A weekend to remember

Before heading off on a weekend adventure, I can't help but feel slightly anxious. It's a big responsibility getting to the airport on time for a flight, making sure I have all the proper documents and all the stuff I'm bringing, figuring out how to get to wherever we're staying, and generally staying safe and organized all weekend, at the same time trying to really enjoy myself and the experience. Even on short trips to Dingle, these feelings always seem to creep up. Before leaving for London on Thursday, the same types of little butterflies were present. By Friday afternoon, once we had been in London for about 24 hours, I can honestly say I hadn't had a second thought about the butterflies because I was enjoying London SO MUCH. I can't describe it. I absolutely loved London. I'm definitely glad my permanent address for the year is in Cork, Ireland, but there is no doubt in my mind that I want to plan a second trip to London in the spring (hopefully when the weather is just a little nicer)! The amount of things to do and see in the city is ridiculous. Let me put it this way - one of my best friends, Matt, is abroad at Oxford for the year, and I told him I wasn't going to be able to visit him over the weekend because there was literally no time with everything I wanted to cover. From Portobello Market to our bus tour to seeing the musical "Chicago," it was the most magical weekend I could have ever asked for!

Speaking of "magical," that is exactly how the weekend began. I started my last post with such excitement because I had just finished my Middle East paper, so the weekend was already off to an amazing start. Right when we got to London, our first stop that night was the world premiere of the new Harry Potter movie! Even though I live only 45 minutes from New York City, I have never experienced the glitz and glamour of a big movie premiere. This event was unlike anything I have ever seen. People were everywhere, amazing strobe lights lit up the sky, and we even got a few glimpses of some famous Harry Potter stars, like Professor Umbridge and J.K. Rowling herself. Thursday night was magical in another type of way. I had my first Chipotle experience. Call me dramatic, but this was some of the best Mexican food I have ever had. I'm really not even that big on spice, and I couldn't get enough of it. We went back again on Saturday night, and I was even talking about it on the plane ride home. Little did I know a Chipotle opened up in the next town over from Greenwich a few months ago! Another thing to look forward to about going home for Christmas break!

Friday was our first full day in London and we planned to make the most of every second, rain or shine. We were up and out of the hostel pretty early, around 9:30, and headed over to the Original London Visitors Center from where our bus tour would be starting. A bunch of us had paid for a ticket that got us a bus tour, boat tour, and a couple of walking tours. The bus was a big double decker so we got some amazing views of the city. Even with the rain, we never left the top deck! That's when I took the majority of my photos and luckily most of them turned out pretty well.

Later that day was our epic trip to Harrods, one of the most beautiful and elegant department stores in the world. It was so decked out in Christmas decorations you would think Christmas was next week, not in 5 weeks. The window displays, the employees, even the escalators screamed "perfection" and "happiness." You couldn't help but smile while walking through the toy department admiring the rocking horses and stuffed animals, or the fabulous shoe section. Carrie Bradshaw would have been very pleased.

For dinner on Friday, I met up with two of my friends from camp, Pippa and Steph, who live right outside of London. Definitely one of the best parts about working at Lochearn and going abroad is I get to see all these amazing international people I've met! Pippa and Steph are two of the nicest people I know. At Lochearn, Pippa was what we called the Division Head; the "Mommy" of the age group of girls Steph and I were with. She was absolutely amazing. Since I am not going back to camp this summer, I never thought I would have the opportunity to see either of them again, but yay for Study Abroad!

I took the tube to meet Pippa and Steph right where the Harry Potter premiere was, so I knew exactly where I was going. One of the parts of London I certainly miss the most is their tube system. This is going to sound totally bizarre, but I connected with the tube system. Ask any of the other girls I was with. It was so easy for me to figure out and by Saturday morning I was zipping around leading us all over the city. If only Cork had a tube! Pippa, Steph, and I had the most amazing Thai food for dinner that night. It was so amazing getting to see them. It always feels like such a dream when I get to see people from camp outside of camp, especially those I have seen this year in Europe. That's exactly how it felt when I saw Ella in Paris. Camp is such a different time than the rest of the year, so it was such a gift getting to see them and catching up. They are definitely part of the reason I want/NEED to go back to London!

