Planes, Trains, and Autobots: London

After a wanderlust adventure in London these past four days, Heidi and I have landed back safely in home sweet, Cork. Only to immediately stop into our Holy Land, that is Tesco, and grab some frozen pizzas, chips and salsa, and ice cream. You could say we're pretty fit.

Although it seems as if four days is a small amount of time to conquer a city, I assure you- it was indeed packed full of meaningless adventures, scrumptious food, and of course a picture of Big Ben from every angle possible (I swear, it's necessary).

Our first trip out of Cork began on Thursday, catching the bus to the airport. Apparently, riding a bus to an airport is no easy task because the girl behind you is blasting N*SYNC through her headphones, people ignore you when you ask where to get off- causing you in turn, to get off at the wrong spot (who's to say a business building isn't actually an airport- amirite Heidi?). Anyway, we finally figured out that if a bus was dropping us off at an airport- we would be able to tell; in related news: dumb American's try to work public transportation and suffer loss of brain cells.

Ryan Air was of no trouble to us, which was a surprise considering we've heard all the stories, but we got onto the plane with no extra charges or fees and plopped ourselves down, proud of our little accomplishment. Not too long after our Rocket-Power handshake, the kicking kid behind us started to throw a fit- thrashing and screaming until an iPad calmed him down (kids these days). He was fine and dandy up until we hit turbulence. Then the kicking/screaming kid quickly turned into the projectile vomiting kid. In all honesty little dude, karma sucks. Not long after the vomit-covered child began to stink up the plane, we landed. Thank God, Praise the Lord, get me to land.

After a train ride into London, we had finally arrived. In our hunt to find our friends, we got lost (1.5 miles out of the way lost, to be specific). Once we realized our mistake we turned around, and trekked up to find Mallory, and her Norwegian roommate Daria, for real this time.

The synopsis of London goes a little something like this: Have a few too many "you survived the travel" drinks, get stuck in pouring rain, come home to eat bread with mustard, wake up, eat really good pancakes, see all of the sights, get caught in weird street performances, Big Ben, Big Ben, Big Ben, where's Kate and William? Why is the London Eye closed? Eyes hurt from all the sighs, Wake up, go to Picadilly Circus, realize you can't afford a single thing, devastation, explore Old Spitalfields Market, explore Brick Lane Market, eat from a stand, nap.

Elaboration of a few of the highlights goes a little something like this:
The Tower Bridge and Tower of London are incredible, and make me think of the Olympics (God Bless you Michael Phelps) and I wanted more than anything to see an olympic stadium- but that would have required more time/money/ and patience (yuck). The walk down the long Queen's Walk is always fun, filled with interesting sculptures, people, and views. Venturing into the Tate Modern Art Museum- we quickly realized they really meant modern, as there was nothing to see but a vast open warehouse. Hmm, where's the art? We ran into so many street performers all coated in metallic paints, all doing really interesting things, one was dressed as Bumblebee from Transformers but he was lame- even passed a man playing the bag pipes right outside of Big Ben. Speaking of Big Ben, that massive clock will never cease to amaze me. It's intricate details are so beautiful- it's really impossible to take just one photo of it. Parliament and Westminster Abbey are also astonishingly beautiful- full of history, and ideally, William and Kate. Exploring Picadilly Circus is always an adventure- mostly because you spend half the time dodging really slow walkers, and the other half crying internally because you can't afford any of the stores. However, once you walked into Spitalfields or Brick Lane Markets- those are where you'll find the real treasures (except the Queen's Jewels- those are kept on tight lock at Tower of London). We also checked out the night life at Vibe, Book Club, and Cargo- which made Union look so pathetic in comparison.

As for the journey home, it was much smoother than the first go-around. No lost whereabouts, except when we couldn't find the train station and a man and his son so graciously helped the two dumb American's out. Wherever you guys are, we owe ya. However, all was well because we didn't have a sick kid behind us on the plane (score).

All in all, London was just as majestic and beautiful as the last time I was there- except this time I was fun to test my memory skills (except that didn't always work out). A Huge thank you to Mallory and Daria and the rest of the (beautiful, male) roommates for letting us crash on your couches- even if a girl did puke on one of the cushions last week! Fun!