SATURDAY: Woke up and went to breakfast at a small French bakery and then off for a day of the sights. We began at Harrods so Kelly could see the store and the pet section. That was really fun to see these tiny tiny dogs and made me miss the Berra. After that, we went to Oxford Circus and then Piccadilly and then High Street. After a long day of running around, we went back to the hotel and rested a bit before getting some dinner at our local Italian restaurant and then getting all dressed to meet our friends and go out. I was able to get a bunch of us on the guest list at FunkyBuddha so it was really great that I was able to show Kel a good time while in London. We all got ready and went to the club, and got in right away. The place was waaay overpriced, but the music was good so we stayed a while. Kel and I ducked out early and went back around 1am. We were both exhausted after running around all day. That was Saturday.
SUNDAY: We ventured over to Covent Garden, a new area of the city that I had never been to yet. Narrow cobble stone streets with restaurants and shops with outdoor seating areas and street performers. It was a really eclectic area and we both enjoyed it. We sat down for lunch at a pub next door to the Lion King’s West End theatre. That day happened to the be the 10th anniversary of the opening of the show so there was a red carpet out front and a there was a celebratory afternoon performance happening. I actually saw Felicia Rashad (mom from The Cosby Show) walking in with her mother. After lunch, we met with Jeanie who was in town from Oxford, so we met her for a cupcake. Afterwards, we had tickets to go on the London Eye so we made our way over to the river with Jeanie and she wandered around while Kel and I went soaring hundreds of feet over the city in the biggest observation wheel in the world. I was honestly terrified, but how often do you go on the Eye so I sucked it up and took my pictures. After we were done, we had a bit of a photo shoot on the bridge overlooking Parliament and Big Ben. The sun was setting and it was just amazing. After it got dark, we met up with Jeanie again. Rebs and Mike Richardson (who is also studying in London) also met us for dinner in Leicester Square. We had really good pizza and then walking back to the tube, we past the red carpet for the new George Clooney movie that was having it’s London premiere. We missed him by a few minutes, but it was really cool to see it nonetheless!
MONDAY: Kelly and I went in the morning to get tickets to see Dirty Dancing at a same-day student discount price. In London, the show has been playing here for three years and has proved to be very popular. I have never seen the movie and didn’t know the story so she was really, really excited to see it and I didn’t know what to expect. (It was actually really great and I loved the special effects and scenery!) After we got our tickets for the show that night, we headed over to Sloane Square, another area of the city that I hadn’t been to yet so at least I wasn’t retracing my own steps with Kel… We walked around there for a while, up and down the street (a little like a trashier version of Georgetown) and took a bunch of pictures. From there, we hopped on the bus and nabbed the front row on the top level of the bus so we got a nice bird’s eye view of Knightsbridge on our trek to Piccadilly. We got off at Fortnum and Mason so Kel could get some souvenir teas for her roommates and we got a bunch of different kinds. That night we went with Mel to see Dirty Dancing back in Sloane Square and for the cheap ticket price, we actually had really great seats. They were both singing the whole time so it was fun for them. Everyone seated around us noticed that one of the judges from Dancing with the Stars was sitting in the audience, but I had no idea who this man was so I didn’t care. That was Monday night.
TUESDAY: My only day of classes. Except that I didn’t have class this week (really worked out nicely). Instead of my two classes, I had two field trips! For media, we went to take a tour of BBC studios and for BLC we took a tour of the Globe Theater and the Tate Modern art museum. Kelly was able to come to the first one because my professor had extra tickets so that was awesome to have her join my class on our trip. BBC is a really fascinating place and I don’t want to say too much because I’m afraid this blog post will never end but we say two shows being filmed and a lot of behind the scenes news-y things. Really really cool! After the tour, we grabbed lunch at the Westfield mall across the street that just happened to be the largest in Europe. It actually reminded me of Towne Center in Boca so I got a little homesick. I need to go back there, it was too American to pass up a walk around on a rainy day. At this point, Kel went back to the hotel to work on a midterm for one of her classes and I continued to the second half of my day. The second tour was actually pretty disappointing as it was just a lecture about Shakespeare IN the Globe. I felt terrible that she was alone for a half the day and so I rushed back as soon as the tour was over. We rested a bit and since it was her last night, I asked what she wanted to do for dinner. One word: Mexican. Good thing Chiquito was amazing Mexican right in Leicester Square! Going back to that part of the city, the film festival was still going on and a new red carpet was on this night. It was the premiere of “An Education”, an indie film. I ended up running into Emma Thompson and not even knowing who she was. Oh well! At dinner, we split chicken fajitas and pitcher of strawberry margaritas and discussed the future. It was a truly great last night!
WEDNESDAY: Woke up, breakfast at a cute restaurant called Med Kitcken by my building and then went back to Heathrow. It was a tearful goodbye, but what’s another 10 weeks right?
Thank you for keeping up, that took a lot out of me. I apologize for not going into my detail, but this post would have been pages upon pages. Basically, we had a great time and I was surprised with our March spring break trip to the Atlantis Resort!!! Cannot wait for that one, was my favorite vacation ever back in the day.
Cheers all!
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