Londra

Just touched down in London Town!  It was a blast. Just as I remember it when I went years ago with my mom, grandma, and Anna to see Baby Kelly dance in London's New Years Day Parade.  I even got to see the hotel that we stayed at!  But here is the load down on my trip this time: 

Weather: Rain, rain, rain.  Okay not really. But it did rain every single day that I was there, just not all day long. We actually timed things pretty well.  It was, however, cold and wet and rainy.  This is another thing that I don't actually understand. I know that everyone in all of London owns Wellies (rainboots), but that doesn't mean that they don't have to put in a sewer system! There were puddles all over the place.  Like, come on London! You have the tube! Why not put in a drain?

 Money: I don't understand how people can survive in London, let alone the UK.  The pound is killer. They have just as many coins as the rest of Europe does but they do not put any numbers at all on their money.  I think they like to make foreigners like me sit there and flip though the coins and read the currency values written on them to know what they are.  They also do not go by size. You have no idea how many times I just stuck my hand out and let the cashiers take their pick at what was in my hand. 

Friends: I finally got to meet up with my friends Stefanie and Zsolt.  I hadn't seen Stefanie in over a year, since she visited me in Chicago.  But I hadn't seen Zsolt since he left Torino two years ago.  For anyone who has ever met Zsolt, he knows how to dance and that is just what we did. We went to a place called "Tiger Tiger" and danced from 10:00pm until close at 3:00am.  Then we headed home because Zsolt had to catch a 6:00am cab to the airport.  Maybe it was because I had a little to drink or was just really happy to see him, but I cried twice that night, once when he said goodbye to Stefanie and once when I said goodbye to him.  It had been way too long and it was amazing to see him. Saturday, my friends and I met up with Stefanie to watch the changing of the gaurds.  It was pretty cool (see pictures below).  Then we had her be our tour guide.  Guess what our first stop was? STARBUCKS! Best tour guide ever!  We then walked a little ways down teh road and she took us to Harrods to look around and see the puppies! Harrods is amazing. It had literally anything that you would ever need. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the interior because its was not allowed. Guess you will just have to go!

Girls with their Starbucks outside of Harrods

Buckingham Palace

Director of the band in the Changing of the Guards

Notting Hill: For anyone who has seen the movie, it was exactly the same.  I honestly don't know because I have never seen it but everyone else who was with me said it was.  Either way, the market was amazing.  Basically there are what seemed like thousands of stands filled with food, antiques, bags, art, music jewelry, and junk.  We walked through the entire market and didn't buy a thing until we got to the food. Thats where we decided to split up and meet back at the corner for everyone to buy lunch.  Little did we know that we would all end up at the same falafel booth. Needless to say, it was amazing! But everyone managed to get falafel juice spilled all over them.  Oh well, at least we all looked like slobs. Honestly, the houses around Notting Hill were the cutest houses that I have ever seen in London.  If I had to live in London, I would live there.

Our last day: We were super tourists. We started out going to Madame Tussauds Wax Museme.  Luckily, Stefanie had given us 2-for-1 coupons so it wasn't that expensive.  I did however get to hang out with my two favorite people, Miley and Robert Pattinson.  If you can't tell from the picture, me and Robert are dating. The wax figures are made to scale and are accurate height, so judging from the pictures, I am short.  Dang!

 

One of the last things we "had" to do before we left was find Platform 9 and 3/4 for my friends. I was not happy about this since I am not the biggest fan of Harry Pot-skies as I like to call him.  I however resigned to taking a picture so that I could make my wizzard-loving muggle sisters jealous. Eat your hearts out Anna and Kelly!

Thats all about London! We ended out trip with an Indian food dinner and I tried curry for the first time. I am not sure about it still. Then we had to wait and catch our 6am flight home to Bologna!

Baci xx