London

And the excitement continues. After a Week with the Lythgoes, Adi and I went on a little trip to Europe. Our first stop (well, besides Paris for a few hours) was London. We flew all night so we were anxious to find our hotel and get settled.

But here’s the thing, our hotel was stupid! We booked it at least 6 weeks in advance and they even sent us a nice email telling us that they were excited for our stay. So imagine our surprise when the woman at the front desk gives our room away to the family in front of us right before our eyes (because their rooms weren’t ready) and tells us she has booked us a room at another hotel and a cab will take us there. Wait…..what?? We have been here 2 seconds and don’t even know where it is but Okay I guess. She assured us it was a nice hotel but still….we weren’t off to a great start.

So in a cab to the new hotel…where the woman argues on the phone in front of us about how little we are paying for our room. Uncomfortable. But we finally got all settled in and it was time to get ready to head to Piccadilly Circus to see Les Miserables.

Anyone who knows me knows that I was insanely excited about this part of our trip. I found out that Nick Jonas was in the play and I won’t lie, I was a little nervous. I have been waiting for years to see Les Mis and now some Jonas Brother was going to ruin my experience?! Great. Well guess what? He was brilliant. He played Marius and was better than I could have ever imagined. Well-done Jo-Bro! But really, the play was amazing. I would have seen it every day we were there if I could have.

Let’s backtrack for a sec and mention that the tiny little street Les Mis was on was also hosting some sort of gay pride extravaganza. It was entertaining to say the least. Adi and I agreed that we had never seen so many attractive and ineligible men in one place ever. There were plenty of unusual ones as well. Feather boas, short shorts, bare chests (and maybe a bum or two), cowboy hats and fake tans were also well represented. It was great.

Day two was jam-packed. We started off by heading to King’s Cross to see none other than Platform 9 ¾. I am not even going to play it cool and pretend I wasn’t excited. I was excited. Then we headed to Tower Bridge and Tower of London where some old man decided to hit on Adriel and I and gave me the nickname of “Beverly Hills”. We also saw St. Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, Tate Museum-Modern (wow. I love art but it was kind of horrible), Waterloo Station (Jason Borne, anyone?), Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and Westminster bridge. Like I said, we were busy! So we decided that a real meal was in order after our long afternoon. So, you know how people say food in England isn’t great? Yeah, well they aren’t kidding. And for the love Europe…would it kill you to use ice cubes?! It was probably the most horrible thing either of us has ever tried so we ended up getting McFlurries after. At least they use English Candy so it was a little different.

After dinner (if you can call it that) we rode the London Eye. It was so cool to see London from that high up and at night. After walking at least 10 miles we decided it was safe to say we had gotten our money’s worth for the day.

The next morning we checked out of Hotel Hell and headed to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. I think that was one of my other favorites of the trip. Then we headed to Hyde Park to see the famous Peter Pan statue and then to Harmon’s, Piccadilly Circus (on a wild goose chase for a rugby jersey) and then back to pick up out bags where surprise, surprise, the woman was rude. SO we decided we deserved some marmalade for our troubles and maybe a handful of cereal. Yep, that’s right, we stole it. It only took us 3 trains (and almost some tears) to finally catch the underground to the airport and then we were on our way to Schipol!