11.02.22 and 11.03.22 School Days!
Wednesday and Thursday were normal class days with the added out-of school time of preparing for finals. K and I also tried the kebab place near our apartment building for dinner on Thursday. It was delicious and I hope we have time to go back.
11.04.22 to 11.06.22 LONDON!
Day 1! Today started off with me freaking out about what to pack for our weekend trip to London. K packed last night and just watched me run around the room panicking about what to bring. We had a 2:20 pm departure time out of VLC for our flight to London, so we met E in the lobby at 11:00am to catch the metro from our stop to the airport stop. In order to scan into the airport stop, you have to have a specific zone for that ticket. For the three of us round-trip, it cost 6 euros. The flight wasn’t too bad and was perfect to sleep on.
Immediately upon our arrival to London, we were freezing. It was so cold and rainy. I can’t complain though because I did not pack the right clothes for the London weather, my mother would have been disappointed. London Heathrow Airport is outside of central London and therefore extremely far from our hotel. We purchased round trip Heathrow Express Tickets for 43 usd each because we figured it would be cheaper than taxis or Ubers and would allow us to avoid traffic. This express took us from London Heathrow to Paddington Station in 15 minutes. We decided to walk from the train station to our hotel through Hyde Park. It was about a 40 minute walk in the dark, but I am glad we walked it to burn some of our energy.
We checked into the hotel and decided to find a place to eat prior to going outside again. Looking on maps, we found a sushi restaurant nearby. It was right down the street inside of Harrods. We knew going into our London trip that the food was going to be pricey, so we were mentally prepared (ish). The restaurant was within the Harrods dining hall and we were able to sit right away. I ordered miso soup and the Black Dragon Roll. It was amazing like I was about to eat the plate. It was so good. Harrods also has a bakery area, so we all ordered dessert here to take back to the hotel. I didn’t want to eat any dairy and I was able to find a vegan Hazelnut Espresso Brownie for 3 gbp. It was delicious, we all loved our desserts. Knowing we had an early morning the next day, we all showered and got ready for bed on the earlier side. Overall, an amazing first evening in London.
Day 2! In London, the sun sets before 5pm, so we wanted to make sure we did all our walking before then. Our alarms were set for 6:15am and we were able to be ready to go around 7:30 am. For breakfast, we weren’t wanting to do a full meal and E really wanted Starbucks. We each ordered a coffee and a pastry. My coffee was the toffee nut holiday latte with almond milk and for my pastry I ordered their vegan toffee nut loaf. Both of these were so good and the portion was perfect to get us on our way to Buckingham Palace. This was the first stop on our free self-guided walking tour of the city and it did not disappoint. We walked around the entire square on which it was located because we couldn’t find a crosswalk for a while. I remember watching Princess Kate’s wedding on tv and then to be looking at the royal palace in real life was just surreal.
Up next, we headed to Westminster Abbey. Our jaws dropped just seeing it from across the street. We did end up crossing and looking at all the outside structures, but since we are all broke student’s we didn’t pay for tickets to go inside any of our stops on our self-guided tour.
Then, we saw Big Ben and headed in that direction. We stopped on a bridge to take photos of Big Ben, the Thames River, and the London Eye. We were able to avoid crowds because it is off-season and we weren’t going into any of these places.
K has been to London 2 or 3 times prior to this so she had a list of all the must-see spots for E and I’s first time. So next we walked along the River Thames towards Trafalgar Square. Everywhere you look in London is just idyllic. After looking at the fountains and the lions, we decided to stop at Cafe Nero to warm up with some coffee.
After coffee and some time inside a warm building, we walked over to Covent Gardens. London has started decorating for Christmas time so the gardens felt very festive. We explored the shops and the pop-up artwork booths for a while before deciding we were hungry for lunch. It was still relatively early in the day, only 11:30 am so our options were limited. We found an Italian place, Zizzi’s, that was moderately priced and open. The warm pasta was delicious and definitely provided us the fuel to keep going.
We walked over to Piccadilly Circus to look at the shops and buildings. Around this time we started to get a little tired and cold, so a group decision was to go back to the hotel for afternoon tea. We rested up and then went browsing at Harrods. It was amazing to see all the Dior, Chanel, and other designer brands. After looking at some price tags and being scared by all the zeros, we headed back to our hotel across the street to get ready for dinner. We ended up eating at an amazing Thai restaurant. I ordered Thai dumplings and pad-see-ew. Both plates were fabulous and I definitely miss eating Thai at home with my family. We returned to the hotel after dinner to watch a movie since we had gotten such an early start to our day!
Day 3! Our return flight to Valencia was leaving London Heathrow at 3:15pm, so we planned our day around ensuring we would have enough time to navigate this gigantic airport. It was suggested to arrive at Heathrow by 12:15pm since this was considered an international flight after Britain’s departure from the European Union. We started our day at 9am by going to Starbucks, of course, and then walked around for a short time before returning to the hotel. Our hotel was a 45 minute walk from Paddington Station, but it was raining and E is anti-walking so we decided to take a 8 gbp uber to the station. We were able to catch the 11:25am Heathrow Express and arrived at security around noon. After surviving airport security, we decided to eat lunch at an airport restaurant. I ordered a burger and it was amazing, almost as good as the burgers back home. During our wait for the gate, we looked around at the shops and then sat for a while. Once the gate was released we headed to the plane to start boarding. Our plane took off an hour later than it was scheduled to but we did make it to VLC in time to catch a metro. As soon as I got back to the apartment, I passed out. I absolutely loved London and can not wait to return.
11.07.22 to 11.08.22 Class!
Classes were super relaxed these two days. I took these two days to rest and recover from a cold and rainy weekend in London. The flight to and from London messed with my head cold and sinuses so I was trying to rest up and recover.
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