London!!

Tuesday April 3, 2012
We left Galway at 7:15 am and took a bus straight to the Dublin airport, where we waited around till we checked in for our flight around 1 pm. Our flight from Dublin to London departed at 3ish and we arrived at the Gatwick airport around 4:30 pm. We took a train and the tube to the hostel we were staying at. When Amy and I arrived at the Gatwick airport we were a little overwhelmed by all the people and the hustle and bustle going on around us that we both got a little angry with each other because we were so overwhelmed. Neither of us wanted to admit how we were feeling either. ;)

Our hostel was not what we were expecting. The previous 2 hostels we stayed at were both nice and clean and when we arrived here the hostel was clean enough, but still visibly dirty. It was also a maze of doors to traverse. Just to get to the bathroom from our room you had to go through 5 doors and one flight of stairs to reach it. There were a few times where I had to stop and ask myself which door was I supposed to go through because I had about 4 choices.

After we adjusted to the shock of London a bit we took the tube to King's Cross Station. This is a famous train station in London and it is a site used in the Harry Potter series. At the station is the famous Platform 9 3/4, made famous in the books, so Amy and I went to see it. We were a little confused at first as to where it was, but after a couple directions from the guards at the station we found it, and boy were we disappointed. We were both expecting an actual train platform, but what we found was about 10 feet of brick wall with a cart stuck in the wall and a sign above it. We took a picture and left.

We took the tube back to our hostel, grabbed some delicious Chinese from across the street, relaxed, showered, and hit the sack for the night.

Wednesday April 4, 2012
Today was a very busy day. Amy and I left the hostel about 9:30 am, took the tube to Hyde Park where we walked around and enjoyed the beauty for a bit.

Then we headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. We were about 45 minutes early and we got a decent spot at the side of the palace right up at the gate. The guard changing began about 15 minutes late and we basically watched the troops march into the gates and stand at attention for 20 minutes while the head guards marched back and forth between the palace and the gates. It was incredibly boring, even though I am sure  there was some type of significance to all of it that I am unaware of. After the marching stopped a marching band marched into the gates, played a few songs, one of which was "We are the Champions" by Queen, and then more marching began. Amy and I left almost an hour into the ceremony because we weren't sure how much longer it would last and we wanted to move on to other things.

We walked around the palace to Westminister Cathedral, then to Westminister Abbey, Big Ben and the parliament buildings, and across the Westminister bridge to the London Eye (which is a giant ferris wheel where people can see wonderful views of the city). After that we grabbed lunch, then walked to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, then walked across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.

We continued walking to the London Bridge (This was not what I was expecting. I thought the London Bridge was a huge, cool landmark in the city, but when we walked across it we found that it is nothing more than a bridge. Very disappointing...), then to the Tower Bridge (I think this was the famous landmark that I had always seen in pictures and this what I was expecting for the London Bridge.).

After all the walking we took the tube out to the edge of the city to the tube stop "Abbey Road", which I thought was the stop nearest the famous street Abbey Road, made famous by the Beatles and their album cover. I was wrong. We get out of the tube station, start walking only to start wondering if this is the right place. The buildings didn't look right and neither did the streets. We did find Abbey Road...It definitely was not the correct street. We stopped in a shop and asked the owner where Abbey Road was, he knew we weren't talking about the street a few blocks away, gave a look like "you're stupid", and told us that the street we wanted was in the center of London, where we had just come from. Wonderful! :) Apparently I need to be more thorough in my research...

A couple stops back on the tube was the Olympic 2012 stadium, so we stopped at that after our trek out to the wrong Abbey Road. After that was more Chinese from the same Chinese restaurant, mixed with some Italian from a nearby restaurant for supper, then relaxing, and bed.

Thursday April 5, 2012
This morning we slept in, checked out of the hostel, then went to the Hard Rock Cafe so Amy could buy her dad a souvenir. After that we stopped at the real Abbey Road, took some pictures that rivaled the Beatles' album cover ;) and went to a nearby Beatles memorabilia shop to look at the merchandise for fun.

After our morning fun we made the trek via train to the Stansted airport. We were flying RyanAir to Malaga and this airline sells dirt cheap tickets, but enjoys finding every way possible to charge you extra. One of the ways they do this is by the size and weight of your carry-on bag. Your bag must fit into the tiny overhead bin and must be under 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds). Amy and I thought that both our bags wouldn't fit in the overhead bins so we both wore extra clothes on the plane. I ended up wearing 5 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans in order for my bag to be smaller. Amy had me beat with 6 shirts, a pair of sweat pants, and a pair of jeans. Oh what we do to travel. ;)

We returned to our apartment in Granada about 11:30 pm that night.

Overall I think I enjoyed Ireland so much more than London. I think I had a little to high of expectations of London and was expecting it to be wonderful or magical somehow. I am glad I visited the city though. I had a fantastic spring break trip and wouldn't have changed it for anything.