Cherrio!!! Well what can I say….London was AMAZING!!! We Florence on Wednesday morning at the butt crack of dawn…5:30am. Shoot me. From here, we took a little bus ride to Pisa, which was about an hour away. When we got to Pisa, we checked in to RyanAir and had to wait for a while to board the plane. We all had priority boarding, and I think the other people who had priority were angry because the 50 of us got to board before them…but what are you going to do? RyanAir works on a first come first serve basis…so we got good seats on the plane. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about flying RyanAir because I heard it was horrible…But it really was not bad at all. The seats were comfortable and the crew was nice…It only took about 2 hours to get to London so the time went by pretty quick…When we finally got to London, it was FREEZING!!!! The temperature was 50 degrees when we got off the plane. It was a good thing I spent some money before I left Florence to invest in some sweaters, since I didn't really bring any with me…But anyway, I was just happy to not be sweating…because that's all we do here in Florence…So the temperature change was nice…initially. After we all got our tiny little suitcases (we could only take a 20 inch bag to check, so we all bought the same ones outside the train station in Florence…50 people with he same suitcase in different colors…quite a site) we headed to the bus which would take us into London…another hour ride…But I couldn't sleep on the bus. I was too excited. I was in London!!!! Anyway, so as we arrived downtown London, our bus driver gave us an unofficial tour…

We were dropped off at our hotel, which was actually really nice…The Thistle Kensington Gardens. We were right across from Kensington Palace, which worked out pretty well considering we had an appointment for high noon tea at the palace. Amber and I made our way up to our room and we relieved to walk into air-conditioning…Yea…air-conditioning with its 50 degrees outside…Both of us looked at each other and laughed. As if our beds weren't close enough in our apartment, which they are…our beds were practically touching here! All we could o was laugh. I think at one point we were sleeping in the same bed, because they were pushed together…haha. After we changed and got all bundled up, we headed over to The Orangery at Kensington Palace…I've never had tea at high noon, so I didn't really know what to expect. I can now say that I LOVE tea, and I HATE cucumber and crème cheese sandwiches…Ughhh. It was really cool to have tea there, considering queens and kings once sat in that very spot and talked with such great minds such as Chaucer and many more. It was pretttty cool. After tea, we headed to Oxford Circus, which is the biggest shopping street in London…It reminded me of NYC. After we shopped a little, which wasn't much because the dollar sucks in London…1.9 or something…we decided to go eat somewhere. We wanted to go to the Hard Rock, but when we got there, there was a 3 hour wait…So we walked around the corner and found a small authentic pub that is known throughout the UK for their fish and chips. Now those of you that know me know that I don't like fish, except for perch, which I miss, if I so say so myself, but I was in a pub known for its fish, so I decided that I had to try it. And I LOVED it!!!! I can officially say that I like fried cod…WOO! We also tried a really delicious apple beer, which was so good!!!! London was starting off very well…We went to bed early since we had been traveling all day.

The next morning, Thursday, we ate breakfast in the hotel, which was the best breakfast service ever!!!! Then we headed off to our bus tour of the city…( I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a red double decker bus…) We went all over the city and saw a ton of things I never would have known otherwise. Our tour guide, Nigel, was hilarious. He kept making jokes and really making the historic city of London fun to learn about…We made a pit stop at St. Paul's Cathedral for a potty break, and then jumped back on the bus. It started raining thought, so it was hard to see out the bus windows. After the tour, we were dropped off at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is the biggest fashion museum in England. They had so much cool stuff, but we really didn't get to see it all. They had an exhibit I really wanted to see which was a story through fashion about the Supremes. They had a ton of their dresses and famous outfits…It looked really cool. After the Museum, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for, in my opinion, the best part of the week…WICKED!!!!! I was so excited all day to see Wicked. It is my absolute favorite show and it has a lot of significance to me. It was such a good show. The Elphaba was amazing. Everything about the show was amazing. I loved it. After Wicked, we were too excited to go home so we went out to a local bar in London, The Zoo Bar. It was really fun too.

