God Save the Queen

London. Insert every adjective you can think of here. What a place!! Classy, trashy, artsy, historical, beautiful, ugly, fast, slow, convenient, creepy, friendly, rude, memorable, breath-taking, and one hell of an Easter. For Easter holiday, my future roommate Emily and I decided to go visit our native mother-land, England. To be completely honest, the return to the English speaking world wasn't as refreshing as I thought it would be! It was actually kind of nice to go back to Germany :) BUT, I had an absolutely amazing, fantastic adventure, and I wouldn't have done it any other way! We spent 4.5 days in London, and I think I saw just everything from  royal palaces to crazy-busy markets and famous street graffiti. Expensive shops set in junk neighborhoods (I deemed these to be purposely hipster-neighborhoods), expensive shops set in expensive neighborhoods, turkish guys pushing cheap clothes, Notting Hill, surveillance cameras every 2 feet, and rubbish bins every 20000 miles (seriously, we spent so much time looking for the damn trash cans!). I spent my first five days without using ANY heat styling tools (hair dryer or straightener) on my hair, and let's just say poor London probably suffered just as much as I did. And I think by the time I arrived home on Tuesday, my feet were permanently molded into the shape of my boots! I arrived home with a hole in my boot and about a million pictures, a free London shot glass from our hostel, plus a nice tacky postcard of the Queen to send to my family. We did a bar crawl,   met a famous celebrity (Zach Braff), saw a play, went to Easter Service at Westminster Abbey, and I even saw Her Majesty's crown jewels! They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so I think I'm better off describing the trip using this picture chronology (with some explanations along the way). Enjoy

(Warning, there are quite a few photos on here. If you would like to see more, check out my Facebook photo album. Also, sorry friends who've already seen these photos on Facebook.) 

I FINALLY got some more stamps in my passport! Only a few, because the Schengen Zone makes it so easy to travel! 

My fabulous, hip, all-knowing travel buddy. What would I do without you? 

I loved the Egyptian exhibit at the British Museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone too! 

Cupcakes at a famous bakery! 

Bustling, busy Camden Town. Home to millions of markets, and some awesome bars. 

We accidentally found ourselves in China Town. And when in China Town, eat Japanese! :) 

  

Zach Braff! (Scrubs anyone?) 

I had a brief trip to Hogwarts and back.

No trip to London is complete without extensive use of The Tube. Have you ever seen a four story escalator going down? It's super reassuring. 

Welcome to Notting Hill! Is this real life? 

Portobello Road Antique Market

This market was a bit classier than the ones in Camden Town, where you could buy furry handcuffs, or platform leather boots.

Happy Easter!! Where did you go to church? Was it where the Queen was coroneted where Kate and Willy tied the knot? :) 

Oh hey Parliament! 

I've got a thing for clock towers, and this one beats them all. I think I have more photos of Big Ben than I do of my boyfriend.....

Is there a better way to spend Easter than in a park in London next to Buckingham Palace with a swan? 

I know the Queen waved to me out the window. The flag was up! 

Apparently London Bridge does NOT equal Tower Bridge. Hello Tower Bridge! Hello Rain! 

Whitehall (Tower of London)

Bankski graffiti

Vintage department store? I think yes!

We didn't buy any.....too expensive :( 

And no trip to London in freezing April is complete without POUNDS AND POUNDS spent on tea. 

Bye beautiful London...until we meet again! (and my bank account recovers from the dollars to pounds exchange rate! )