London in a Day

I'm writing this blog post from the comfort of my bed here in Ireland, still attempting to recover from what I can pretty accurately call one of the busiest day in my entire life. Four other girls and I decided to fly into London for the weekend but ended up booking flights that left late Friday night and EARLY Sunday morning meaning we had only one day to experience London.

Our flight out of Dublin left at 9:30 pm on Friday, and arrived in London around 10:45 pm. Once we landed we immediately hunted down bathrooms and then tried to find a way to get to our hotel. After asking an attendant we got a bus that would supposedly drop us off a short 10 minute walk from our hotel.

 BOY WAS SHE WRONG.

By the time we were dropped off it was past midnight and about an hour and a half walk from our hotel. So we managed to find a taxi and make it to what could possibly be one of the sketchiest hotels I've ever stayed at (the hotel was part of a chain and they chose not to put the pictures of the dingy hotel on the website, just the nice one) so it was a miracle we survived.

The next day after breakfast we caught a taxi to the Tower Bridge, where honestly I would have liked to spend the whole day standing there waiting for it to raise, but apparently that's "not a good way to experience all of London". Whatever. Little did we know that this would be the start of a day full of insane amounts of walking and bike riding. I think if my feet were sentient and able, they would have gladly killed me after that day.

First stop in London, feet not in the least bit murderous.

After this we decided our best course of action would be to grab bikes and ride to all of our destinations. Unfortunately this meant leaving one of our own behind (does the saying "Never leave a man behind" count if it's a woman?) but it also meant we made it everywhere much faster. After a stop at the Globe Theater we decided to eat lunch at a restaurant called Porky's BBQ owned by a couple from Tennessee. I really enjoyed the food (despite not really liking BBQ) and thought the atmosphere of the place was great.

Did we go to a BBQ place in London? Yes.

We also saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament but of course we got there right when the sun made it difficult to see. Undeterred, we crossed the bridge from the London Eye and looked like the gawking tourists we are, as we snapped way too many pictures of buildings that haven't changed in a long time.

Almost dropped my camera in the Thames for this picture. Worth it.

From then on we went to several more places including but not limited to, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Hide Park, and a lot of other parks. Since it gets dark so quickly here in Europe, one of the last picture I was able to snap happened to be of a statue that I was desperate to get to all day. Peter Pan. Basically my favorite character because I too never want to grow up and I'm sure if I try hard enough I could probably fly.

Don't grow up. It's a trap.

Later on in the night we enjoyed a Jack the Ripper walking tour, and an amazing pizza place where I actually ate calamari. We then walked all the way to our bus stop (an hour and forty minutes away) and made our way to the airport where our plane departed at 6:30 am Sunday morning. We slept all day Sunday and today is the first time I am actually capable of productivity.

All in all my trip to London was wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It was a bit stressful at times and by the end of the night we all wanted to kill each other (note: alone time is key to traveling with people) but it will be something that I will remember for the rest of my life. My only word of advice would be to spend a lot more than one day, and to enjoy it!