Allie in Spain (and Ireland): A Weekend in Dreary Old London

London was in fact, pretty dreary. I guess I just got the luck of the draw (or bad luck really) because it rained the ENTIRE time I was there. You'd think that I should be used to it by now, seeing as how I've been living in Ireland, but it was certainly a damper (no pun intended) on the weekend. It makes it hard to enjoy things when there's a torrential downpour going on. Regardless of the weather though, I did really enjoy London. I went to visit my friend Brittany who is studying there for the summer and it was so great to see her, since I haven't since December. I got to stay with her in her apartment, which is a BU owned building and is in a great location, and we managed to do a lot of what London has to offer in just 2 days. Not to mention it was Harry Potter premiere weekend, making it all the more exciting.

I arrived in London around 6:30 on Friday night after having my flight delayed, as per usual. This caused me to miss the bus I had booked from Gatwick airport, which is about 30 miles south of Central London, so I was a little behind schedule and little more than irritated. I don't know why, but I seriously have a curse about flights. Something always goes wrong. All in all, it wasn't too bad though and Brittany met me at the bus station around 8:30. We immediately headed to this crepe place by her apartment that she raved about, and it was worth the hype. I had a pesto crepe for dinner and we shared a strawberry creme crepe (with nutella on the side) for dessert. Amazing. After that, we headed back to the Crofton (BU's building) and we stayed up pretty late doing some much needed catching up and bonding. Even though we talk regularly, there's always stuff to catch up on when you haven't seen each other in 7 months. Seeing her just made me that much more excited to be back in Boston next semester.

We woke up the next morning around 9 (should've been earlier, but we stayed up until about 2:30 talking), and headed out for my first day seeing the city. Out plan was to go to the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, but the weather had other ideas. After pushing through the crowd and finding a good palce to watch from, some policemen came around announcing that the ceremony was cancelled due to the weather. Um, excuse me? How on earth are they cancelling things due to rain in a country where it rains almost every day? In Arizona, I would expect something like that. Not in the United Kingdom. So that was disappointing, but at least I got to see the palace and St. James Park and take my touristy photos

Next, we headed to the Tower of London. The Tower of London is a castle and fortress on the River Thames; the original tower was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. At first, it was primarily used a royal residence up until the Tudors emerged in the 15th century. Under Henry VII and Henry VIII it became more of a prison, with many famous political prisoners living there including Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell and Catherine Howard(these are jsut the ones that crazy Henry VIII executed). Elizabeth I was even imprisoned there by her sister, Queen Mary I, due to her Protestant beliefs before she ascended to the throne. Anne Boleyn is also buried in the chapel there. My Tudor obsession was seriously having field day. The Tower also used to be home to the Royal Menagerie, which was a pretty big deal. The British monarchy would get exotic animals as gifts from random countries all the time - lions, tigers, bears, ostriches, monkeys - you name it.

Also housed at the Tower of London is the crown jewels, which is pretty self-explanatory. It was a really cool thing to be able to see them, but it also kind of just enraged me because all I could think about was "if you just hocked one of these, you could feed the entire continent of Africa for a decade." It's interesting to see how important the royalty is to British society though - it's such a huge part of their national tradition and I think it's hard for Americans to relate to that since we live in a society that has much stronger egalitarian roots. There's also a museum with all the royal armor throughout the centuries in the tower complex.

We spent a few hours walking around the Tower and seeing everything. Unfortunately, it was raining so they weren't doing the official guided tours, which are supposed to be really funny and informative. Either way, it was a cool thing to see.

Next, we headed to the Parliament and Big Ben area. Seeing these things was so cool - they are such iconic images, so it feels surreal to be seeing them in real life. I've been a lot of places over the past 6 months, but I think that London and Rome (and Paris, but I was there over a year ago so I'm excluding it) are definitely the 2 cities with the most well-known images that I've been to in my travels this semester. It's so amazing to see them in real life. And to think about how that Parliament building was the center of civilization for centuries. So cool.

By this time, we were starving, and so we went in search of this Indian Restaurant that had been recommended to us. I really wanted to get Indian food while I was there, because I know that it's supposed to be good. I was surprised to see that Brittany was up for it, because she's usually a picky eater so I was very impressed with her adventurousness. It took us a while to find the restaurant, but after walking by Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, we finally did and it was well worth the confusion and time spent searching for it. We split some cheesy naan (basically just cheesy bread), paneer tikka (cheese and peppers roasted with this yummy orange sauce) and then I had this awesome spicy lamb kebab and a cup of chai tea. It was all soooo good. I love Indian food.

After lunch, we headed back to the Thames to go on the London Eye. I debated about whether or not to actually go on the giant Ferris wheel overlooking the Thames, because it's pretty expensive (as is everything in London) and I didn't know how cool it would really be, but I decided to just go for it- it's part of the experience. Unfortunately, it was still raining but I was happy with it. The views are really nice and it's just a cool thing to be able to say you've done. If you're ever in London though, I'd probably say skip it - it's way overpriced and it takes a long time so there's better things you could be doing.

By now it was around 5:00 and we had important things to do that night: see Harry Potter. Brittany had already seen it on the night it premiered, but she was more than happy to see it with me again. Seeing the last Harry Potter move in London, on the weekend it premiered, was definitely a cool experience. I thought that the movie was very well done and it stayed true to the book, unlike some of the past movies, which was great. It such a weird thing to think that the series that pretty much defined my generation's childhood is now over. After the movie, we headed back to the Crofton to get some sleep.

The next morning we let ourselves sleep in until around 9 again and then we headed to the British Museum. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This place is ENORMOUS. You could literally spend weeks in there and still not see everything. It has over 7 million artifacts, just to give you an idea. After going into the 1st room, I was so overwhelmed. We went through most of the Ancient Rome/Greece/Egypt stuff and then a lot of the European stuff as well. I saw the Rosetta Stone and the parts of the Parthenon, which is a lot, that are there. It was seriously tiring though. After spending about 2 hours there, I decided I was all museumed out. Fortunately, this museum is free so you could theoretically go back as many times as you want which is definitely necessary. There's a lot to catalog in all of human history and the British museum covers a lot of it.

Next, we headed over the Kensington Palace in Hyde Park to have a truly British cultural experience: High Tea. Kensington Palace was built in the 17th century and is used as a Royal Residence. It was the official residence of Princess Diana from 1981 until her death. After being renovated, it will serve as the London Residence of Prince William and Kate Middleton (no idea what her official title is now), because I guess it's not big enough for them now. We had tea at the Orangery, which was added in 1704 for Queen Anne and is now a restaurant open to the public. Brittany and I both got chocolate tea and an assortment of pastries and finger sandwiches which were all quite tasty. I really enjoyed the chocolate tea as well. It was a cool experience and Brittany hadn't even done it yet even though she's been there for 2 months so she was glad I made her go.

After this, sadly, my time was almost up. After waiting under the awning outside the Orangery for the torrential downpour to stop, we went back to Crofton for a while a had a much needed skype date with our friend Meredith, who is home in Houston for the summer. Then I headed to the airport, with my flight leaving out of Heathrow this time so it wasn't quite as far of a journey. I had to take a train instead of the underground because parts of it are closed for renovation in preparation for the Olympics next summer. To come full circle here, my flight back to Dublin was delayed by an hour and half. Seriously, I have a curse. I did eventually get back to Dublin around 11 pm though.

I really enjoyed London and I didn't even get to do the half of what it has to offer. You could easily spend a week there as a tourist. It was also interesting to see everything after having learned a lot of Britain through the perspective of the Irish, but I don't hold it against them. We're all friends now, right? Here are some photos: