On Thanksgiving, after our huge dinner, we all decided to go out to the city! After spending the whole night out, we came back, picked up our backpacks (prepacked!) and got in a cab to go to the airport at half 4 so we could catch our flight to London!
We got to the airport incident free and perfectly on time- we’re becoming pros! None of us had any sleep so we all passed out very quickly on the flight to London. When we touched down, we took a train from Gatwick airport to Victoria station and then hopped on the tube to Highland and Islington, where Alex’s cousin lives! Alex, Stacie and I were staying with her cousin, Chris, and Deanne and Alli were staying with our friend Chris (studying with us in Dublin)and his best friend, Chris. There were a lot of Chrises in the equation that weekend!
We all went to Alex’s cousins, though, and got settled in with some tea and hot chocolate. We had an appointment scheduled with Brian (aka Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore), a Supreme Court Justice for the UK- also one of Alex’s family friends. We first met up with Alex’s cousin, and then made our way to the Supreme court building to meet Brian. We got a personalized tour of the inside of the Supreme Court building- it’s absolutely gorgeous!!
The outside of the Supreme Court building
One of the courtrooms
The symbol representing the four parts of the UK: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Where the justices sit to hear the case
The library! I want one just like it in my house!
Vaulted ceiling of the library
After the tour, we all went out for lunch together at a local restaurant frequented by those who are out to eat before a show at the theatre situated above the restaurant. I had some soup and delicious butternut squash risotto. MMM! While Alex and her cousin went with Brian to the House of Lords, D, Alli, Stacie and I just wandered around that area and got a closer look at Big Ben!
After we met back up with Chris and Alex, Chris showed us all around the city centre! We walked over a few bridges, by a skate park, through a Christmas outdoor marketplace, saw the London Eye (and even got a sneak peek at a very rare photo op of Big Ben thru the London Eye!), Buckingham Palace and more. It was really cold out and we’d been outside all day, so then we stopped and got some tea at a local café! Here are some photos from the day:
The London Eye!
Walkway along the river
Buckingham Palace- the flag was up, so the Queen was home!
We all went back to Chris’ to warm up a bit, and then D and Alli went to meet up with our friend Chris (who had missed his flight) and then to bring their stuff to the place they’d be staying! Alex went to dinner with Brian’s family, and Stacie, Chris and I went to a local pub/restaurant that Chris recommended to us. It was absolutely delicious and very fairly priced! I had a plate of mussels in a white wine sauce and Stacie had a pasta dish with blue cheese, broccoli and tomatoes. Yum! We also had a few pints of Chris’ favorite kind of cider- I wish we had it back home, it was so so good! Stacie and I were exhausted after not sleeping the night before and being up for about 48 hours, so we called it a relatively early night and went to bed!
We all didn’t wake up until about 11 the next morning (which was absolutely wonderful!). We decided to spend the day on Oxford street, a big street shut down for cars and lined with tons and tons of stores and shops! We went shopping for a few hours amidst the Christmas decorations, carolers, performances and music. It definitely made me very excited for the holiday season! After Oxford street, we went back to Chris’ area for a bit, and then out to a place we had researched online where there was supposed to be reindeer petting! Unfortunately, we missed the time frame that we could have pet them, but it was an area of London that had tons of Christmas decorations and a gigantic reindeer and Christmas tree! We also did a bit of shopping here as well.
After this, we went our separate ways, as Alex, Stacie, Chris and I were planning to go to this really unique cocktail bar. Chris told us all about the crazy things they do to make their cocktails the best- like adding ‘essence of dry’ and using a centrifuge to separate elements of fruit.. what?! We ended up making some pasta back at Chris’ for dinner and lost track of time. We were too late for our reservation, so we just went to a different cocktail bar down the street called Playtime. It was a really cool atmosphere- something you don’t really get a lot of in Dublin, as it’s mainly full of pubs and traditional bars. Later that night, we met up with Alli, Deanne, Chris and Chris who were all at Chris’ (Dublin Chris’ friend studying in London). We headed home at a decent hour and went to sleep!
The next morning was our last full day in Dublin, as we’d be staying at the airport hotel that night. First thing’s first- Platform 9 ¾! I have been waiting, ever since the Harry Potter books came out and I realized King’s Cross Station is a real place, to go visit platform 9 ¾. My dream finally came true (dorky, I know.)! We all took pictures as if we were running onto the platform to get to the Hogwarts express. We were there for about 45 minutes, haha, but it was the best 45 minutes of my life!
After we got our thrill pretending to be Hogwarts students (I’m still waiting for my letter!), we hopped on the tube and went to the Tower of London! It was a really cold day outside, but the views were breathtaking! We also stumbled upon a little red phone booth and took our touristy pictures there J
From here, we made our way to the Tower Bridge. Most people actually think this is the “London Bridge” we all sing about during our childhood, but it’s actually not! Apparently the London Bridge isn’t that impressive- we didn’t get a chance to go to it! The bridge was gorgeous, just as picturesque as I’d imagined!
We warmed up with some lattes at Starbucks (which left me feeling sick for the rest of the day- I think it was bad eggnog!) and then made our way back to the tube/Victoria station so that we could make our way to Gatwick and check into our hotel. We got to our hotel in a pretty timely manner, ordered some pizza for dinner and went right to sleep! We were all worn out from our busy busy weekend! The flight the next morning arrived in Dublin right on time (much to my dismay-RyanAir plays this annoying bugle sound when you’re on time and it’s the absolute worst!). I slept for most of the day since I was still feeling sick from the day before, but all in all, the trip was fantastic! I’m so happy that I finally made my way to London- a perfect Thanksgiving weekend!
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