Finally Here!!

First Post. First Blog. Don't judge me. I am excited to tell you all about my experience without boring you to death. Therefore, if I get lengthy, send me a message. Seriously.

     Wednesday evening, as I was begging the United Airlines worker to just let me check my 52 lb. bag for free, I wasn't even thinking about actually leaving the country. Yet 8 hours (and many time zones) later, Kylie and I arrived in London. We set out to become "European Travelers" but ended up repeatedly being "American Tourists". We went to purchase Tube (subway) tickets to King's Cross, and couldn't figure out why the machine wouldn't take my money...we also couldn't figure out why the station attendant looked at us like we had 6 eyes on our faces. After a lot of staring we realized I had euros, and the U.K. doesn't use euros. Typical rookie move. Anyway, after we exchanged them for "pounds/quid" we were on our way seated in THE nicest subway cars that I have ever seen (sorry CTA, you have some work to do). 45 minutes later, we were dragging our bags down the streets of London and to our hostel. Now, I have stayed in a few hostels in Peru, but nothing like this one. We slept in a room with 14 beds (7 bunk beds), and we met all kinds of people. In our room there were 3 Italian men, 2 French women, 2 English women, an Indian woman, an Australian man, and then Kylie and me. Let's just say it was an experience...

     We wandered around London for 2 days and was able to take a bus tour and saw so much! We were able to see Piccadilly Circus (think a romanesque Time Square), Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Parliament Building, Westminister Abbey, the London Eye, Tower Bridge, the countdown clock for the Summer Olympics, St. James Park and so much more! We were also super excited because we took a walking Harry Potter tour and saw a bunch of different taping sights around the city (including the last Diagon Alley!). We also captured a picture of us running through the wall on Platform 9 3/4.

     As Kylie and I ran through our bucket list of traveling, we were able to check off a Traditional English Breakfast, an English mocha, and St. Patrick's Day pub celebrations.