London and James' visit!

This is my 3rd blog post today and I'm finally caught up! I need to start taking my blogging responsibilities more seriously. 


So on Tuesday of this week my boyfriend James flew to Madrid to see me! I was so excited to see him the night before I could hardly sleep. Unfortunately for him, his original flight that was getting in at 6:45 AM didn't work out so he got one that landed at 10:15 AM. At least I got to sleep in a bit! As I waited for him to walk out of the airport I was on the verge of tears and my hopes kept rising and falling as James look-a-likes walked by. When I finally saw him I couldn't talk because I knew I would've started bawling! 


We got him checked in and settled into his hotel room at the Westin Palace Madrid, which was one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen, second only to the St. Regis in New York. Of course James stayed there with a discount. Since I'm kind of bad at planning I didn't have a full list of activities to do while he was here, so we walked down to Puerta del Sol and walked into Retiro Park and enjoying each other's company. I had class from 530-830pm that night, and James just slept in the room the whole time. That wasn't too much of a challenge seeing as he was pretty jetlagged and exhausted! Then we went out for drinks with some friends so everybody could get to know each other.


 The next morning I had class from 9am-12pm so again he got some rest while I got down to business. I didn't have class again until 530 that day so we walked along the downtown/Gran Via area, window shopping and admiring all the soccer (sorry--football) jerseys for sale. I also took James to Vicente Calderon Stadium, home of Athletico Madrid, where we went into the Stadium Museum that was filled with huge trophies and old jerseys and footballs. 


Then we met up with my friend Kristely and grabbed sushi followed by VIPS-the American food place that has great desserts! The next morning we had a very early flight to catch to London! I've wanted to go to London pretty much ever since I started reading the Harry Potter books and since James was born there, I knew I wanted to wait for him to come with me. 


Now, we flew on the cheap-o airline Ryanair. By cheap-o I don't mean airtran or jetblue. I mean there are no assigned seats so people literally sprint as soon as the doors open to try and get a "good seat," which doesn't exist on this flight since they cram the seats together so tightly there's no legroom, and the seats don't recline. Also, when they say 1 carry on item, they mean ONE.ITEM. You have to fit your purse and everything into a bag with small dimensions that must weight less than 10 kg. My bag was about 2 centimeters too large so I had to spend 35 euro to check it. That was fun. Up until this point I've been flying regular airlines so I just wasn't prepared for all of this! You also HAVE to check in online unless you want a 40 euro fee for not doing so. I'm just glad I won't be flying ryanair again!


Once we landed in London Gatwick airport James and I got separated for a few minutes since we went through different customs lines (he being a EU citizen), which was really scary since my phone didn't work in the UK and he didn't have one! Finally we found each other and hopped on our hour and fifteen minute bus ride from the airport to central London. I'm not saying Thursday was a waste of a day, but we pretty much slept the whole time. The whole journey was just exhausting. We met up with my friend Jasmine who is studying there and she took us to a Pub where Johnny Depp and Hugh Grant are rumored to frequent. The cider in London is quite good-it tastes like sparkling cider! 


Then we went out with a few of my BLS friends who are studying in London. We wanted to do a pub crawl but then just started doing our own thing, bar hopping around and trying the different Ales they have in London. They weren't as good as the home brewed ale in Prague though! We ended up at a karaoke bar where we saw an old man dressed up as Elvis. And when someone started singing Sweet Caroline we went crazy, even though I don't like the RedSox. It was more about there being a connection to Boston. 


The next day we went on the London free tour. I've done them in Madrid and Prague and will continue to go on the free walking tours in every European city I go to. Not only are they FREE, but walking is good exercise and better for the environment that riding around an obnoxious two story bus!


We went all around the Royal district, seeing Buckingham Palace, some building from Henry VIII's era, Trafalgar Square, London Eye (the ferris wheel), Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, you name it. I could post the really crappy pictures I took but you're better off googling them since almost none of my London pictures have people in them! Sorry about that.

Buckingham Palace-the flag is up, meaning the Queen is home!

Trafalgar Square

After the 2.5 hour walking tour we were starving so we grabbed lunch with a group of fellow travelers we met on the tour, and then we went to King's Cross Station so I could find Platform 9 3/4 and board the Hogwarts Express. It was there!

Don't mind my layers. It was freezing/raining in London, as usual.

We had a night tour of London called the Grim Reaper Tour. It was also 2.5 hours, also a walking tour. It was exactly what I wanted to do though because it took you through the dark and grimy past of London, from the trail of Jack the Ripper, to tales of awful conditions in the Industrial Revolution, to the Tower of London, public execution sights, and tales of the London Fire and Plague. It took me back in time and was really eerie and fun at night! 

Tower of London! Ann Boleyn
 was executed up in there.

This is Tower Bridge, NOT London Bridge! When Fergie started dancing there in her London Bridge music video, she lost mad respect.

After we were done with our touring for the day we went to a theater to see a Ghost Story show. It was really scary! I thought I was going to have to leave the theater but I was just fine. 

The next day we got up early to go to the more "real" parts of London where James used to grow up. I got to ride on the top of one of the buses! I enjoyed that. I met some childhood friends of James' and we enjoyed their company so much we went a pub crawl that night with them, and my BLS friend. It was no where near as fun as the Prague one, maybe because everyone was speaking English?  But I was with fun people so the night was fun for me. 

The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn-6AM so I could get to my Gatwick bus by 650. I made it there on time, the bus even arrived early, and my flight was delayed about 45 minutes. Better to be safe than sorry! This time I flew on EasyJet which was still a discount airline but not as bad as Ryanair. At least there was legroom, although you still did have to battle your way through the crowds to find a seat.

In other news: I have fallen ill with a fever somewhere along the way of all of this (sleep deprivation? Cold rain?) and now I need to try and get better in time for my next adventure: Barcelona with my Mom's brother and sister! 

Sending everyone love :)

A very. public. restroom.

Notice something different?!