Bus Tours, Ferris Wheels, and Wicked... Oh My!!!: London 2.0

London, you have my heart. This weekend was one of my favorites because we just got to walk around and see everything. There was absolutely no itinerary so we got to do what we wanted, when we wanted. We got there around 11 on Friday morning and got tickets to one of those super cheesy touristy open top bus tours. This really helped us get a better feel for where everything was located. After checking in to the hotel, we rode the bus for a few stops and got off at the London Eye. We hopped into one of the giant pods and took the 30 minutes to take the rotation. It was spectacular even though it was a little rainy and muggy!! It was also another great opportunity for a fun selfie, so we took advantage of it.

 Clock by our hotel

 Pod on the London Eye

 London Eye

 View from the top!!

Carnival we saw from the Eye

 Lindsay, Courtney (Lindsay's sister), and me after our ride on the Eye.

After the Eye, we showed Lindsay's family all of the fun, iconic London sights like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and the Queen Elizabeth II tower. 

 Buckingham Palace... Surprisingly not as crowded as the first time!!

Having fun at the Abbey...

There was an NFL game in London this Sunday!! It was the Raiders v. the Dolphins and they were playing in Wembley Stadium. It was really funny seeing people running around in football jerseys!!

 After four years of hearing Coach Coffey talk about and quote Winston Churchill, I Couldn't resist taking a picture of the statue!

There is a Half/Full Marathon happening in a few weeks... Wish I was in shape to run in it!! Maybe someday...

After an extremely long day of sight seeing and lots and lots of walking, we went and saw the musical Wicked. I saw it with my grandma when I was 11, but forgot how great the storyline was and how clever and funny the dialogue was. Getting to the theater was such a struggle because a few of the underground stations had been shut down. We had to take two different trains and we managed to squeeze ourselves in like sardines. We eventually got to Victoria Station and found the restaurant we were eating dinner at with ease. Conveniently enough, the theatre was right across the street! We had really good seats and Lindsay and I found ourselves singing along at certain points. After the show, we headed back over to our hotel and walked around Leicester Square. It was very lively because there are all kinds of clubs, pubs, and casinos.

Day two was filled with even more sight seeing!! But we spent most of our time on top of the bus. We rode it all over London and cracked jokes with our extremely sarcastic tour guide named James. We also stopped by Harrods (an extremely over the top and expensive store) and browsed through there. Lindsay and I played with this fake snow powder that turned into a snow-like substance when doused in water. It felt really weird when it absorbed the water and expanded! After eating lunch, we went over to Kensington Garden to see the Princess Diana memorial fountain and the Peter Pan statue. The Princess Di memorial was being used as a playground and a lot of little children were playing in the water so we decided not to stay for too long. The Peter Pan statue was fun to see and I got a little bit too excited about it.

 Peter Pan is my favorite... Other than Harry Potter of Course!! 

 Apparently the statue was placed in the dead of the night so that children would think it had appeared by magic! Anything thing can happen with faith, trust, and pixie dust!!

Special thanks to the Owen family for allowing me to tag along this weekend!! I had such a great time. Next weekend, we are spending Friday and Saturday touring Iron Bridge and Coughton Court, and then we leave Sunday for two magical, Harry Potter filled days in London!! Until then, Muggles!!

xoxo
SG

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First Week of Classes!!

I survived my first week of classes!! Granted, I only had 3/4 of them this week, but I made it! One week down, 11 to go!! Since I only had class on Wednesday and Thursday, here is what I did with the rest of my week...

 Lindsay and I went to Pizza Hut one day because we were absolutely starving and it was the closest safe option. They didn't put tomato sauce on our pizza, but we were too hungry to care!!

 I bought a copy of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone!! Hurrah! Check that off the list!!

Katelyn and I tried really hard to FaceTime, but since technology hates us, our conversation ended up looking a lot like this! 

 Lindsay's family is in town for the weekend so we decided to climb Carfax Tower with them. We hadn't done that yet and the view was spectacular!!

 The most awkward selfie ever taken on top of Carfax Tower

Shout out to Amanda because I know she believes in fairies!! (Peter Pan reference...)

Off to London for the next few days!!

xoxo

SG

Sunday Strolls in Stratford

So far, I think Stratford upon Avon has been the biggest surprise. We knew we were in for a treat when we pulled into this adorable little town with some very unique buildings. Imagine the cute little villages you always associate with Christmas... the gingerbread house-like buildings, the bright shop windows... That my friends, is what Stratford looks like. The first thing we did was walk through this museum that served as kind of an overview of Shakespeare's life and all of his works.

Different busts of Shakespeare

Different novelty items including an action figure and an extremely large mug!!

Plaques commemorating each one of Shakespeare's plays

The plaques for the plays I have read (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest)

A timeline of when he wrote each play

The Shakespeare family tree

After we made our way through the museum, we got to walk through the home where Shakespeare was born. The house itself was pretty big, but the ceilings and door frames were all very low and Lindsay had to crouch to get into some of the rooms. This was quite comical!!

Lindsay, Ava, and I signed our names in the guestbook

After we finished with "Birthplace" we got to watch two women preform some scenes from different Shakespearian plays. They asked for requests from the audience and between the two of them, they preformed short excerpts from Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, As You Like It, and my personal favorite, The Tempest. They were flawlessly executed and we were all extremely impressed!!

After "Birthplace" we continued onto Nash's House and New Place. The house Shakespeare actually lived in is no longer standing, but the house that belonged to his granddaughter was right next door to his home and we were able to tour that instead. We didn't spend much time inside because we were all drawn to the GORGEOUS garden. We spent a while exploring this area. Ava and Collin found a secret passage through some hedges that they insisted that Lindsay and I go through with them. Two of the four previously mentioned got stuck in the tiny so called "secret passage". I bet you can guess which two!!

The third house, The Hall's Croft, belonged to Shakespeare's daughter. At this point we were all really really hungry so we didn't spend much time taking pictures. They did have these fun picture riddles in each room and you had to guess which Shakespearean play they were referring to. There were also stuffed mice with name tags scattered about and we though it was the funniest thing in the world. Probably because we were all SO HUNGRY!!! Thankfully we had put a bag of crisps in my jacket pocket and that held us over for the next half hour.

                                      

Ava and I made our own crests

We broke for lunch after we finished with the third house. Lindsay and I had seen a few shops we wanted to return to back over by the "birthplace" so we quickly grabbed a sandwich and got back on the paths. We visited a Harry Potter shop (we couldn't resist!!!), a really cute Christmas shop, the Peter Rabbit shop, and we found a candy store that was blaring High School Musical music. Intrigued, we walked in expecting to find some interesting European candy... Instead it was filled wall to wall with American junk food like Poptarts and Lucky Charms. But the real surprise was nestled in amongst the Dr. Pepper and Coca Colas. WE FOUND CHEERWINE IN ENGLAND!! For those of you not familiar with Cheerwine, it is a soft drink that is only sold and manufactured in North Carolina. I've been told you can't even find it in South Carolina, but here it is, hanging out on the shelf in Mr. Simm's Sweet Shoppe!! After that exciting discovery, we wandered around until it was time to meet back up with the group for the tour of the theatre.

After lunch, we toured the theatre where the Royal Shakespeare Company preforms. Pictures were not allowed during the tour so there isn't too much to report on that. It was supposed to be a front of the house tour, but our guide got us inside of the theatre that was being set up for their next show. He was very knowledgable about all of the history and we all were very interested through the entire thing. Stratford is such a charming little town. Lindsay and I really weren't ready to leave, but we added it to the list of places to return to. Classes start this week so wish me luck!!

xoxo

SG