London

This past weekend was London!! Kat, Sarah and I hit up the capital city and I seriously want to live there, it's just so expensive!! I loved every minute and it's so beautiful, and yes very cosmopolitan like New York, but I think it has so much more original and historic character.

We took a 4 hour bus to Dublin, waited 2 hours then took a 4 hour ferry (which was awful), then took a 7 hour bus to London. That trip was hell. We got to London by 9amish and walked to Buckingham Palace then figured out the Tube and headed to Borough St for our hostel. We then went back to Victoria and bought tickets to ride a double-decker hop on and off bus. It was so worth it because we saw everything. I got a hole in my pants and had to wrap my sweatshirt around my waist so I was freezing under my jacket w/just a little Tee on. Luckily I found a cheap pair of jeans and solved that problem! At night Katie and I found peanut butter KitKats - which the US needs NOW - and then walked around our hostel area. Turns out back in the day it was the slummy area that Shakespeare got his inspiration from - pretty cool if you ask me. Now it's such a hidden gem - great little night life - one bar was made out of the arch of a bridge!

We rode the bus all over the first day and then walked around Leicester Square and Regent St at night which was great. The next day we tried for cheap West End tickets with no luck, then Katie and I headed to watch the changing of the guard. I dunno I wasn't that impressed - it was really cool and all, but a lot of pomp and circumstance over nothing. Then we hopped on the bus and went all over again, walked around Trafalger Square, Picadilly, Leicester again, the Horse Guard, Parliament and Westminster. We also took a river cruise also from Tower of London to the London Eye along the Thames and saw Shakespeare's new Globe theatre, and an actual pirate ship - which Katie kind of freaked out about. We took the bus over to the Kensington are of town which was beautiful and saw Harrods, Princess Di's memorial park, all the museums and Albert Music Hall. Then by night we ate at Garfunkels - I had cottage pie which was delicious. Then we hit Leicester again - it's very Union Squareish, and at delicious gelatto and waffle desserts - we had to indulge it's vacation! Two Russion/London boys begged us to club with them because they needed girls to get in, but we declined the offer, we're not much of club people and we were dressed like bums! We headed back to the hostel and that great night life was non-existant. Everything closed on a Saturday night so we walked over London Bridge and saw everything at night, sooo pretty. Then we found a local pub called the Old Kings Head and chilled out there. We just really didn't want to go back to our hostel - the people were creeping us out.

On Sunday we headed to Tower of London and tried to get in for free with no luck (again) so we bought tickets, did a tour then explored for about 2 hours. That place was great - soo soo much history. Then we snuck on our tour bus (our tickets had expired) and rode over to Victoria Station. We got lunch and wandered, but we were ready to go home. We then took that dreadful trip back, but I popped some sea sickness motion and just slept the whole ferry and bus ride home. I would reccommend it tho because it's so much cheaper than flying. And back to Galway we were, and I had to quickly finish a paper, shower, and head to class!!!