LONDON!

I know what you're thinking, "hey, wasn't she JUST there"

Indeed.

I was just in London about a month ago. 

But it's my favorite city in the world. So sue me.

[i also was trying to get back there a third time, but alas, not happening]

SO.

This time, I went with 4 other girls from my program, Alyssa, Laura, Zoe and Lily.

We had [yet another] 4 day weekend here in France, where we had Thursday and Friday off. 

So we flew out of Charles de Gualle on Wednesday night.

We arrived at Luton, took the shuttle to Victoria station and then got a taxi to our hostel in Hammersmith, which is not a central location.

Thursday

We had a leisurely morning, because we had gotten in at 1am London time, which was 2am France time. 

And we went to get everyone Oyster cards (seriously, if you go to London, get one. saves SO much money).

And then we went to Pret a Manger to get tea. 

A white earl gray

with 3 packets of splenda. 

it's amazing.

i drank at least 1 a day.

ANYWAY. we took the tube to Victoria, and walked down past Buckingham Palace that was just finishing up Changing of the Guard. 

And we walked down the Mall to St. James' Palace. 

And up St. James' Street so I could stop in D.R. Harris again to get more lip balm, and get some things for Papa Cain. 

Then we made our way to Piccadilly, and went into Fortnum & Mason's, which is an amazing tea house, and I got some Earl Grey (told you, LOVE it) for my host mom and myself. 

Piccadilly dressed up for the Jubilee!

Then we went to a few bookstores and then we went and found Chipotle.

There's 1 in France, in Paris, and the 1 Mexican restaurant in Angers is quite expensive. 

[pic from last time]

After lunch, we went to a tourist store at Piccadilly circle, and then as we were walking down Piccadilly, we ran into the hotel where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were staying. 

 [photo by me]

[photo by alyssa]

So yeah, after that we went back to our hostel and ate, and went to sleep. 

Friday:

HARRY POTTER TOUR

{official site}

{my experience}

Saturday:

We started out the day by going to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

I had a ticket to the British Ballgown exhibit, it was amazing. 

The rest of the girls really liked it too, so that was good. 

They also played a little dress up: 

Laura and Zoe

I also LOVE this Chihuly chandelier in the atrium at the museum

Then we headed to lunch, we ended up going to a pub where 3 of the girls got fish and chips, and the fish they got was so big it looked like they fried the whole fish. 

And I had shepherd's pie[!!!!] and a Blue Moon!!!! Yay! I missed them!

Laura, and I then headed to the Tower of London, 

Traitor's Gate 

Crown Jewels!

Guarding the Jewels

After that, we went to Harrods, which was overwhelming as usual, but I wanted something from the Jubilee, so I got a mug!

Sunday:

We got up and got ready to leave, and checked out of our hostel, our bus to the airport was at 4, so we had some time to do some touristy things. 

We went to Big Ben:

Took some touristy Telephone booth pics [my first one ever]:

And then we walked up to Trafalger and then some girls went to the National Gallery, while Zoe and I went to the National Portrait Gallery. 

And then we went to Chipotle. 

And then to the Starbucks across the street from where our bus picked up from. 

We then flew back into Charles de Gualle, and had a difficult time deciding on how to get into the city to our hotel, and then left at 6:15 Monday morning.