LONDON

Hello all... I have lots to update on from a busy weekend in London!

Friday was a LONG day of traveling and after 2 hours by train, hour by plane, another hour by train, then a short London underground trip and a 20 minute walk Katie and I finally made it to our hostel around 1:30am.

Saturday we got started bright and early with a free walking tour. The tour was operated by a company who leads free tours around most of the major cities in Europe, so they really knew their stuff. The tour guide was great and pretty entertaining. They made all of the historical bits really interesting. The tour hit most of the main things in London. We started at Wellington Arch walked through Green Park and headed toward Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. It was pretty crowded so I didn't get to see very much but it was still exciting to be there! After Buckingham we paid a visit to St. James Palace, where Prince Charles lives along with William and Harry stay when they are in London! After visiting the royal palaces we walked to Trafalgar's Square, considered to be the heart of London. There was a lot of construction going on and it was very crowded so we didn't spend too much time there. After that we headed towards Westminster Abby and Parliament. Along the way we passed the Horse Guards Parade which will be home to the sand Volleyball tournament of the 2012 London Olympic games. So at least I can say I saw one Olympic venue while in London. :) The highlight of the tour was definitely the end when we was Westminster, Big Ben and Parliament. These things are all so iconic to London and it was so amazing to finally be able to see the real thing!

The pictures below are of Buckingham Palace, me with Parliament, Big Ben and the River Thames & lastly, Westminster Abby

After the tour we grabbed some lunch, bought a map and started walking some more. We planned on going to The Tower of London that afternoon but the underground line that we needed to get there was under construction for the weekend so we just wandered a bit and ended up walking along the River Thames for quite awhile. We made it all the way to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and almost all the way to London Bridge, something I couldn't leave London without seeing!

By this time we were just about beat, so we grabbed a tube on the underground (we were pros at navigating the underground by the end of the weekend) and made our way back to where we started. After some dinner and relaxing for a bit we got our tickets for The London Eye, the large Ferris wheel located right on the river. This was by far my FAVORITE part from our weekend in London. We went around 7:30 at night so the whole city was light up and the views were spectacular throughout the whole 30 minute ride. The picture below was taken on the London Eye while on the way down. By now we were both exhausted so we jumped on our first double-decker bus, and made our way back to our hostel. After seeing so much of London in one day we were beat!

Sunday we took it easy and headed up to world famous Camden Market for the day. I couldn't believe how big it was, and how much they had to offer. We walked around the market for about 4 hours and probably didn't even see half of it. The shopping was great though, you could find just about anything you wanted to there. The food was also great, Katie and I decided that we couldn't leave London without having the traditional "Fish & Chips," which was amazing. After shopping for awhile we went and relaxed in Regent's Park for an hour or two. Around 5pm is was already time to leave and head back to Stirling.

London was an amazing city and I'm so glad I got the chance to visit it. I already can't wait to go back to see the rest of it!

The rest of the week will be busy also. Tuesday the International Society is hosting a Ceilidh. Which is a traditional Scottish dance. I hear nobody is particularly good at this dance, but it's more about giving it a shot and having a good time. Wednesday is St. Patty's day which I hear they do celebrate pretty big here even though it's Scotland, so I'm looking forward to that too. Finally on Thursday Katie and I are headed to Sicily, Italy. Katie has very close family friends there so we will be going and staying with them until Tuesday. I have no idea what to expect but I'm very excited! I will try my best to update before I leave on Thursday. Until then, take care all!