The weeks continue to fly by, especially this last weekend in which I got to spend in London with a good friend of mine. Thanks to my awesome class schedule, with no class on Fridays, I hopped on a plane after class Thursday to explore the beautiful country of England. England was a lot less sunny than France, however it was still incredible. Getting their was quite the experience. I have never boarded a plane outside… Europe style for sure. 

My friend met me at the airport and we took an hour train ride north to her hometown of Soham. Upon arrival, I had an actual American cheeseburger with YELLOW mustard. I was one happy camper. Yes the French can make burgers, but they just aren’t the same. I’m not even sure the English know how to make them, but her father, who is a chief, is currently stationed in England, so I was spoiled with their American cooking all weekend. I had chocolate chip pancakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (because France does not have peanut butter), and ribs with mac and cheese. It was nice having a little taste of home, that is for sure.

That night we walked the streets of her town, which was so quiet and peaceful. In most cities in England the Church is almost always at the center, it was pretty neat to see one at night. 

The next day we made our way to London. The first thing we saw was the London Towers, and my favorite the Tower Bridge. The colors were so vibrant and I just fell in love. 

I also took a picture in front of a classic red telephone booth. 

We basically spent all morning running all over the city and taking the tube (underground transportation system) here and there.

Here are some more pictures of everything I got to see:

London Eye 

Bigben

Westminster Abbey where Kate Middleton and Prince William got married 

Buckingham Palace 

Queen Victoria Statue 

Policemen on a Horse

The park where Peter Pan was written

Abbey Road Studios – I finally got to walk across the actual Abbey Road crosswalk just like The Beatles. I think we walked across the crosswalk a 100 times before we actually got a picture we liked. The cars were not very happy with us… but we weren’t the only ones. 

We also went shopping in Harrods, which is a big store that has basically anything you could ever dream of.

After shopping we wanted to find the house used for filming in the Parent Trap movie, but neither one of us had access to the internet, because 3G does not exist in these countries, so we weren’t able to look up the address until we got home. Little did we know it was a block over from Harrods.

M&M World (I was like a little kid on Christmas, it was kind of embarrassing) – and I took a picture with the nice little midget that was greeting everyone at the door. He was so cool, it’s not everyday you see midgets.

After walking everywhere our feet needed some rest so we stopped and had the classic British meal of Fish and Chips with mashed peas. SO GOOD. 

Then we headed home out of the London King’s Cross Railway Station from the very Platform used in the Harry Potter movie. Unfortuanely, I didn’t get any pictures because we didn’t want to miss the train home.

Saturday we walked around the open air market, got some ice cream, and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting by the river. I love being in countries where nothing is commercialized and everything is so rich in History. However, don’t get me wrong though, I do miss home.

In England I was also introduced to Cadbury Spread, which is 10 times better than Nutella. I was also introduced to Ginger beer, beer I could actually drink AND I got carded for the first time in England… felt so grown up.

All in all England was a lot of fun, especially since I got to spend it with a sorority sister on the entire other side of the world. You never know where life can take you.

While waiting for the plane at the airport I ran into Madame, our professor in charge of our Study Abroad Program, with her husband. They were flying back from Ireland. I love how the world is so big, yet so small.