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Finally I have gone to London! Shannon and I stayed in a hostel called Astor Quest in Queensway. The area was shockingly nice and right next to Hyde Park. The staff were really friendly and helped us first time hostel stayers. The first day there we didn't do too much. We got set up with our Oyster cards then went to a pub called The Rocket in Euston. It was a nice pub with a small dance floor. Unfortunately when we got back to the hostel someone had stolen our beds with our things underneath. We then had to transfer everything to another bed as quietly as possible. We also had the misfortune of having someone who snored like a chainsaw in our room. The next day my feet were put to work! Shannon and I started off walking around Hyde Park while waiting on a friend, Justine. It is such a gorgeous park to walk around. It's a very peaceful place. There are some interesting statues throughout and a pond in the center. Within the park you can also go see the Kensington Palace where Queen Victoria once resided. We didn't go inside, but we walked around it and went through the garden that overlooks the pond. After we met up with Justine and took the tube to Regents Park. Regents Park is a well know park that has been known to have celebrities walking through. It is a really prettty walk and a scene from the Kings Speech was even filmed there. From there we kept walking and went to Primrose Hill. It's a big hill that takes a lot of work to walk up, but it's worth it. Once you reach the top you can lool out over London. You can see the London Eye, the House of Parliament, and St. Pauls Cathedral. From there we went to Baker's St. and saw Sherlock Holme's house and got lunch at Nandos. We then took the tube to Westminster Bridge got off right at the House of Parliament. Big Ben is amazing to see up close and in person. It was great having Justine too, because she knows all the secret photo spots that are the best. After an hour of taking photos of every angle of the House of Parliament we then walked over to Westminster Abbey. We hope to go back and attend and actual service inside of the church. We then headed over to Buckingham Palace before we lost sunlight. It's kind of weird seeing it in person after only seeing it in photos and videos for so long. It even seemed a little smaller than what I expected it to be, but still beautifully built. I'm kind of sad though because I didn't see any of the guards that you normally would associate with the Buckingham Palace. Then we headed over to the National Gallery in Trafalgar square near Piccadilly Circus. As a little break we headed inside since it's free. We walked around and sat looking at different art pieces around. Once the sun set we went over to the London M&M store. It's not as big as the one in New York but smells just as delicious. We then walked over to Piccadilly Circus to get a taste of London's version of NY Times Square. We didn't stay long, but it was definitely cool to see. We went to a club later that night, but we left pretty quickly because of how exhausted we were. The last day there we started out at the Tower of London. We saw the last remnants of the original roman structure and then took pictures with a statue of Julius Caesar. Right next to that is Tower Bridge, mistakenly known as the London Bridge. After taking a bunch of photos we walked over to a pub close by called The Minories to eat some traditional Fish and Chips. They were really good and we had a cool experience as it was a really old pub under train tracks. We then explored along the river. We saw Shakespeare's Globe, the Wobbly Bridge from Harry Potter, and then walked over to St. Pauls Cathedral. We rested there on the steps for a little while before slowly making our way back towards Westminster Abbey. We walked by the MI6 Building from James Bond as our last photo spot. From there it was short walk to the Victoria Coach station where we caught the bus back to Exeter. It was a very exhausting trip, but well worth the painful feet.
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