the london accent

many of you have heard me talking about going to england for months. one of my best friends was getting married and the moment after he called to tell me he said start looking up tickets, you need to be here, of course i was in! i have been counting down the weeks and months and finally on the 17th it was time to leave. it was a bittersweet day as i was so excited, it was also richards 30th birthday. unfortunately to make all the travel work i needed to leave that day:( he was so sweet about it and didn't leave my side all day until he had to take me to the airport. one of the hardest goodbyes ive ever had!

the plan was spend 2 days in london, york on wednesday, edinburgh on thursday, durham friday, wedding saturday, and home sunday. omg that is a lot in 1 week! so i left on the 17th and arrived on the morning of the 18th with flight duration and time change. after waiting for an hour in the passport line (ugh) i made my way to the train to head to london. i was staying with one of katies good friends, amy, until they came down the next afternoon. since it was mothers day in the uk however, amy couldn't meet me until 3p and my flight landed at 1045a. so i found a pub near to hang out in till she was ready.

i made it!

good plan till i got there and it was closed and had to walk down all kinds of weird streets that had signs stating "beware, thieves operate here." with my 2 suitcases in search of the barbican where she lives. amy had told me if i needed there was lots of seating and cafes there, turns out i did. by that time it was almost 1p and i was starving. luckily there was a very nice mom that watched my suitcases for me so i could grab some food. as it was nearing 3p i hadnt heard from amy, so i tried katie instead. she reached out to amy and neither one of had heard anything. at almost 4p i received a text from her that she was home and would meet me where i was! thank goodness, turned out i had sent my message earlier to the wrong number and my phone literally only had 5% battery left.

her apartment was sooo cute had a great view of the inside gardens. after chatting for awhile i took a much needed shower (once i had run all the not water out because i thought it needed time to warm up like my shower at home) and a short nap. i was feeling good, not too jet lagged because i had scored my own row on my flight over so i could actually sleep. we waited for her boyfriend will to return and we to a pub nearby for dinner. except their kitchen was closed, it was 8p by the way, so we went to another one that just opened. there were only about 2 things on the menu i even knew what they were. so i stayed safe with chicken and a caesar salad, which was really good!

seriously how cute is that kitchen??

the next morning i woke up around 8a for my running tour, more on that tomorrow! after getting off the tube to return to amys i popped over for a coffee and a breakfast goodie at pret and thought, i could get used to this city thing. once i had showered and was eating breakfast i got adventurous and thought i had enough time before nate and katie arrived to see where the olympics are being held this summer. it took too long to figure out and i should have just gone somewhere closer, but i made it out to standstend to find a rather rough area to be honest and not enough time. so i walked around a little bit, then had to head back, at least i tried lol.

finished with my adventure i headed to kings cross to met nate, his mom, brother nick, and katie. i made a much needed harry potter detour before meeting them and wasnt the only one, there were lots of people my age doing the same thing! the rest of the day was like a whirlwind. we toured around the city, saw fun museums i could have spent all day in alone, and drooled over beautiful things at harrods, all while becoming masters of the tube. i really did start to remember how much fun it was to ride and so super easy.

off to hogwarts i go!!

this was the actual thing that took
out the trapped chilean miners in 2010!

my staircase in the natural history museum...

love, love.

around 7p we headed st pancreas to meet nates twin sisters coming in from munich. we gathered them and meet amy and will for dinner at pizza express, which would literally be in every city we went to for the whole trip! it was fun to have a big group together for dinner:) we hobbled our way back to the tube afterwards and went back to amy and wills to stay the night and all fell asleep pretty early for day 2!

nate and his brother nick were going to spend the majority of that day in a theme park outside the city, so the girls could hang out and do girly things. we shopped and went to piccadilly circus, m&m world uk, waved to the queen (the flag was flying so we knew she was there!), and sat in kings cross waiting for nate and katie to return with nates suit for the wedding we found earlier in the day. we had a late train that took us to durham that evening where we were staying and the wedding would be as well.

andrea, katie, nates mom, and i

they have m&m world uk!

i love these guys!!

piccadilly circus!

the queen is home!

hello!

london:)

we arrived well after midnight and had a very cold walk to st. johns college, where the lovebirds met and we would be staying :) i was really excited to see where their love had grown and where nate had been these last few years.