Spring Break Part One: London

I wasn't able to write last week because last week was my spring break, and on Tuesday, I was in Dublin. But I'll pick up where I left off my last post.

During the week of March 14, I did nothing noteworthy in school or in my after school classes, but it wasn't a boring week either. Vicki and I had dinner together on Tuesday to eat more bachelorette party leftovers, and Vicki also made a delicious fruit salad that we both loved. And the same night, I went out for a drink to celebrate my new friend Piedad's birthday. Then on Thursday, I stopped by Morgan's apartment to say goodbye before spring break and to wait for her boyfriend, Tyrone, to get there. He had flown into Madrid from London and was driving to Quintanar in a rented car because the two of them were spending spring break driving through Portugal.

But really, I just couldn't wait for the week to be over because I'd had my spring break planned since December. My sister and I were meeting in London to spend our breaks together before going on to Ireland. I'd already been to and loved London but I was eager to go back, because I didn't do as many things as I would've liked the first time I was there. But I was even more excited to go to Ireland. My family on both sides, both the Gilroys and the Hegartys, are originally from there and I was eager to see what it was like.

On Friday, I'd booked a hostel in Madrid for the night because I had a flight early in the morning. I took the bus into the city in the afternoon and managed to snag a bottom bunk in the hostel. I treated myself to pizza and a movie (in a theater, in English!) before heading back to the hostel and going to bed.

My time at the airport and in the plane was thankfully uneventful, except that my flight was delayed by half an hour because of all of the spring break air traffic. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal but Julia's flight landed more than an hour before mine anyway so this meant she had to wait longer. Further adding to my time was that there was too much carry-on luggage in the plane so Iberia had to check a bunch of bags at the last minute, including mine, which meant I'd have to wait for luggage now, too. I'd been hoping to get through the airport quickly but had no such luck. Finally I made it out, an hour later than my flight was supposed to have landed. Julia and I had no trouble finding each other. We quickly got on a train to our Airbnb, which was in the Whitechapel neighborhood (aka home of Jack the Ripper).

We hit another snag because of course nothing can be easy. We got off the train and tried to transfer to the tube but it turned out that the line we needed to take had been closed. Julia wasn't too keen on figuring out a bus, so we ended up taking a cab. It was an unfortunate expense but at least we got there! We met out lovely Airbnb hostess, dropped our bags, and headed back out.

We had a hell of a time finding the station we needed (which was an overground station, not underground like we thought) but when we finally did, we zipped into the city center, and when we finally came out, our first view was of Parliament and the tower housing Big Ben.

First stop in the city was to see Parliament and Big Ben

Next we made our way over to Westminster Abbey. We had hoped to visit that day, but the Abbey closed before we got there, so we decided to go back on Monday morning.

I was really excited about being at Westminster Abbey

Dean's Yard next to Westminster Abbey

We then meandered over to Trafalgar Square before passing through Admiralty Arch to walk down The Mall to Buckingham Palace. On our way, we passed by St. James Park, and we couldn't help posing with the daffodils.

Admiralty Arch

St. James Park

Buckingham Palace

We then grabbed a bite to eat in the West End in a themed restaurant based on Around the World in 80 Days before we saw a show. We had snagged discount tickets to see the musical Guys and Dolls right before we ate, and the tickets were a steal. We weren't able to sit next to one another since the tickets were so last minute, but we were only a few seats apart in the fourth and fifth rows. As for the show, we both loved it, being the old school musical lovers that we are.