Saturday we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard, when the Queen's guard goes off duty and another takes his place. I wish I could say more about it, but my lack of height truly diminished the experience for me. My friend Joanna felt the same way. Luckily, our significantly taller friend, Kara, took most of our pictures for us, and all we could really do was stand high on our toes and listen.

Our first walking tour was about Rock n' Roll history of London. Our tour guide took us to where the Beatles performed their last live concert on the roof, Paul McCartney's recording studio, and by a bunch of old famous jazz clubs. We were going to do another walking tour later that afternoon about Jack the Ripper, but we ended up relaxing for a little bit. I think that's definitely a good piece of advice to remember while traveling - just because you're in a new, amazing place like London and you want to take in as much as possible, don't forget to slow down once in a while; you're allowed to take a break! So what did we do - back to Chipotle! We had an early dinner and headed back to the hostel. Four of the girls I had come to London with, Kara, Joanna, Amelia, and Lucy (one of my flatmates), had tickets to see "Love Never Dies," the sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera." Tracie, Corie (Tracie's best friend from home who is studying for the semester in Galway), and I hadn't booked any tickets, but still definitely wanted to try to see a show. We decided to try our luck with the musical, "Chicago," so we headed down to the theatre about an hour before the performance to see if there were any extra tickets available at a student price. We ended up getting pretty good seats, and it was an amazing show! Now I definitely want to see the movie. I couldn't believe we were able to walk right up to the box office, not have to wait at all, and be handed great tickets all in about 5 minutes with no prior planning.

On our last full day in London, the weather was not exactly cooperating with us. We took our boat tour and decided to enjoy the views from inside. After lunch, we headed over to the place I had been waiting to visit for the whole trip - Portobello Market! Anyone familiar with the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (classic Disney movie for all ages) knows how amazing Portobello Market is. I wish we could have spent more time there because we got there around 4:30 and an hour later it was getting very dark and things were starting to close. I had an amazing ham and cheese crepe (I have the talent of finding crepes in every city!) and admiring some very beautiful rings from a street vendor. We had some chill time afterwards back at the hostel and I finally took a shower (after only about 3 1/2 days - too much information?).

The IceBar

At 10:15 that night, Tracie, Joanna, Kara, Lucy, and I had reservations at the famous London Ice Bar. It is a bar literally made completely out of ice, and it is so popular you need a reservation to get in! They give you these huge blue jackets (as you see in my photos) and even with those on you can really feel the temperature drop. It's so cold that when we got back outside, it felt like a brisk winter's night, as opposed to how it felt when we first went in. I highly recommend it. It was such a "cool" experience!

Monday - our last half day in London. We didn't have to leave for our flight until about noon so we still had the morning to do as we pleased. Harry Potter was definitely a partial theme of this trip because one of our last touristy stops was Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. It's amazing that they took the time to make a fictional place because of a book. Kind of like life imitating art, I guess. With all this Harry Potter excitement it is quite fitting I am going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) tonight!

I have no words for my weekend in London. Of course, I will always remember the amazing things I did and saw (thanks to my blog), but I will also remember the pure love I had for the city. It was so cultural and beautiful and just a great place to be. Even with everything we were able to see, there were some things I didn't get to do, such as going to Oxford, seeing the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park, going to Abbey Road, and spending even more time in Portobello Market and all the amazing old book shops we saw. I can't wait to go back!!

Tomorrow, I head up to Dublin for a pre-Thanksgiving Doyle celebration with the Belmont Doyles: my Uncle Bill, Aunt Judy, and cousin Teddy. I can't wait! I haven't seen them since Easter, and if they weren't going to be here it would have certainly been a while since I saw them again.

For all of you in the States, I hope you have a lovely weekend before Turkey Day. I hope to Skype with some of you on Thanksgiving! Love to all!

Slan!