A Royal Time

It turns out, we spent more time in London than expected...bringing our visit to an end after six days. We missed our flight on the last day by about 10 minutes because we underestimated the time it would take us to get to the airport on public transit. Both of us were frustrated with the extra 100 pounds to fly out the next morning and the extra 73 pounds I spent on a hotel next to the airport. I guess one or two glitches is expected though...

Which brings me to our first night in London. When we finally arrived at Hyde Park, it was 1am, and after walking around the entire park we made it to the worst hostel I've ever seen. Apparently there was a mix-up with bookings so we walked into a room with 25 sleeping people and had to climb the 3-tiered bunks to find available beds. It felt like walking into an orphanage.

Dillon, my hero, found us another hostel with a 6-person room and our own bathroom within the first two hours we were there...by running around in the middle of the night while I obliviously tried to sleep.

Once that got figured out, London was great. We spent the first day walking through Hyde Park and the string of parks that led to Buckingham Palace.













The next day, we ventured out on the metro system and found Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, and Parliament.





Other than walking around and sight-seeing, Dillon and I went to the market in Camden, which has renovated old horse stables into somewhat of a flea market. We met up with my friend Mariah Louie from Island Lake and her sister who has lived in London for about 5 years. It was nice to hang out with them and get insider advice on what to do in the city. She gave us a heads-up on where to find half-price theatre tickets and so we went to CHICAGO that night! I'd never seen it before, but I recognized all the songs :)



London is such a huge city, I'm glad we covered all the ground we did. AND we finally made it to Paris!

xoxo
Caitlin
caitlinboyd72@gmail.com