"In London everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in." - Paddington
Ahh, London, the whole reason for our trip. We made it to London a little after midday, and no shame, we got off the train at the wrong station. In our defense. it was King's Cross and in the end we were actually way closer to our Airbnb than we would have been had we gone all the way to Charring Cross.
It is definitely a personal flaw, but when I am traveling, I am always trying to make every little second count. So, when we ran into the problem of not being able to contact our Airbnb host, our stress levels started to climb to, well, a Big Ben height. TRAVEL TIP: Always know your passwords just in case you have to use other devices to access your accounts.
Of course everything worked out in the end, we made it to our Airbnb. My cousin and his wife made it to the flat and then we all got food! Well, they did. Being vegan proved to make life a little difficult and I ended up eating an avocado and broccoli as my dinner, with a blueberry cider of course.
Once we made it back to the flat we started going a little stir crazy. It was probably the first time we had just sat the whole trip, but not for long! We caught an Uber over to Trafalgar Square, frolicked with the lions and then we just started following our feet. We made it to Buckingham Palace, a little underwhelming at night because it wasn't very lit up. We kind of made a big loop and headed towards Westminster Abbey, walking along St. James Park. We were so surprised by how close all these big landmarks were to each other! Right next to The Abbey was the majestic Big Ben. Now we have all seen Big Ben in movies and pictures, but nothing can compares to seeing him in person. I think one of the coolest moments of our trip was definitely standing below Big Ben as the clock struck midnight. We both just stood in awe of this moment, realizing that we were different people for just having lived that.
Westminster Abbey
King's Cross
Big Ben at Night
The moment ended as all moments do and we made our way back to our Airbnb to get a good nights rest before another busy day of exploring, and for me, an extremely anticipated day at the theatre!
Bright and early the next morning we headed out to pick up our London Passes ( I super recommend getting these! So worth it!) Then we caught a bus to one of my must see locations, Winston Churchill's War Rooms! I 100% recommend visiting the War Rooms, especially if you are weirdly sentimental about history like me! After our walk through history, we had just enough time to get some food before I had to meet my cousin at the theatre and once again we fond ourselves exponentially disappointed with our food. I am sorry but what is up with all the cold pasta!!!
The play I was seeing was Harry Potter and The Cursed Child. I know how did we get tickets? Well let's just say we are no mere muggles. The show was absolutely fantastic, had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Above all, I would have seen that play purely because of it's technical aspects. They were doing magic of their own up there. We left the show on practically a sugar rush, especially after getting to meet most of the cast! Stuff like that gets me so inspired and motivated.
Kew Garden
During my time at the play mom went off to explore on her own:
While Brandy was enjoying the show, I went off on an adventure of my own. I decided to experience the London Underground. I left out from Tottenham Station and took the 55 minute ride to the Kew Gardens otherwise known as The Royal Botanical Gardens. If you know me, you know that I am a total flower and plant lover, so the gardens did not disappoint! My only regret is that I would not have enough time to see even a small fraction of the gardens, as it is quite expansive! I meandered around the gardens following paths and snapping pictures of plants I'd never seen before while recognizing the common landscaping plants that both England and Florida share. And just like, that it was time to make my way back to meet up with the group.
We ended the night with a short stroll down to Piccadilly Circus, which is so reminiscent of Time Square in New York. The next day we would only have a few hours before we had to catch our train to Salisbury but we had one more must see on our list, the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!
I completely nerded out, but once again, we would not have been able to see any of it, had it not been for awesome, completely amazing, and understanding tour guides who let us hop into an earlier tour group and leave whenever we had to so that we would have enough time to get to the train station. Nice people make traveling so much easier and enjoyable!
London was really amazing, and for the very little amount of time we had, we got to see and experience so much! I have a feeling we will be making a return trip to London in the future BUT until then....
It's an adventure!