After our first experience with a three tier bunk bed and sleeping in a hostel, we woke up really early to head to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Our hostel has free breakfast so we got some breakfast and headed to Victoria dtation, trying to not get lost this time. After buying a day pass we had to figure out the correct tube stations to go to in order to get to the bus that would take us to Harry Potter. When getting on one of the tubes, Ashton and Chad were ahead of me and got on the tube and as I was about to get on the tube doors shut! Ashton and Chad's phones had already died and I about had a panic attack thinking I was going to get left behind, but for some reason, the doors opened again. And then we realized we had gotten on the wrong tube. It's what we get for trying to keep up with the hustle and bustle of London. After our long train ride out to Watford Junction, we caught a double decker bus (our first one!) to the HP Studio! It was pretttyyy awesome. So many props and sets and cool facts!! I got some butterbeer and took more pictures than I've taken the whole trip so far. Thankfully Ashton and Chad were troopers and let me take it all in and get my Harry Potter fill.
Once we got back to the main part of London, we made our way over to St. Paul's Cathedral. While on the tube, Ashton spotted these two Aggie guys that we had seen at the Houston airport on our flight as well, and they awkwardly waved to us...SO weird that out of all the tube stations in London, we see them at the exact same place halfway around the world...

Once at St. Paul's, we decided to grab some lunch at the small grocery store close by and eat on the steps so we grabbed some salads/sandwiches and bread and enjoyed the view and atmosphere around St. Paul's! Then we spent the next 15 minutes looking for a "rubbish bin." Literally started pulling on things and looking in every corner for one and we could not find one! We ended up having to throw it away inside St. Paul's. After listening to the iPod we were given talking about St. Paul's for a bit we climbed the 528 steps all the way up to the Golden Gallery at 280ft, where you could see a 360 view of London. It was AWESOME. Definitely worth the climb!
Once we made it back down again, and I almost lost my water bottle to the heights of St. Paul's, we started to head over to where the London Eye is. Chad and I each paid 50 pence to use a public restroom...dumb. And then walked across the bridge, while also possibly almost getting pick-pocketed. We rode on the London Eye and somehow ended up being the only Americans and only ones who spoke English on our ride...but it was still awesome, it gave a whole other perspective than what we got at St. Paul's.
We then walked back towards the train station and took pictures of Big Ben and House of Parliament on the way. Definitely my favorite view of London...with the Thames River and it's historic look, it is too amazing.
We decided to do the Camden Pub Crawl tonight so we changed at our hostel and then met up with the group at a bar called Belushi's. And what do ya know, the two Aggie guys were there, and Chad even called it! So ridiculous and weird. We all became good friends that night! At each bar you got a free shot and drink specials, and we met a lot of really cool people! The last bar we went to used to be horse stables and was awesome. We had been planning on taking the tube back to our hostel, but found out after we left the bar that it had already closed...so somehow we decided to find a double decker bus and the driver didn't even ask for our tickets to get back. Lucky lucky lucky! We then ordered a pizza when we got to the hostel and facetimed Morgan. Good good night!