Trip #5: London

As part of the British Exchange Program, U of I hosts a "London Weekend" during the semester that everyone who is part of the BEP can come to. They give everyone a travel stipend and set-up a full schedule of things for the group to do. I was pleasantly surprised because we stayed at a pretty nice hotel instead of a hostel and we even got a full continental breakfast! I think I ate better this weekend than I have in the past month I've been abroad.  It was also great because I got to reunite with some lovely Chi O's, Rachel & Callie!

Rachel, Me & Callie had a great time together -- and even ALMOST touched the top of Big Ben!

The first night we had dinner at a Lebanese place. The food was really interesting and surprisingly filling. There was so much food  we thought the appetizers were our meal!

Not the best meal ever, but it was free so I'll take it!

That night we went to see Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. I wouldn't really suggest it, but it was still fun to go see a musical. Afterwards Rachel, Callie & two guys from Callie's program went to a place called The Rocket and we met up with Eileen!! It was so great to see her because even though we're both in the same country its nearly impossible to try to coordinate trips, etc. with our different schedules. It was fun to meet some of her Notre Dame friends too.

Eileen & I at The Rocket!

Saturday we took a bus tour around London which was actually pretty nice because it was raining and we got to see most of the main sites. In the afternoon U of I set-up a scavenger hunt but my group mostly just walked around and took pictures of what we wanted to see. I loved Trafalgar Square!

Trafalgar Square

After a long day of walking we made our way to 'The Albany' for dinner (only a little late) and had some amazing food. We stayed for about 10 minutes of the Comedy show U of I gave us tickets for but the opening act with the creepy old guy whose pants were falling down had us running for the door. Supposedly the next acts were funnier and had younger comedians, but we didn't want to take any chances.

Sunday the U of I program dropped us off at the Tower of London, which was nice to see when it was sunny because last year when I was there it was rainy and pretty cold.

Sunny day @ the Tower hanging out with the guards

After the tower we went to Old Spindalfields Market which was HUGE and had just about everything. Typical of England weather the sun we had in the morning quickly turned to rain so it was nice to be at the market because it was under a covering.

just a small part of the market

 After the market we had to say goodbye to Rachel because she was leaving on an earlier bus and we made our way to Abbey Road. Its not very exciting at all, they don't have any real indication that the intersection we took a picture at was in fact the place where they took the album cover, we just knew the studio was in the background so we took it. The street was busier than expected so we did our best to get a picture without getting run over!

After that it was time to head back to the train station and we safely made our way home.

Cheers.