London, England

Soo.. London has completely stolen my heart at this point. Went there for the weekend, and NEVER wanted to leave. I completely fell in love with the city and all the sights. We stayed at a hostel right off of the bayswater station. It was in a great location right by Hyde park and all the great things to see in London. This is the outside of out Hostel. It was great!

The first place that we visited was Hyde park and the Kensington 

palace. The sunken gardens at the palace were amazing.

"Round Pond"real original name

Sunken Gardens at the Kensington Palace

After that, we walked through Hyde Park to the other side. Along the way we saw this huge statue and we went over to see what it was. All we found out was that it was "Albert," but it was beautiful!

from far away

closer up

We then headed towards Buckingham Palace. Along the way we stopped at this war memorial. It was beautiful and there was this great archway that was there too.

Australian War Memorial

The next stop was Buckingham Palace. As we walked there, we saw a huge crowd gathering. When we got there, we found out that it was five minutes until the changing of the guards! We didn't even plan to see it, but we had perfect timing. We also squeezed through for some pretty good spots. Here are some pictures from that.

me outside of the palace

guards walking by

guard out front of Buckingham Palace Doors

"Hi-ho hi-ho, it's off to work we go"

the palace from around the traffic circle

typical tourist

NEXT STOP=BIG BEN & WESTMINSTER ABBEY!

From there, we saw the London Eye, and walked along the river to the London and Tower bridges. After that we went to the Tower of London and then Picadilly Circus. ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU THAT WE WENT TO WIMBLEDON! I had a great time! More to come... bed time now!

the london eye and our ride

down river

we made him smile

the thames

my future house

tower of london

tower bridge

wimbledon

Spice World

Okay... BEYOND EXCITED RIGHT NOW!!!!

Me and 3 of my classmates are leaving for LONDON for the weekend.... in like 30 minutes!!! I am SOOO EXCITED!

I can not wait to get there. We're staying in a hostel right near everything. Thank you Auntieee Annette for all your help in planning this weekend. She told me what sights to see and the best ways to get around, and where to get some great eye drops.. just kidding :)

Just wanted to fill yall in and I will post EVERYTHING about it when I get back. LOVE LOVE LOVE Europe with all my heart!

Some pics from the last couple days...

Happy Birthday John!

Sitting in class right now, just thought I would post something.

Monday night, we went to this awesome place called Dicey's. On the way there, it was down pouring and we got soaked, but it was fine because i wore flip-flops and brought my heels to change into once we got there!! It was 2 euro burgers and drinks all night, so we all spent about only 10 euro and had a great time. We ended up staying there for the whole night.

Today is John's birthday! We're doing the ghost bus tour tonight and it should be fun! It is supposed to be a haunted bus ride that takes us to a castle where there are real ghosts. Should be fun :)

Well I am actually in class now so I'm gonna run, but I will talk to you soon!!!!

xoxo

Whoops.... let me fill you in

Sorry it has been so long since my last post!

So much has happened... I'll tell ya everything with a picture!

Thursday night, we all went out to this new place called D2. It was really fun, kinda club-ish, but we had a blast. We stayed there all night and danced until the sun came up... literally. It only stays dark here at night for 3 or 4 hours and the sun is up and shining at about 3:30 each morning. When we were at D2, there was this one creepy old man there, and he grabbed my arm to try to dance with me and i was like HELL NO and then security kicked them out. They take that kind of stuff really seriously here because then I had to go into the office of the bar/club and basically file a police report against the guy... creep! I think that this was one of the best nights that we have had out yet. We got there early enough where there was no cover charge yet, and drinks were all 5 euro (this is a really good price here). 

The next morning, we were all still feeling the night before, but we had to get up early for the hop on hop off bus tour. 

This tour is really cool, you buy a 2-day ticket and can get on and off the bus as many times as we want within those 48 hours.

This is the street where the tour started. It was right by the shopping district so we scoped out a couple places that we HAD to go to the next day. 

Bedford Tower built in 1761

One of the places that we visited on the tour was the Dublin Castle. This castle (yes it was actually a castle) has a TON of history. The rooms were beautiful and there were different chandeliers in each room. There was a throne that was actually used by he kings and queens and it was so big that one of the queens had to have a matching footstool made so she could get up onto the chair.

The next stop on our trip was Trinity College. This college, in the heart of Dublin, and is very very very old. The Book of Kells is housed within their library. The Book of Kells is a collection of 4 Gospels... you have to pay an admission price to get in and learn more and actually see the books... or you can sneak past security like I did and o have a quick look without anyone even noticing. I would show you a picture, but no cameras were allowed to be taken out in there.

Some of us girls in front of the entrance to Trinity.

 After the College, we got back on a bus and the next stop, by my suggestion, was the Celtic Whisky Shop! We went and everyone actually enojyed themselves. They had any type of whisky and alcohol a person could think of. They even had Absinthe. Absinthe is illegal to buy or sell in the US because it makes you hallucinate. Basically, it has the same effects as ecstasy. But it is not illegal here, and there are plenty of different kinds. 

 NEXT STOP = GUINNESS FACTORY!!!!

"Black is Beautiful" DUH!

 This set of pictures is kind of self-explanatory. We went to the Guinness Factory and I can proudly say I actually READ every exhibit there. I wanted to learn the history and the significance of Guinness to the Irish. I am thankful I did, although Guinness is not my first choice of beer. I will stick to Bud Light...

"Your Experience Starts Here!" YAYYYY!!! we made it

 After you guide yourself through the tour, you end up at the Gravity Bar at the very top of the factory. The guy who served me my free pint put a nice little clover in the top of it for me :)

The view from the top of the Gravity Bar

 That night, we did the typical Irish thing and went out again! Here are pictures form Friday and Saturday night!

Kaitlyn, Me & Liz at Dicey's

CAUTION! I can be a little crazy. 

The second day of our bus tour, we went to the zoo.. probably walked about 20 miles. I will write more later tonight but now I have t run. We're about to go to a field hockey game... GO USA! I'll leave you with pictures from the zoo!