England!
Day 1: Arrive. See Vanessa after more than 2 years! Get settled, and head to Piccadilly Circus to share a bottle of wine.
Day 2: Hop on a bus to Leeds to visit with a bunch of CISVers. Stayed with James Pattinson, one of CISV's International Junior Reps. Super cheap pub night. Ballin. So rad seeing Ben Bowman 2 years after our summer camp!
Day 3: Wander Leeds; so lovely! I like all of the pretty buildings, which I know sounds kinda dumb, but the architecture in this country is rad! James and I stopped in a square to have a beer and watch Wimbledon before I got on a bus.
Fun facts about Leeds: SO many people have brightly coloured hair; all the girls seem to wear super short shorts with tights underneath when it rains, or no tights when it doesn't. So basically, there's a lot of decent bum viewing, which confuses me.
Got back to Vanessa's to an incredible eggplant lasagna... Though here, they're called aubergines.
Day 4: Sightseeing with Baldo .... Wandered from Green Park to Westminster, stopping to admire Buckingham Palace, the Supreme Court, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the aquarium and the London Eye. I am dying to go up in the London Eye, but it was super cloudy so wasn't worth it, unfortunately. Had a late lunch along the Thames, then met up with Vanessa to hit up Trafalgar Square and Maple Leaf pub; A few Canadians actually worked there, and they serve a bunch of Canadian beer, so it's great if you live here and are missing home.
Day 5: Lazy day of tea drinking, reading and facebooking. Turns out I'm getting sick :(
Day 6: Woke up early to try to get rush tickets for Matilda, the Musical. Turns out the lineup for the 8 tickets starts about 6am, even though they're not sold til 10.... YIKES! Plan B: The London Eye and Thai food in Piccadilly Circus with Vanessa :) I ate orange sorbet IN an orange!! The orange was carved out, frozen, and filled with sorbet. Holy freakin delicious, batman!
I seem to be getting sicker. Bring on the sleep, tea, and advil cold & sinus. Blergh.
Day 7: went to Harrow-on-the-Hill, a suburb of London but still, in London, to visit Eshani Bhatt from my CISV summer camp 2 years ago. We went to the cutest little tea shop and enjoyed a very British tea. then we walked past a school that was partly used in the filming of Harry Potter!! So rad!
Got back to Vanessa's to a lovely dinner of leftovers, then headed to a pub so we could get Baldo out of the house. We arrived back to find 3 Italians enjoying a lovely meal, and I was forced to drink wine and eat cheesecake :)
Day 8: Borough Market - a super lovely market near London Tower/London Bridge (yes, it does exist) with a lot of stalls from different countries. There's a specific Italian and French section that is to die for. Also, there were a lot of hard shelled things at the fish monger that were still alive. It was intense!! If you put them on ice, they barely move cause they're so cold. Wild!
So, things I have learned about England:
1) London is a tad overwhelming, as it is so big and there is so much to see and do
2) Short shorts and tights, with rainboots, are going to be HUGE in North America soon. Look out!
3) There are a ton of British accents, depending where people are from. Sometimes it's hard to understand them all haha
4) It literally does rain all the freakin' time! The weather is bananas
5) London is an expensive city, but not as expensive as Iceland
Pip pip, England! It's been swell.
Day 2: Hop on a bus to Leeds to visit with a bunch of CISVers. Stayed with James Pattinson, one of CISV's International Junior Reps. Super cheap pub night. Ballin. So rad seeing Ben Bowman 2 years after our summer camp!
Day 3: Wander Leeds; so lovely! I like all of the pretty buildings, which I know sounds kinda dumb, but the architecture in this country is rad! James and I stopped in a square to have a beer and watch Wimbledon before I got on a bus.
Fun facts about Leeds: SO many people have brightly coloured hair; all the girls seem to wear super short shorts with tights underneath when it rains, or no tights when it doesn't. So basically, there's a lot of decent bum viewing, which confuses me.
Got back to Vanessa's to an incredible eggplant lasagna... Though here, they're called aubergines.
Day 4: Sightseeing with Baldo .... Wandered from Green Park to Westminster, stopping to admire Buckingham Palace, the Supreme Court, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the aquarium and the London Eye. I am dying to go up in the London Eye, but it was super cloudy so wasn't worth it, unfortunately. Had a late lunch along the Thames, then met up with Vanessa to hit up Trafalgar Square and Maple Leaf pub; A few Canadians actually worked there, and they serve a bunch of Canadian beer, so it's great if you live here and are missing home.
Day 5: Lazy day of tea drinking, reading and facebooking. Turns out I'm getting sick :(
Day 6: Woke up early to try to get rush tickets for Matilda, the Musical. Turns out the lineup for the 8 tickets starts about 6am, even though they're not sold til 10.... YIKES! Plan B: The London Eye and Thai food in Piccadilly Circus with Vanessa :) I ate orange sorbet IN an orange!! The orange was carved out, frozen, and filled with sorbet. Holy freakin delicious, batman!
I seem to be getting sicker. Bring on the sleep, tea, and advil cold & sinus. Blergh.
Day 7: went to Harrow-on-the-Hill, a suburb of London but still, in London, to visit Eshani Bhatt from my CISV summer camp 2 years ago. We went to the cutest little tea shop and enjoyed a very British tea. then we walked past a school that was partly used in the filming of Harry Potter!! So rad!
Got back to Vanessa's to a lovely dinner of leftovers, then headed to a pub so we could get Baldo out of the house. We arrived back to find 3 Italians enjoying a lovely meal, and I was forced to drink wine and eat cheesecake :)
Day 8: Borough Market - a super lovely market near London Tower/London Bridge (yes, it does exist) with a lot of stalls from different countries. There's a specific Italian and French section that is to die for. Also, there were a lot of hard shelled things at the fish monger that were still alive. It was intense!! If you put them on ice, they barely move cause they're so cold. Wild!
So, things I have learned about England:
1) London is a tad overwhelming, as it is so big and there is so much to see and do
2) Short shorts and tights, with rainboots, are going to be HUGE in North America soon. Look out!
3) There are a ton of British accents, depending where people are from. Sometimes it's hard to understand them all haha
4) It literally does rain all the freakin' time! The weather is bananas
5) London is an expensive city, but not as expensive as Iceland
Pip pip, England! It's been swell.
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