Our time in London has been absolutely AMAZING! I never would have guessed that I would love the city as much as I did, but man is it great!
After our ... interesting... morning travel adventures, we finally made it to London all in one piece, safe and sound. Megan sat next to this nice English guy on the train and he was very helpful in instructing us how to get to where we were going. We flawlessly navigated on the Tube (even with a station change. I know, impressive) and found our hotel with ease. At this point we were both beginning to run low on clothes and we're pretty worn from the travel day activities, so we decided to lay low and do some wash. First hand-washing-in-a-sink experience, not as horrible at it as I would have thought. Our hotel was a bit strange, weird ceilings and bizarre wallpaper, the sink had two faucets for different temperatures and our toilet was leaking, but it was well located and gave us plenty of space. Once we finished our wash we were eager to explore the city, so based on a suggestion from my friend Nick studying abroad in London, we decided to explore Picadilly Circus, because he said it has tons of restaurants, and clubs if we were interested. We weren't, but we did find a cute little place to eat. That section of the city was weird, it seemed to be almost broken up by country of origin - all Chinese restaurants on one block, Italian on another, etc. it also had TONS of theatres with so many awesome musicals and shows playing, if only we had more time! After our yummy dinner of an English burger (it was different than ours, believe me) we decided to just wander the blocks and keep exploring. Well, we explored so far that we happened to stumble upon Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey!! Like holy cow how do you just do that?! The London Eye was not far off either, so we wandered down around there as well. It's right on a pier with lots of interesting attractions around, including what we thought was a carnival. We decided to check it out, and it was actually like a carnival for adults? With booths for drinks and shows and bizarre decorations. We still aren't 100% certain what that was but it was interesting to stumble upon nonetheless. We continues to wander around the art district there and kept wandering until we found ourselves a little bit lost, and of course by this time it was dark. Luckily, we were able to find an Underground Station, and by this point we are masters of the tube so it wasn't a problem. We got home and went to bed to prepare ourselves for the long day ahead.

Saturday we woke up nice and early to go to a walking tour with that same company, Sandeman's New Europe, that we did the tour with in Dublin. Our tour guides name was Liam, and he studied history so he was very knowledgable, but I gotta say I still loved Lisa in Dublin a little bit more, she just had a spunk about her. Nonetheless we learned SO much about London history that I would have never known in a million years and saw awesome things including Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. We got a nice selfie with a guard, and I still just don't understand the purpose of those silly bear fur hats, but I guess they're just not my style. After the tour we went to ride the London Eye, which was very cool - awesome views of the city, then we attended this thing called The London Dungeon. I call it a 'thing' because I honestly don't know how else to classify it. It wasn't a tour, a show, or a ride, it was all three! It discussed mass murderers and other dark things from London's past, specifically King George, the Plague, Sweeney Todd, and Jack the Ripper. We rode in a boat through the dungeons of the castle than rode a lift that dropped us as if we were hanged. All the while walking through different scenes guided by different characters. If you ever go to London, you MUST do it. There's no way to put it into words you just have to do it for yourself. From there we hopped on the Tube to go see the London Tower and Tower Bridge. It is beautiful! Ever since we played the game as a child "London Bridge is falling down..." I always thought that Bridge was the extravagant one, but no London Bridge is actually a very boring plain old driving bridge right next to Tower Bridge. Regardless, it was great. We then wandered around, stumbled upon the old location of The London Dungeon (I guess they just moved?) it was in a much less popular part of the city and not right in your face so I understand why they moved but the old location had so much more character! It was in an alley which was fitting and had these creepy statues outside, strange. After moseying back to our hotel to drop off our things, we decided to explore Earl's Court which is the area our hotel is in. We got dinner in a cute little pub and let me just say it may have been the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I had a steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes and veggies and man was it great. People say UK food is nothing special but that proved me otherwise. We ventured around that neighborhood a little bit before heading back to get some sleep, because today started early.

We were up super early because today we went on an excursion to STONEHENGE! Stonehenge was my number one must see item on this trip and let me say it was 100% worth it!! Our bus driver/ tour guide was full of humor and stories and took a little roundabout way to show us other cool things on our way to and from like the military base where tanks are stored and Prince William works. Stonehenge is about a two hour drive from London. Once we got there we had two hours to wander the premises, and I can only wish I had had a whole day!! We didn't get to go up to the rocks though which was sad. It used to be completely open but then it got vandalized in the 70s so they took that away. And now they even moved the visitors center two miles away and you ride a trolley to get you to the site. Although I think the reason for that move was to preserve the land and the remains under it. We got little audio players and you listened to different stations as you went around and there was so much information and there's just so much mystery and AH! I just loved it! Like seriously how could human beings lift those rocks like that 5000+ years ago?? I have no idea!! By the visitor's center they had a simulation where you tried to pull a stone yourself (they say it takes 100 men per stone) and see how many more men you would need to help you pull it. I only needed 95 so that means in strong, right? They also had life size rebuilds of what their houses were like and let me just say I'm glad I live in the 21st century. Little huts with thatched roofs and no doors and no plumbing? No thanks. I would seriously go back time and time again because it was so cool! And there is still more to be excavated! In excited to see what other discoveries are made!
Upon arrival back in London (late, of course) we were a little pressed for time. Megan really wanted to go on a Jack The Ripper Tour, so we went back to the ticket office to sign up. We then only had about an hour to Tube over to Abbey Road (because how can you go to London and not walk across Abbey Road?) before making it for the tour. Unfortunately the timing of the tour laid just so that we couldn't go to mass in Westminster Abbey, but she went to Stonehenge for me so I had no qualms going on this tour for her. It was okay, I wish more of the original area was still in tact. Our guide was great, but it was hard to imagine these streets and places he's talking about because they are no longer there. But I guess it was cool to stand in the locations of the murders, even though we can't tell that's what it is? The guide asked for people to "act out" parts as we went along. Megan and I were the first people called upon, she was the pretty prostitute that got home safely, and I was the ugly prostitute that got murdered. How lovely. And not even by Jack the Ripper. The whole point of it was to say that the 6th JTR murder wasn't even actually by him, it's just added to the list because it is believed that his work could have only been done for the devil, and in order to sell yourself to the devil you have to sacrifice 6 people. I've never heard that rule before, but then again I don't live in Old England. Of course it also started to rain on us which added to the ambiance, we got to meet some cool other people from the states though from being nice and sharing our umbrellas. After the tour we took our last Tube ride back to our little area of Earl's Court, where we turned back in our Oyster travel cards and got a£5 refund, holla! That's like $7.50! We also learned that the police call box right outside the station and two seconds from our hotel is the ONLY one still standing in London! Isn't that neat?? Even though we already had pictures, this knowledge warranted another photoshoot. By this time we were starving because we haven't eaten all day, so we chowed down at a local pub and had some delicious pie: chicken, ham, and leek, so good! We then took this time to do our last minute tourist things, take our last pictures, pop into souvineer shops, etc. We then went back to the hotel to hurry up and get ready for bed because we fly out quite early tomorrow to go to Spain!

London, it has been beautiful and amazing and better than I would have ever imagined, but the time has come for me to say Cheerio to you. Next stop: Spain! Hola, Barcelona!