Ready, Set, BE A TOURIST!

I kept meaning to write this week but nothing too exciting happened.  The biggest accomplishment of the week was that I made guacamole from scratch.  I picked up two avacados from a street vendor and found some salsa (THANKGOD) at the grocery store.  I was a little stuck when I realized that they don't have tortilla chips here in London.  In place of tortilla chips I used pita bread which worked nicely -- better than pretzels.

This weekend was very exciting! Two friends from Gustavus, Maggie and Jenni visited us in London. It was a jam packed weekend trying to hit the best places in London in 3 days.  Sorry in advance for such a long blog post...

On Friday, we went to Tower Hill where the armory is and the crown jewels are kept.  The jewels were GORGEOUS.  The exhibition had a moving walkway to prevent any gawkers and it was so cool to see the generations of jewels on display.  Then we moved on to the tower bridge and shakespeare's globe.  It was fun to see them but definitely not my favorite tourist destinations in London.  While trying to make our way back to the tube station we ran into Bourough Market.  It was such a fun area where street vendors were selling a variety of foods.  We all had a pasty while walking around admiring the many foods on sale.

Crown Jewels!! 

Tower Bridge

 We made our way to Kings Cross Station where we visited Platform 9 and 3/4.  It was AMAZING.   There were a ton of people waiting in line at the station and they had a professional photographer.  Luckily, they allowed you to take your own photo.  They had all the house scarves available for people to wear while taking the picture and a set of Harry Potter glasses.  Next door to the platform was a "Platform 9 and 3/4 Harry Potter Shop."  They had special edition books, wands and sweaters on sale.  I was tempted to buy a sweater because I have been so cold lately!! 

Off to Hogwarts! 

The tube doesn't run 24/7 here so it shuts down every night at midnight and starts up again at 7 in the morning.  Friday night we decided to head back home at around 11pm.  HOLY PEOPLE.  The tube stations were packed with loads of people trying to get to their final destination before the tube closed.  It was a crazy experience of being pressed up against random strangers and each time the tube stopped it got more and more crowed as people shoved their way onto the train.

Saturday was another full day.  We saw Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.  We got to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace which was really interesting.  The queen has a multitude of regiments who serve and protect her palace from different countries.  Every 48 hours the regiments change completely.  On Saturday, the red coat guards (don't know where they were from so I'm going to classify them by color) were leaving duty and the gray coats were taking their place.  My favorite part was the marching bands that came with both regiments it really reminded me how much I love band!

So many tourists! 

All the police were on horses! 

MARCHING BAND #bandnerd4lyfe

Bye Red Coats! 

HI Gray coats! 

We headed to the London Eye because it was SUNNY outside....BEST DAY EVER. And we were about to cross a street when Elizabeth Harris just popped up out of no where!!!! It was so so so much fun to see her and we probably looked like crazy Americans jumping up and down yelling of excitement. Hanna, Jenni and I went on the London Eye which was beautiful and very interesting to see how huuuuuuge London is.

Look how many cranes there are! Construction is a big thing here....

Random run in with Elizabeth!!!

We went to Portobello Market near Notting Hill.  At that point in the day all I wanted was to sit down and have my personal space since there is always a billion people around you here in London.  That night we went to China town for dinner and it was delicious. I literally ate my entire bowl of fried rice and sweet and sour chicken.  It was soooo good.

Today we went to church at Westminster Abbey! It was a long service but my favorite part was the choir which was composed of young boys who had the most adorable voices.  It was really amazing to go to church in such a gorgeous building.  

This weekend Hanna and I head out on our first adventure to Belgium to visit family friends of mine and Eric and Nick! I'm so excited to experience traveling outside of London and I can't wait to see familiar faces.  AND I CANT WAIT FOR BELGIAN WAFFLES AND CHOCOLATE. Bring on the sweets please :)

Two pieces of exciting news:
1. Caitlin is officially coming to visit me in March YAY!
2. My Grandpa and Aunt Marie are also coming to visit me in March!!

March is going to be the best month ever.....