Excellent seats for Guys and Dolls

In the morning, we got up bright and early to do a double-decker bus tour. The tour took us all over the city, and we took in many sights from the bus, including St. Paul's Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, Convent Garden, and even drove across the Tower Bridge past the Tower of London before we disembarked at the Globe Theater. I had visited the Globe the first time I was in London, but I didn't go inside. This time, we actually did a tour. I'm a huge Shakespeare lover so I was thrilled to visit this replica of his famous theater and to learn more about his life. We were really lucky because there were actors practicing Shakespeare productions on the stage while we were there, including scenes from one of my favorites, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Outside the Globe Theater

Inside the theater

Posing with the Millennium Bridge outside the Globe

We got back on the bus after our tour, riding it through my favorite part and what I think is the most beautiful section of London: Kensington and the museum district. I had the fortune of staying there during my first visit to the city, so the area is full of fond memories for me. We got off the bus for the last time at Harrod's, enjoying a delicious lunch of fish and chips before we explored the store a little, visiting the food hall and the book store and of course the souvenir section.

We then got on a train and took it out of the city to the suburbs to do the Warner Bros. Studio Tour where they filmed all eight of the Harry Potter movies. Being the embarrassingly huge fans that we are, we were enraptured with the whole experience and stayed for the better part of three hours.

Slytherin table

The Great Hall

Dumbledore's pensieve

Potions classroom

"Sherbert lemon!"

Brb, just running away to Hogwarts

Visiting the Dursley's

I think Julia makes an excellent Hagrid

Not the Whomping Willow!

Hogwarts model

Luna Lovegood's wand!

For those who don't like Harry Potter, I apologize for all of the photos. We were only a little bit excited to be there, as I'm sure you can tell.

After we took a train back into the city, I'd convinced Jule to go to a bar called Cahoots that was designed to look like a WWII tube station/air raid shelter and speakeasy. They played 40s music and all the staff were dressed and spoke in character, so obviously we loved it.

The menu was on vintage newspapers

We got to sit in a train car!

We slept a bit later in the morning but joined the line to get into Westminster Abbey first thing. The tour includes a fascinating audio guide, and I loved seeing the names of so much royalty and many famous people everywhere. Of course I especially loved Poet's Corner. I wouldn't leave without finding Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.

Back at Westminster Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Final resting place of Charles Dickens

Memorials to Shakespeare, Shelley, and Keats

On our way out of the Abbey

Visiting the Abbey meant we were downtown again, so we took the opportunity to take more photos!

Posing with Parliament and Big Ben

If you went to London and didn't take a picture in a phone booth, did you really go to London?

Our next stop was the Tower of London. Honestly, we were both underwhelmed by many of the exhibits within the compound (there was a lot of armor and swords) but it was really cool just being there. Being inside the walls and walking along the same path that Anne Boleyn might have taken was a really cool experience. And of course, seeing the crown jewels was totally incredible.

The White Tower in the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

We then went to the London Bridge Experience and Tombs. The London Bridge Experience was educational and very cool, with people dressed in character telling us about the Bridge's history in elaborate sets as we walked along. But after that we entered "the tombs," which is an all-year haunted attraction and my personal reason for visiting. It had been ranked as the scariest attraction in London and it did not disappoint. Somehow I found myself leading our group through the maze of scares and I loved every second of it.

We went to the Sherlock Holmes pub for dinner (where the food was incredible, by the way) and met up with my friend Blair from university who lives in Madrid. She was visiting her friend Kyle, who is studying for his graduate degree in Brighton, and together the four of us walked over to the London Eye. Julia and I had tickets at 8:30, and we were both excited to end our time in London by seeing fabulous views of the city lit up. However, we had a ticket mixup and ended up not being able to go on. The ticket said 8:30-9:00, which I took to mean getting in line around 8:30, but it turns out that they stop letting people on at 8:30 because the Eye shuts down at 9:00 (After we were turned away, I double checked, and it did not say that anywhere on the ticket, for the record, which was very frustrating). On the bright side, we were able to get a full refund, which was lovely because nothing in London is cheap. So unfortunately, our time in London ended on a bit of a disappointing note, but Julia was a really good sport about it, and we agreed that we would just have to come back in the future to do the things we missed, including the Eye.

Blair and Kyle walked back with us to Westminster station, where we took the tube back to Whitechapel to get a good night's rest. We had to get up early to get to the airport to fly over to Dublin!