June 3th - 7th, 2011
I am so excited that my family was able to come down for the weekend to see me off at the airport. I am so blessed to have such a supportive family! I am also thankful for all the texts/calls from my friends to say goodbye before I left! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend prior to leaving. I got to go to the Michael Buble concert with the amazing Kimmy Do, throw a surprise birthday dinner for my sister Micky and go to Italian Fest with all my friends! Here are some pictures from these events:
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| At the Michael Buble concert with Kimmy |
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| At Micky's surprise birthday dinner with Hayley, me, Micky, Martha & Bailie |
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| At Italian Fest with the "Old Squirrels" |
Then it was finally Sunday! The day I left for London. I was really nervous/ anxious, so my mom took me to get my nails done. It was great getting to relax and spend some time with her before I left. Then we finished my packing and left for the airport. We picked up Anna Miles, the girl I am traveling with, on the way! Once we got to the airport my parents and sister stayed with us the whole time. They even stood and waved as we were going through security until they couldn't see us any more. I am so thankful for them.
We were finally off to London!!! (Or so we thought) Our plane ended up having a delay, so instead of flying into Atlanta and then London we had to fly to Amsterdam and then to London. We ended up having quite a bit of a delay in Amsterdam so we spent the time looking around, or people watching as my best friend Laura says. I even found some great shoes for the trip! ha ha
After the delay, we were finally off to London! Once we were over london I was able to get some amazing pictures of the city from the plane!
We then took at taxi to our hotel and got settled into the cute hotel! Our room was tiny, but it worked since we weren't even going to be there much except to sleep!
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| On our cute little balcony :) |
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| This is our room key. You had to use it to turn on the lights in the room! |
After we got all checked in we decided to go out to an area that the taxi driver had suggested for dinner and to just explore. The area is called Covent Garden and it is amazing! I absolutely love this area of London. It is filled with a farmer's market, tons of little shops, cafes and theaters!!! We decided to eat dinner at Porter's. It was an amazing first meal in London. I had the Fisherman's Pie and Anna had the classic dish for London, Fish and Chips.
After dinner, we walked around some and discovered the macaroon store, Laduree. They sell the best macaroons! They were so good! We then continued to walk around Covent Garden and enjoyed all it had to offer which included many boutiques, theaters & many street performers. One street singer was even performing some of Michael Buble's songs.
We then started back to our hotel. We had navigated the Metro, so it was only a short ride back to the neighborhood of our hotel. Once we got off at our stop we realized that we couldn't remember what street to take back to the hotel. So we wandered around for about 45 minutes. We finally got the nerve to go into a store and ask for directions. We wanted to buy some drinks as well to have at the hotel, so we picked them out and proceeded to pay for them and ask for directions. We had just gotten used to the currency, so I kept putting the wrong amounts of coins on the counter as Anna got directions. It was a funny situation because the man working the register kept yelling, "no good" to me while trying to give directions as well! However, we finally made it back to our hotel safe and sound! By this time we were exhausted and were ready to get some sleep for the next day!
The next morning we got up and headed out to catch the double decker red tour bus to see the city of London! We got to see so many great things but two of my favorites were Buckingham Palace and The Globe Theater. We got off at the Globe and walked right into the theater; however, you are only supposed to go in if you are on a tour. We didn't know this! So we just mingled around and took great pictures and then got kicked out by the tour guide! oh well! We got to see the theater and take some great pictures for free!
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| The Globe |
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| In front of the stage at the Globe Theater |
The bus tour was a great way to see the city because you get to see EVERYTHING, you can hop on and off as you like and you get to hear all the great history and interesting stories about the city of London. We even drove by the hotel that Kate Middleton stayed in before the Royal Wedding. After the tour we had to head back to the hotel to get our luggage and get on the train for Paris. London was an amazing experience though! I really hope to get to come back one day!
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