"You Sound Like You're From London"

I'm warning all of you now, this is going to be an exceptionally long post.

One of the many beautiful sights on the train to London.

On Thursday I headed out to London from Edinburgh.  I decided to take the train, which was a great decision.  First of all trains are always on time; they leave exactly when scheduled so you never have to worry about being delayed or stuck in the station. Considering my love of promptness this obviously made me quite happy. Even better than the timing was the ride itself, the entire trip was spectacular. It reminded me of the coast road in California since the first half of the four hour trip was along the ocean. Plus the whole train was spacious and fast and not that unreasonably priced so if you're ever traveling in the UK (Caroline!) I definitely recommend taking the train at least somewhere. Okay train advertisement over.  Seriously they should hire me.

I arrived at Kings Cross station in London where I was promptly pummeled by all the aggressive business people trying to get home, who knew a walk through a train station could be so hazardous? After figuring out the metro system (so proud of myself for that one) I met up with Shawn and Cassie who was kind enough to give Shawn and I a place to stay for the weekend.  Since we were all pretty tired we took it easy that night and just went down the street to one of the local pubs. 

Pi Love in London <3

Tower of London!!!

The next morning Shawn and I woke up around 9 (huge achievement for us) and took the train to the Tower of London.  It was a little expensive but an amazing experience.  We started off on a tour but after our tour guide insulted both Texans and Redheads I decided that maybe it was safer to take Shawn away from the group....It was pretty incredible seeing all of the ancient artifacts that I grew up reading about.   Between the crown jewels and Henry VIII's armor i was definitely in heaven. 

The Egyptian Room at Harrods

After the Tower of London we took the metro back up to Hyde Park where we got to experience the wonder that is Harrods.  Harrods is the single biggest department store I've ever seen and each room has a theme and a specialty.  There was a room for caviar, that's how ridiculous this place is.  Definitely worth a visit.

Ryan, Shawn, and I in the IceBar!!!

Later that night Shawn and I met up with my friend Ryan and went to the Absolut IceBar.  The IceBar is just this giant freezer like room made entirely of ice. Seriously everything is ice, the cups, the bar, the tables everything. It was so cool (no pun intended). I probably wouldn't do it again just because it was a bit expensive and you can only stay for 40 minutes but it was still pretty fun.  After the IceBar we went to this club called Cargo where there was a giant dance party and some great people watching- the women in London are just all so edgy and fabulous. Also shout-out to Shawn for getting ready in twenty minutes to go out, if you know Shawn you'll know just how big an achievement this was ;)

Westminster Abbey!

My delicious beans and toast!

Saturday we woke up a little late and had an amazing brunch at a local restaurant.  I ate beans and toast which is a traditional English dish that I was little scared of but turned out to be amazing. Then Shawn and I caught the bus (a double-decker!!) to head over to Westminster Abbey.  Unfortunately the abbey was closed so we didn't get to go inside which was kind of a let down but I know I'll be back so hopefully ill get the chance to go then. 

Just another day in front of Parliament

Now it is worth mentioning that throughout our day around the Abbey and Parliament Shawn and I kept noticing all these weirdly dressed people.  There were cows, ketchup bottles, rugby players and various other weird things.  At first just wrote all this off to London being London but then we noticed that they were all converging in front of Parliament. We then asked a friendly policeman what was happening and he informed us that it was New Zealand's independence day and that everyone was celebrating their freedom from the British Empire by staging an impromptu rager outside of Parliament.  The whole thing was so insane.  There were drunken New Zealanders everywhere just shouting and doing some dance, at one point we witnessed a guy doing a beer bong. In front of Parliament!! Just like right there, with the police looking on! Can you imagine anything like that happening outside of the Capital??? I think not.

So after hanging out with the New Zealanders for a bit we managed to make it to Buckingham Palace, a boat tour on the Thames, and back to Johnni's to meet up with her, Taylor and their roommate Rebecca for a fun night out.  Overall a pretty quality Saturday.

Sunday I took the train back up to Edinburgh, a trip much improved by the beautiful British man sitting next to me, then I just chilled and did some work for the rest of the day until the Superbowl.  Our student union was having a huge Superbowl party so Lindsey, Alyssa (she was here for the weekend from Manchester) and I all went.  It was so much fun, despite the fact it was one a.m. on a Sunday everyone was just drinking and having a good time and it felt so much like home just to be with Americans watching football and relaxing.  Unfortunately however the Superbowl commericals don't air in the UK so I'm going to have to catch them all on youtube!!!

That's all for now! Talk to you all soon!