I guess we really missed our Syracuse friends, because our first trip was to London, home of 30 Aephi girls. We arrived in London at 9am Friday morning and literally did not stop moving until Sunday afternoon when we returned back to Barce.
The flight from Barce to London was really easy. We hopped on Easy Jets and slept the not even two hour flight, and before we knew it, we were in London. We arrived in London where everything is much easier than Spain. However, when it came time to go through Passport Control, we asked the woman which line should we be in... she heard our AMERICAN accents, but still told us the wrong line. When they told us we had to switch lines, us Americans, thought it would be perfectly fine to cut the entire line and just wait in the front until the next available agent. London, a place where everyone is polite, was not okay with our American mentality and told us to move to the back of the line. After waiting for about 20 minutes, we finally got to the agent and I took charge and answered all of the questions (we were told that they were very strict at passport control). Luckily, we got a nice guy, who even teased us, when he said to Mattie, "you look like Snooki" or to me, "do you answer all of their questions" and then to Riana, "oh, so you do know how to speak back there." After passport control, we hopped in a cab and were off to our friends' flats.
Walking into Cally, Carly, Perri, and Hayley's apartments, Riana and I immediately freaked out. We were having major apartment envy. It is funny because they think that we have the most BEAUTIFUL apartment based on our pictures, but I really do not think they know what they are in for when they visit us in two weeks. We dropped our stuff off, grabbed a quick lunch, and then we were off to Harrods and TopShop. I went to London a few years ago with my dad so I remembered everything, but every time you walk into Harrods, it is hard not to be impressed. We killed a few hours in Harrods, Harvey Nichols and TopShop and then went home to order in dinner and get ready to go out. Going out in London is much different than going out in Barcelona. We walked into the club (Cafe d'Paris) and we knew everyone. Syracuse people took over our own little table, and it was comfortable because it felt like a night out at a Syracuse bar, or summer nights in the city. Getting home at 2am was also a plus, because it meant that I was able to get more than four hours of sleep because I knew that Saturday was going to be a long day.
It was 9am and Carly woke Riana and me up. It took us so long to realize that we actually needed to start moving because we had a lot to do. We decided to be sooooooo touristy and see all of the sights, take pictures, and walk the city. We started off at Buckingham Palace, however, we were unable to see the changing of the guards. After Buckingham Palace, we walked to the London Eye and then on the way we saw Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Big Ben. It was only 1230 and we had already done all of this, but we wanted to spend the afternoon at the markets. We made our way to Portobello Market (and tried to look for the street my dad lived on when he was abroad) and walked around and had lunch at a little cafe in an antique shop. For those of you who really know me, know that I am pretty responsible and also known as the 'Mom' of my group of friends, so you will be surprised to hear that I somehow left my wallet at lunch because when I went to pay for a shirt and realized it was not in my bag, I went into panic mode and sprinted out of the store and darted up the street for my wallet. The chef (who we made friends with before) was laughing as he heard me run up the stairs and he said to me, "You ditzy American." I did not even care because all I cared at that moment was that my wallet was back in my hands (Mom, do not worry, my lesson was learned and I am happy that it happened then because now, knock on wood, it will not happen again). We walked around a little more and then went to Hilary's apartment to join the rest of the girls for dinner.
Sunday morning we met up with everyone and had a nice (close to American) breakfast at Canteen. After breakfast we wanted to go to Abbey Road and take some pictures. We took the tube from Baker Street to the Abbey Road stop and literally stopped traffic to take the famous picture. We could not have been more touristy at that moment. Can you imagine nine American girls walking back and forth trying to take the picture? Needless to say we were probably so annoying, but we did not care because after awhile we finally got the picture.
I am glad that we started off abroad with a trip to London!
xoxo
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