Hopelessly Lost in London

Saturday September 6, 2014

London, England

Or, if you want to be like my group, just don't even pick up a map at all. On Saturday, I didn't take a map with me. I'm not really too upset with getting "lost." No matter what, you'll get somewhere, and eventually you'll find somewhere you're "meant to be." Unfortunately not all my friends feel the same, but I try to enjoy the journey, no matter where it takes us, or what we go through to get there.

The Plan for Saturday was to take the Tube to The Tower of London, get some postcards, then take the Tube to Westminster Abbey and walk to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. None of that happened. In our defense, we only got lost because of our own choice once. We weren't paying attention on the way to the first Tube stop. The nice gentleman at the Tube station that we ended up at kindly gave us directions on what stop would take us to the Tower of London. Supposedly. There was an unexpected Station closing where we were supposed to go, so we had to get off somewhere else. Our solution? We can just walk to Buckingham palace, and skip out on Tower of London. But alas, that was a lot longer walk than originally anticipated. By the time we were about halfway to Westminster we decided to drop by the National Gallery and wait for Tori and Mckenzie to get done with their tours of museums. But we weren't there long because we eventually were able to meet back with Tori and Mckenzie.

On our way to find somewhere to eat we ran into Shelby, Savannah, and Kristen, all from WKU and also attending Harlaxton. We all decided we would go eat at McDonald's since it would be quick and cheap. I was excited that they had cheese sticks, our McDonald's need to have them as well! After McDonald's the plan was to visit Westminster Abbey and do a tour, but we made it too late to go on the tour. Instead we decided we would just walk to Harrods.

The walk to Harrods was so long! Luckily there were small maps dotted along the way to help us make sure we were headed in the right direction. Even though it took forever to get there, I am so glad we walked it. We saw more of London than we would have ever seen from the tube! The houses closer to Harrods were all gorgeous, and we saw cars worth more than I will make in my lifetime. We got to the very "posh" section of town. We even passed through an area that houses all of the embassies. It was incredible to see!

Thank goodness for these tiny maps! 

We were so excited to see Harrods so close 

to the  15 minute walk circle!!!!

 

                         Of course we had to get the classic red phone booth photos!

Getting close!!!!

Finally there!

Harrods was huge! They had maps on each level letting you know what stores were on each floor. My favorites: Disney Store and Toy Land. We went to the Disney Store first. I loved seeing all the cute little girl dresses. There were dresses that probably cost over $1000. If I were younger and rich I would totally have gone to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and dressed up like a princess. Don't make me decide which one though, because I love them all. And of course we had to get a picture with the stuffed Mickey dressed up as a Royal Guard.

One of the dresses that probably cost more than I am worth.

You can tell something is expensive when the store

doesn't put a price tag on it. Not like I would want to see it anyway.

After the Disney Store we went to the floor with Toy Land. There were children and toys EVERYWHERE. Legos, barbies, remote control vehicles, dollhouses, and numerous toys I had never seen before lined the walls and tables. The most ridiculous part, a children's electric car that was 40,000 British Pounds. That's roughly 65,000 American Dollars. That's more than I will ever pay for a car. I could almost buy a house for that amount. I just can't even fathom spending that on a child's toy! The craziness. 

But anyway, moving on... After we left Harrods we took the tube back to the hotel to drop off our bags, rest a bit and look up where we were going for dinner. My Meet-A-Family, Steve and Val Twigg, recommended a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, so we had to find out how to get there. Walking into Chinatown was neat, they had paper lanterns everywhere and little shops all over the place.

We went to dinner at New Loon Fung. The servers were all very polite and the dinner was very good. Megan was funny because she had never had sweet and sour chicken before, which is what she ordered, so Brittany and I asked her if she liked it. She responded, "Yea, it's good," but her face said more like, ummmm, not so much. But, we'll train her to like Chinese food soon enough. I, however, enjoyed my noodles and meat. It was delicious.

Chinatown was our last excursion for the night before we retreated back to the hotel to rest up for the journey home the next morning. I would consider our first weekend in London a success, as it got most of us addicted to the beauty and excitement of the city. We are already planning to go back the last weekend of September and couldn't be more excited!