Day 5-London, England

April 23rd, 2012

'Just dropped down in London town!'--Thank you, Kanye. But yes, here we are! London, London, London, LONDOOOOOOON!!!!! I cannot believe I am here!! Flight went fine and figuring out the Underground was long but meh, it's all good. King's Cross Station (at least the part we saw) was not what I expected. It was kind of dirty, not fancy, I mean I was picturing Platform 9 3/4 and it wasn't...disappointing :( Our exist from King's Cross was met by a lovely young chap you yelled, "GO PACKERS!" due to Teresa's shirt...amazing! This guy was so sweet and if it wasn't raining we would have totally continued talking to him but it was and it was miserable. The walk sucked, like sucked major. But we finally our hostel and it's nice. 6 occupant suite. Tight but totally doable. 

After regaining our wits we emerged looking like humans again and made our way to the Big Chill for a burger...but the kitchen wasn't open. Had to wait a half hour until 5:30...Seriously? Oh well, by the time our food came you could have served us dog food and we would have thought it was gourmet. But the food ended up being quite fantastic...probably due to starvation but whatever. Another weird thing, they gave us a hard time about getting more ketchup. Do Europeans not do ketchup? WTH. They gave us these little tin cans like it was precious booty not to be parted with. What. Ever. 

After that, and with much difficulty due to the incompetent travel store employee, we bought tickets to the London Eye! Eep! Bought an oyster card for Underground travel and came out by Westminster Abbey--wow! Absolutely lovely. It was incredible to see such an amazing structure in person and Big Ben, too! But no pun intended...I expected it to be bigger...(that's what she said)...

When we got to the Eye, it wasn't running so to kill time we found a little bookstore :) :) :) They have so many different editions and covers and almost all new books are in paperback...weird! Clockwork Prince was in paperback and it SO is not available in the States like that. Totally went around snapping pics of all my favs...and no I am not ashamed...AND I bought a bitchin' Shakespeare magnet with 'The world's a state' quote on it. Love it! AND I bought my very own copy of Julius Caesar (how did I not already own this?...) eeek! To be able to say my copy of Shakespeare came from London makes me happier than it should, oh well. 

The London Eye was incredible! It's view was just as amazing as you think it would be with all the lights and the Abbey. This is what I expected London to look like; I retract my previous statement. It was hard to believe we were actually that high up! Another bucket list check mark!

Exhausted, we got back to King's Cross and took a different exit where we found the bricks!!! We did not get to Platform 9 3/4 but we saw Platform 9!! Close enough! WE DID, however, pretend to be walking through the brickwall...yeah, couldn't NOT do that, let's be real.

Tomorrow I may actually induce a heart attack. We plan to go to the Tower of London (*gasp*), the Globe (*double gasp*), and...a trip to Hampton Court Palace (*OH MY F'ING GOSH*). This was something I NEVER thought I would get to do but it is SO gonna work! Holy hell I am too excited for words!

I"m going to see, feel, walk, and BE where Henry VIII held court, where Anne Boleyn and all the other wives lived!!! The Tower--where Anne and Jane Grey and Katherine Howard lost their lives...*sniff*...and where two little boys disappeared without a trace. I'm going to go dream of beheadings and court life...*sigh*...