This year was the first time I have been
out of the country for Thanksgiving! Though it was a little strange, it was
hard to be sad because I currently have so much to be thankful for… We ended up
celebrating thanksgiving dinner in a true British fashion and walked down to an
awesome little pub Canterbury for a roast dinner and a beer! Yum!
The next day it was off to London for the weekend! EAP had organized a
traditional American dinner for us, and we couldn’t turn down a free meal. Katie
and I arrived early on Friday and our first stop was Platform 9 ¾ for a quick
trip to Hogwarts.
We
checked into our hostel and spent the afternoon walking around Camden’s market.
Afterwards we met up with Charlie and his mom at the Natural History museum and
wandered around a bit before it was time for our Thanksgiving feast. It was
great to be able to reconnect with some of the other EAP kids we met at
orientation, and the dinner was actually pretty good!
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| The Street our Hostel was on |
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| Natural History Museum |
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| Having a little Movember fun at the Museum |
Later that night we met
up with Charlie’s friends who took us out to some of their favorite local bars
in Camden. We went to a place called the Monarch, which was so much fun and was playing 90's music all night!
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| By the end of the night, everyone was wearing those glasses. definitely a great purchase. |
The
next day we spent wandering around London. We went to Portobello Market, saw
the Christmas lights on Oxford Street, and checked out Denmark Street which is
lined with music shops. We even had Chipotle for lunch!! (yes, we found the
only one in Europe!! SUCCESS).
That
night we went to “Winter Wonderland” at Hyde Park. They had a huge fair
complete with rides, games, food, and lots of mulled wine! It was absolutely
packed! It was the perfect thing to get us in the Christmas spirit after
Thanksgiving! The highlight of the night was being able to ice skate! They had
a huge outdoor rink that had a live band playing Christmas music. It was so
amazing to be skating in London with all my friends, and miraculously no one
fell! Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us bring cameras onto the ice, but that’s
probably for the better…
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| At Winter Wonderland |
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| Ice Skating at Hyde Park |
On
Sunday we hit up all the usual tourist spots in London. We started out at Abbey
Road where we took the obligatory photo and left our mark on the Beatles wall.
The next stop was the changing of the guards, followed by a walk through
Trafalgar Square where we saw the countdown clock for the Olympic games! (Only
240 days, mom and dad!) We had lunch in Convent Garden and then walked around
by the Christmas markets, the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and
Parliament. We then hopped on the tube and checked out Saint Paul’s Cathedral,
the Millennium Bridge, and the Tate Modern (One of my favorite parts of London).
We ended the night with some Indian food on Brick Lane.
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| Abbey Road! |
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Big Ben |
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| The London Eye |
Overall
it was an amazing weekend, which merely reinforced my love for London. I have
decided that I am definitely going to live in London at some point in my life…Katie
and I have already started looking at apartments!!
