Departure --> London
**Disclaimer: European wifi is slower than molasses, so excuse my slow posting schedule (for both the blog and pictures...)
Day 1
After a drive to O'Hare, a 3 hour wait in the airport, and a 7.5 hour flight, I finally made it to London (and luckily with all my overpacked bags...). Even with the complimentary wine and movies, I only managed to sneak in about an hour of sleep, aka I was a zombie and the adrenaline was barely keeping me awake anymore.
As we went through customs and gathered our bags, we started finding more and more people throughout the airport that were on our program. After I struggled to get through Heathrow Airport with all my duffles, we made it on our bus and to our hotel in Kensington by 8:30 am (1:30 am Milwaukee time...woof).
The drive from Heathrow to Kensington was interesting...almost the entire drive seemed to look almost exactly like the Midwest (regular trees and buildings and grass and open land). Needless to say, it somehow still hadn't hit me that I was outside the States for the first time. But, as we started to get more into town the buildings became cuter, the cars became cuter, and of course the accents became cuter as well, but I was just really thrown off from driving on the other side of the road to even pay attention.
After arriving at the hotel we dropped our stuff and some of us went out and walked around the town to look at all the tall beautiful flats and houses and attempted to find our way through Kensington in hopes of finding something to eat since the last meal we had was on an airplane. As we wandered through the city for awhile and peered in every pretty and cutely decorated restaurant and cafe, we finally stopped at a small tea cafe called The Muffin Man.
We officially decided that all restaurants are better here merely because of how they look. In fact, just about all of London and Kensington are better because the buildings and restaurants look better.
Despite our best attempts to stick it out through the day, jet lag got the best of us and we went back to the hotel for a quick power nap to give us some extra energy. Thankfully a nap and a couple episodes of Friends worked and we went back out in search of a place to get dinner. We heard of a pub called The Prince of Wales and decided it was probably our best shot because we didn't know anything else about the town and its places to eat. The menu consisted of dozens of beers, fish and chips, burgers, and just all around good pub food. After a day of barely any food, a good burger and "chips" (actually thought my meal came with potato chips and not fries) with a (gluten-free) beer definitely hit the spot.
All in all, Kensington is beautiful and "put together". I definitely felt a bit of a culture shock as I walked around and didn't know things such as how to cross the street; restaurant etiquette is also very different and took some getting use to. The hardest part was figuring out their currency system...still confused but I only had to deal with it for 48 hours I just did my best while I was there...
Day 2
Finally got a good amount of sleep, which was good considering I was about to have a three hour tour of London starting at 9 am. We piled onto buses and a tour guide took us all around Kensington, Westminster, and London while hitting all the main attractions. Luckily we got to get out and take pictures throughout the tour as well.
We first drove through all the main streets in Kensington that casually include Tiffany's, Bentley, Ferrari, and of course Harrods (plus many, many more). Once again, Kensington is just beautiful (I mean tons of celebrities own houses there, so its gotta be good).
We also got to go more into the city and go through Westminster and London seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and more (by the end of this trip I am going to have way too many pictures).
It was quite weird seeing all these places I've only seen in pictures and movies.
Following the tour we were dropped off in Covent Garden and were free to wander around and find our way home. After finding a cafe lunch, we bought a day pass for the tube. After struggling to figure out how to buy a pass for about 20 minutes, navigating the tube was a whole other story. We went with the trial and error system...thankfully, the first time we tried we pretty much got it.
Later, we decided to take the tube again to meet other people for dinner. Apparently we only had beginners luck the first time and messed up both on the way there and the way back. At least we had a good dinner in Picadilli to fill us up before we took about a half hour to get home.
Best part of the night though, GOT TO WATCH THE PACKER GAME AT A BAR IN LONDON. Until they lost....
Things I've Learned So Far:
-British Airways gluten free meal is actually not that bad...
-International flights are doable (wished I was in the upstairs "club seating" of the plane though)
-The jet lag struggle is real
-I have no idea how to use pounds in London
-Chips are legitimately fries
-I still get carded in the UK...
-I could never drive in London or on the other side of the road
-Their english and our english are just two separate things
-My mind still hasn't adjusted to the fact the US is several hours behind...
