London --October 5 & 6

DAY 1

Beh, the travel day. However, I lucked out on this overnight flight because I had three seats to myself! Nothing like trying to stretch out across three metal seat belts to catch a snooze. Though if its any consolation to my travel mates who did not have the same spacious accommodations, I really did not get much sleep. But we arrived in London safe and sound and set off to our first merry adventure in the beautiful city!


DAY 2
Despite a minimum amount of sleep, we dove right in at London. The two things on the schedule were tickets to the magnificent London Eye and Madame Tussauds. Since it was early morning, we couldn't actually check into our hotel room. Urg. But we were able to drop off our luggage, pick up the cameras, and figure out the Underground! Easier said than done. The most difficult part was actually figuring out how to buy the tickets rather than riding the trains.

We took a scenic walk around the Thames to make our way to the London Eye. The Eye is basically the world's largest Ferris wheel. It was made in honor of the new millennium, but was such a popular attraction that's its become a permanent fixture of the London landscape. Its actually pod-like capsules that made mostly of gigantic windows. Each capsules holds probably between 10-20 people.


When at the top, and granted its a clear day, you can see 25 miles across the city in any direction. The most impressive view is of Big Ben and the House of Parliament. The two historic buildings are 10 minute walking distance from the Eye, basically over the Thames and there you have it. In fact, we walked right by them in order to get back on the Underground.  Overall, we were actually on the Eye for about 30 minutes. It's constantly moving. Yeah, even when loading and unloading people. Not terrifying. Not terrifying at all to run into a pod that one mistep would end with a swim in the Thames.

After the Eye, we headed to Madame Tussauds, world famous for creepily realistic wax figures of famous people. Basically, its a gigantic photo op place. There were the typical characters you'd expect to find, like actors and movie characters. The best being Robert Downing Jr version of Sherlock. But there were plenty of England related figures, such as King Henry VIII and Mary, Queen of Scots. The two princes made appearances as well as Princess Diana. Of course, I was stoked to be able to pose with some of my favorite London boys: the Beatles.

By then, we were absolutely exhausted. It had basically been a 30+ hour day and filled with plenty of walking. But there was one thing we absolutely had to do for our first meal in British country: eat fish and chips at a pub. After desperately scouring the neighborhoods near our hotel, and asking every local we passed for recommendations, we finally settled on a quaint little place called the Princess Victoria. It was a tasty meal and hit the spot.

So we finally made it back to the hotel and collapsed with joy into our beds...but not before we couldn't figure out how to drain the sink, the toilet wouldn't flush, and my cot bed collapsed twice. Ah, but that was nothing once sleep finally came. Until the alarm went off. At 2. In the morning. Turns out no matter how hard I hit the snooze button, the alarm wouldn't turn off. That's because it was the fire alarm going off. Thankfully, there wasn't any actual fire. It probably had to do with the fact that there were renovations going on at the hotel. Overall, it only took 45 minutes to finally get back into the warmth of my bed and back to sleep. Again.

To see more pictures, check out them out here.