Mo Goes to London

It has taken me forever to write this blog post because I am still adjusting to life in the States. I went to London for my birthday & had the best week ever! :)

My friend, Caroline, & I went to visit my other friend/her brother who is living there for a year, getting his Masters, playing volleyball, & living the dream.

Sunday - travel to London

We had a 2-hour layover in Dublin, Ireland. Caroline & I were so excited to  go to Dublin, even if it was 2 hours in the airport. We were really looking forward to having an Irish breakfast & a Guinness. We weren't even thinking about London yet, because we were excited for our Guinness. Then, our flight was delayed. There was no end in sight - every 30 minutes there would be an announcement that mechanical crew needed another 30 minutes to fix the electrical issues on the plane. I fly all the time - but hearing that there are electrical issues on a plane, that I'm about to take over the ocean, was a little anxiety inducing.

One of the fellow passengers took the extra time to check out the airport bar. Homeboy got drunk. He started fighting with gate agents, picked up the gate phone & started yelling at whoever was on the other end. As entertaining as it was, it is questionable that United allowed him on the flight.

Anyways, after waiting 4 hours to board, knowing that we missed our connecting flight, we went down to United customer service to get on the next Dublin to London flight we can make. After waiting in line for 30 minutes, the customer service rep tells us, "Oh, your flight is boarding right now, they're about to close the gate, you've got to run." After assuring us that he would get us on the next flight & we would get our new boarding passes in Dublin, we RAN to our gate. We just made it in time & luckily the only empty seat on the plane was the middle seat, in between Caroline & I.

Monday - arrive in London

Despite the mechanical issues, there were no issues with the flight, or if there were I had no idea about it because I slept the whole time. We arrived in Dublin, Caroline had received her boarding pass for the next flight to London, which was in half an hour. I did not have that much luck - the customer service rep canceled my reservation instead of getting me on another flight. The only resolution was to go through Customs & down to ticketing to get another ticket. While getting my ticket, the lady told me that Caroline & I were showing up as 'traveling without luggage'…uh, what? No time to fix this now, gotta catch our flight to London!

Finally, we arrived in London. Both of our suitcases were lost - they'll deliver it to where we're staying the next day. Dan met us at the airport & we got dinner at a pub, and went to H&M to buy some clothes to hold us over until our luggage arrived.

Tuesday - Tower of London

Before our trip, I bought tickets for us to see all of the touristy things in London. We had tickets to the Tower of London for Tuesday, so we checked that out while waiting for our luggage. We saw the Crown Jewels, fell in love with Big Ben, & couldn't get enough of the Tower Bridge. Once our suitcases arrived, we were able to change, & get ready for the night. We went to a Comedy Fest in Hyde Park to see Jim Jefferies & some other comedians I haven't heard of. Then, we went to a retro disco bar for my last drink as a 27-year old.

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

Comedy Fest in Hyde Park

Wednesday - My birthday!

We saw the Churchill Warrooms, which was super cool. Then, we went on the London Eye, & saw my man, Big Ben, up close, along with Westminister Abbey & Buckingham Palace. Dan surprised me with dinner at Oblix, on top of the Shard, with great views of the City. Then, we went for drinks at Sky Bar on the Sky Pod, with even more great views of the City - we literally saw London from every angle that day.

On the Eye

At the Sky Pod

At the Sky Pod

Sky Pod

Thursday - Shopping

We went to Camden Market to do some shopping from the vendors & then checked out Harrods. We had some time to kill, so we hung out in Hyde Park (I think?). We ended the night by seeing Book of Mormon.

Book of Mormon

Friday - Stonehenge

This was an all day excursion, that involved 2 trains & a bus. Remember when I said I bought tickets before the trip? Well, I forgot the Stonehenge tickets at Dan's apartment, & the email specifically said, "This attraction does not accept tickets on a mobile device to gain entry." But, that was a lie, they totally let us in after I filled out some paperwork. I loved Stonehenge. I got nervous that it would just be some boring rocks, but it was pretty cool.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge Rocks

Stonehenge

Dan & Caroline in Salsbury

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

That night we went out with some of Dan's teammates to a bar in Camden called Proud - the inside seemed like a brothel, but there was a nice outdoor area. The strange thing was, on the deck, they had a hot tub…with the help of a few tequila shots, I talked Caroline & a professional cricket player into getting into the hot tub. Dan got really pissed at me - it might have been the shots, or the hot tub, or the professional cricket players, or the attractive Canadian men we were chatting up after the hot tub fun. Apparently, I am a bad influence. I don't know what the big deal was, we had fun, we ended up at home, we didn't miss our flight, we're alive. I may have ended up trying to sleep on my luggage, but the night was perfect :)

Proud

Proud

Proud

Saturday - fly home :(

Not a day has passed since we've been back where Caroline or I haven't told each other that we want to be back in London, sleeping in Dan's living room, on his broken couch, with sun that shines through the window at 4am & doesn't set until 10pm.

Now to try to get back to my healthy lifestyle…here's to 2 workouts/day, eating Paleo, & sleeping 8 hours/night.

Cheers!