UK (Can't put London because I was barely in London)

I put this as a different blog post, because although I left for London the day after I got back from Paris, it was an entirely different trip and much easier and shorter to write them separately.  I went to visit one of my sorority sisters who is studying at in London for the semester.  I got there super late on Tuesday night, because when I'd booked my flight, I was under the impression that I had class early in the morning on Tuesday, which wasn't the case because Spain decided to have another national holiday.  Either way, I flew in Stansted at about 6 pm, even though Ryan Air had decided to switch gates 4 times and delay the flight by an hour or so.  From Stansted, I took a shuttle service called "EasyBus" which offers REALLY cheap rides into London from the airport that is virtually in the middle of no where and would've cost me about 100 pounds to get into the city.

After catching up with Emily, we went to bed, Emily in her bed, and me in my makeshift bed, which was basically couch cushions on the floor, but surprisingly very comfortable and warm.  Probably even better than Emily's bed.  We got up super early and headed towards where we thought our tour bus would pick us up.  I got to see King's Cross Station (although not platform 9 3/4 because we were in a rush and passing it).  Unfortunately the bus was late picking us up and after we called several times, the woman told us to take a taxi to Queen Victoria bus station where they would reimburse us.  It was really nice actually, because we got into a taxi with the NICEST cab driver I have ever met.  Not only did he have the most adorable English accent ever, he pointed out all the cool things we passed and when we drove past Buckingham Palace, he let us in on the fact that you know the Queen is in there when her family's coat of arms flag is raised, which it was! 

Our first stop on our tour was Windsor, which is where Windsor Castle is and its owned by the Windsor family, not the actual crown.  It was soooo cute in that little town, and also where I fell in LOVE with tea.  I'm not sure what it is but before this, I hated tea and its probably because I was only forced to drink it when sick and my mom doesn't have a very good tea selection.  Anyway, since Windsor Castle cost about 20 pounds to go in (almost 30 dollars!!!) we decided to skip it and walk around the outside of the Castle as well as go look around the little town.  While everyone else on our tour was listening to their audio guide, we were eating tea and scones at this place called the Drury House, where King Charles the II used to rendezvous with his mistress.  This sweet little old British man was running the place and the tea was so so so good.  I had three entire cups and two scones and it was luckily warm because he gave us the nice table near the fireplace.  Here I am looking ridiculously pleased with where I am.

From Windsor, we visited Stonehenge.  We were given this audio guide for Stonehenge but it was literally the most useless thing I've ever listened to because every ten seconds it would say "Now look at the left stone facing north!" and I'd be like..."where on EARTH is north?!".  It was also noon and I couldn't even use the sun to direct me in the right direction (because I'm crafty and of Mayan/Incan descent, I know how to use the solar directions, woop) but either way it was really cool to see.  There were also just a TON of sheep hanging around outside of Stonehenge.  However, they realize what an electric fence is and knew to not come over even when I called for them.

In Oxford, we got a walking tour by our burly tour guide, and saw a lot of the colleges around Oxford, although I have to say, the most interesting part about the tour was when he showed us the inspiration for Harry Potter's scar.  Evidently, one day, JK Rowling was walking around Oxford and noticed on the ground of where all the University students graduate, was the architects' symbol, a lightning bolt like shape.  For dramatic effect, our tour guide had been standing on it, and when he said this, he leapt off of it and everyone went "oooooooo!!!" and rushed forward to take pictures.  It was realllll cool.

After our tour finished, we had some time to look around Oxford, although honestly, there isn't much to do except study.  Luckily we found this really cool bar called the Eagle and the Child where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to hang out, drink and write.  Emily and I really only drank and took pictures while a man sat across from us reading and writing for us.  It was so interesting to think that we were in the same place they used to work and to imagine them as college students like ourselves.  From the bar, we quickly ran to grab our bus, because our guide had told us at the beginning that if you weren't back at the correct time, they would leave without you!  WHICH HAPPENED!  Not to us though...there were these three Asian girls that were on the tour and at 6:45 when we were supposed to meet, only one of them was there.  We waited an extra ten minutes but we LEFT them behind when they didn't show up.  The Brits don't kid around.

We headed back to London and after cleaning up after our very long day, we headed out to the Golden Hind, which is a really famous place in London to get fish and chips.  I haven't had fried fish like that in SO long but I can honestly say they were better than Buffalo fish fries and I LOVE buffalo fish fries.  Mmm...  I would have gotten a pic of me eating fish and chips but I was so hungry / distracted by my friend Luke's HILARIOUS story of how he was refused entry into Belgium and forced to go to London in the mean time due to an expired visa.  I failed to even take my camera out of my bag.  Instead we headed to a local bar with Emily and I had Pear Cider which was delicious and way better than beer.