren climbed up first, we gave her a leg boost. Then I climbed up and joined her. We came down and Mallory decided she wanted to give it a go. Now, people are lined up behind us to take their turn with the lion. Mallory has a bit of an audience. She goes to put her leg up and boost herself up, and it turned into the most uncoordinated, ridiculously ungraceful attempt of anything I have ever seen. She is about 4 ft in the air, flailing her body around yelling "GUYS I CAN'T, I CAN'T, IT SOOOOO SLIPPPERY!!" The rest of us are now laughing so hard we can't even attempt to help her. She gained a crowd of onlookers now, all pointing and laughing at her stuck on the lion. At this point I am actually crying of laughter, and I can't breathe. It was almost one of those laugh so hard you might throw up things. Finally, Christy goes over and gives her a push up onto the lion. I was fortunate enough to catch the aftermath of the push on camera. It's one of those moments that I think about in class, and break out laughing in dead silence. (Thank you for being as graceful as a baby giraffe taking it's first steps Mal. you've provided a life long hysterical memory.)
After that fiasco, we hopped back on the bus and toured all around London. We saw St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower, the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and a ton more. We took the boat cruise over to the side where Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey were.


We hopped back on the tour and headed to Buckingham Palace. We watched the guards march around, took tons of pictures, and took a couple minutes to relax.

After our tour ended we were starved! It was Mal's Canadian Thanksgiving, so we decided to splurge a little on our dinner. We stopped at a pub called spice of your life on the way home. Everyone got fish and chips, except for me! (not a big seafood eater!) I went with a vegetable quesadilla instead! Our food was delicious, and we all shared some desserts after! After dinner we headed back to the hostel and got ready for the night. We headed out to the Absolut Ice Bar. It was so cool! An entire bar made out of ice! They give you special jackets, and gloves to wear in so you don't freeze. We were allowed one drink with our admission ticket. I ordered a drink that had vanilla vodka, apple juice, cinnamon, and something else that I can't remember but was delicious! Our drinks even came in Ice cups!

(Outside the Ice bar!)

After the Ice Bar we were exhausted and headed back to the hostel to get some sleep! The next morning we were waking up early to go to Abbey Road!
We took the underground to the Abbey road stop. While waiting for the T, I saw a happy little reminder of home :)


Abbey Road was really cool to see. I think we picked a bad time to go. As it was early on a Monday morning, so the traffic flow was pretty heavy. I did get a few pictures of me walking across though!

After Abbey Road I was supposed to meet Lauren and Christy outside the underground station at Russel Square. I realized I was running a little bit late walking back to the T and I still had to get my ticket! Mal and her friend Hilary already had there tickets so I told them I would hurry ahead and grab mine while they walked back. So I practically ran to the station. I was waiting in line to buy my ticket when Mal caught up to me. I turned around and said to her that I just had to get my ticket, and she nodded. I got my ticket, turned around.. and NO ONE was there. Mal and Hilary had disappeared. Instant panic set in. The other really nice part about this story is that my cell phone had stopped working because I forgot my Pin number, and had to shut it off on the plane ride over. So here I was, lost, in London, with no cell phone. I had no way of contacting Lauren to tell her I would be late, or to tell her I was lost. Then I thought maybe I could just go to a pay phone and call them. I realized that a.) I wouldn't know how to dial out from a London pay phone to an Irish cell and b.) that even in the rare chance that I figured that out, I don't know any of the girls numbers by heart. After having a mini panic attack, I realized I needed to figure something out because panicking clearly wasn't getting me anywhere. So I thought well maybe they just already went out to the T and they are waiting for me to get on. So I ran down the escalator, to find NO ONE again. Even more panic set in. I decided I would just have to figure it out on my own and hope the Lauren and Christy are where we said to meet/ hadn't left yet because I was so late. I hopped on the T and had to sit for about 15 minutes in a state of complete anxiety. I must have looked so distraught to other passengers because I could feel their eyes on me. I felt like I was either going to start bawling, or throw up. On the T ride over I began to think of alternatives in case Lauren and Christy happened to not be there. The worst part is that when I finally reached my stop, there's only two options of exit...walking up 175 steps or waiting for the elevator. I knew for sure in the state of panic I was in that 175 steps would probably kill me. So I waited a few for the lift. The elevator doors opened and I spotted the girls! An overwhelming feeling of relief set in. Lauren and I locked eyes and I smiled hugely at her. She gave me a death glare and started shaking her head. See, they had been waiting a good amount of time for me. With no communication, Lauren thought I blew them off, was being completely irresponsible, and I was making us late for our 100 dollar train ride to Paris. I would've given her the same face is the situations had been switched. However, her death glare sent me into a hysterical fit of tears on the sidewalk as we were running now to catch our train. In between sobs I was saying "But Lauren you don't understand, I was LOST" I am not an emotional person, and especially not a crier. It took me kind of a long time to pull myself together. Eventually, she understood the situation and translated my sobs into a comprehend-able story. All tension was lost, and they sympathized with my traumatic experience. Not only did we make our train, we did it with time to spare. I will say that I am pretty proud of myself for navigating back to where I was supposed to, in London, with no cell phone, and no real clue of where to go.

From London we took the Euro star to Paris. I will write my blog for Paris a little later. I am absolutely exhausted, and preparing for another trip for this weekend right now. We are headed to Kerry. We paid 165 euro and a hotel, all transportation, and all meals are included for the weekend! They are even picking us up at our university! We are all excited to finally stay in a nicer hotel, and have things planned for us instead of going through the stress of planning. It should be a relaxing weekend :)