On Friday, after breakfast, a group of us went back to St. Paul's Cathedral. Only this time, we actually went in. It was so beautiful inside. St. Paul's is where Diana and Charles were married, the first to be married somewhere other than Westminster Abbey. We went down into the Crypt, and saw the tombs of Florence Nightingale and more. It was so interesting. We looked around at the architecture and decided that we wanted to go to the galleries. What are the galleries??? The galleries are a series of balcony's that climb up the dome of the church until you reach the very top of the church outside. How many steps do you think I climbed? In my professional attire no less…550 steps to the Golden Gallery at the very top of St. Paul's Cathedral. Once there, it gave amazing views of London. Basically a 360-degree view of the city. It was exhausting, but defiantly worth it. Also on Friday, we had a number of Professional Appointments with the group. The first was a trip to Liberty, one of the biggest department stores in London. Liberty is extremely exclusive and only carried exclusive designer merchandise as well as their own brand. Our guide Sergio, worked at Dolce & Gabanna for four years and Louis Vuitton for four years. He told us that every employee of Liberty has a Bachelors degree, or higher in fashion. Also, you don't apply for a job there, they go to your store, in Sergio's case, Louis Vuitton, and recruit you to work for them. That's how exclusive they are. After Liberty, we had a few hours until our next appointment, so we ate lunch and made our way over to Zandra Rhodes in the pouring rain and windstorm. When we finally got to Zandra Rhodes, we were really excited for what we were about to do. Zandra's company is unique and we had the opportunity to meet with the head designer and Zandra herself. Her garments are extremely exclusive, that's probably why you haven't heard of her. Paris Hilton has worn her, and Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City wore her garments. They hand make all of the fabric in the studio. She gets an inspiration for a print, paints it, and then silk screens it into a printed chiffon to make her one of a kind chiffon dresses. We got to ask questions and then try on a bunch of her collections. Zandra is a character, but that doesn't make her any less of a genius. Friday night we went to dinner at the worst restaurant ever and called it an early night. We were all exhausted.

Saturday was a new day and we still had a lot of London to see. We were free to do as we pleased in London, but had a lot of assignments and projects to complete while there, so it made sightseeing hard to do…but I got in mostly everything I wanted to see. Saturday Morning, my friend Julie and I went to the Tower of London. It was a fort of London way back in the day, and is still a working palace today. The tour as absolutely amazing. I learned so much about English monarch history and some really interesting facts…which you can read in the picture captions…We got to see the crown jewels, well some of them, and the place where Ann Boleyn and many more were beheaded….nice huh???haha. After the Tower, we were hungry so we went to a very well known pub in London called the Hung, Drung and Quartered for some fish and chips…yummy. After lunch, we headed over to the London Eye to take our ride…It was really cool too. Although it's new, it is a really cool way to see London. It gives you a 360-degree view of London and takes 30 minutes to get around. We took a ton of pictures. Saturday night we went out again to rap up our amazing trip in London.

On Sunday, we had to check out bright and early. We got on the charter bus, and headed to Windsor Castle. The castle is still an official residence of the queen. She wasn't there though…L We took a tour of Windsor castle, which was really cool to see. Everything inside was how is was 400+ years ago…We saw Queen Mary's doll house, which is an exact replica of Buckingham Palace down to the last towel in the pantry. The details were phenomenal. The miniature portraits of royalty were actually painted by the artist who painted the originals. The miniature books in the library have the actual words printed in them, by famous authors such as Chaucer, etc…The tiny table clocks tick and keep time, and the water actually runs in the sinks and bathtubs. It is so remarkable. After Windsor, we go back on the bus and headed to Stansed Airport. I was so sad to leave. I loved the culture, the people, and the significance of the city. I felt comfortable there, I felt content. I loved London!