-I stick out worse than a sore thumb
-I got to see so many places from THE PARENT TRAP (yes, I died)
-I should practice the tube before going on it again
-I can watch American football in Europe!
Day 1
After a drive to O'Hare, a 3 hour wait in the airport, and a 7.5 hour flight, I finally made it to London (and luckily with all my overpacked bags...). Even with the complimentary wine and movies, I only managed to sneak in about an hour of sleep, aka I was a zombie and the adrenaline was barely keeping me awake anymore.
As we went through customs and gathered our bags, we started finding more and more people throughout the airport that were on our program. After I struggled to get through Heathrow Airport with all my duffles, we made it on our bus and to our hotel in Kensington by 8:30 am (1:30 am Milwaukee time...woof).
The drive from Heathrow to Kensington was interesting...almost the entire drive seemed to look almost exactly like the Midwest (regular trees and buildings and grass and open land). Needless to say, it somehow still hadn't hit me that I was outside the States for the first time. But, as we started to get more into town the buildings became cuter, the cars became cuter, and of course the accents became cuter as well, but I was just really thrown off from driving on the other side of the road to even pay attention.
After arriving at the hotel we dropped our stuff and some of us went out and walked around the town to look at all the tall beautiful flats and houses and attempted to find our way through Kensington in hopes of finding something to eat since the last meal we had was on an airplane. As we wandered through the city for awhile and peered in every pretty and cutely decorated restaurant and cafe, we finally stopped at a small tea cafe called The Muffin Man.We officially decided that all restaurants are better here merely because of how they look. In fact, just about all of London and Kensington are better because the buildings and restaurants look better.
Despite our best attempts to stick it out through the day, jet lag got the best of us and we went back to the hotel for a quick power nap to give us some extra energy. Thankfully a nap and a couple episodes of Friends worked and we went back out in search of a place to get dinner. We heard of a pub called The Prince of Wales and decided it was probably our best shot because we didn't know anything else about the town and its places to eat. The menu consisted of dozens of beers, fish and chips, burgers, and just all around good pub food. After a day of barely any food, a good burger and "chips" (actually thought my meal came with potato chips and not fries) with a (gluten-free) beer definitely hit the spot.
All in all, Kensington is beautiful and "put together". I definitely felt a bit of a culture shock as I walked around and didn't know things such as how to cross the street; restaurant etiquette is also very different and took some getting use to. The hardest part was figuring out their currency system...still confused but I only had to deal with it for 48 hours I just did my best while I was there...
Day 2
Finally got a good amount of sleep, which was good considering I was about to have a three hour tour of London starting at 9 am. We piled onto buses and a tour guide took us all around Kensington, Westminster, and London while hitting all the main attractions. Luckily we got to get out and take pictures throughout the tour as well.
We also got to go more into the city and go through Westminster and London seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and more (by the end of this trip I am going to have way too many pictures).
It was quite weird seeing all these places I've only seen in pictures and movies.
Following the tour we were dropped off in Covent Garden and were free to wander around and find our way home. After finding a cafe lunch, we bought a day pass for the tube. After struggling to figure out how to buy a pass for about 20 minutes, navigating the tube was a whole other story. We went with the trial and error system...thankfully, the first time we tried we pretty much got it.
Later, we decided to take the tube again to meet other people for dinner. Apparently we only had beginners luck the first time and messed up both on the way there and the way back. At least we had a good dinner in Picadilli to fill us up before we took about a half hour to get home.
Best part of the night though, GOT TO WATCH THE PACKER GAME AT A BAR IN LONDON. Until they lost....
Things I've Learned So Far:
-British Airways gluten free meal is actually not that bad...
-International flights are doable (wished I was in the upstairs "club seating" of the plane though)
-The jet lag struggle is real
-I have no idea how to use pounds in London
-Chips are legitimately fries
-I still get carded in the UK...
-I could never drive in London or on the other side of the road
-Their english and our english are just two separate things
-My mind still hasn't adjusted to the fact the US is several hours behind...
-I stick out worse than a sore thumb
-I got to see so many places from THE PARENT TRAP (yes, I died)
-I should practice the tube before going on it again
-I can watch American football in Europe!
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