London Day 2, 3 & 4

A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else.

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DAY 2:

Sydney, Savanna and I visited: Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, Tate Modern, the Camden Market, and took a cruise on the Thames River.

To get to Kensington Palace, we walked through Hyde Park. It was a beautiful sunny morning out so it was a lovely walk. I really, really liked Hyde Park because it was a nice, quiet and peaceful break from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city, especially Oxford Street. Plus, we saw lots of cute dogs on the way.

Kensington Palace is where Queen Victoria was born and raised. It was incredible to see where royalty had actually lived. We joined a tour of Kensington half way through and learned how women go to the bathroom in those wide dresses. It’s a little bit TMI but I’m sharing it anyway because I can’t be the only one curious. So at royal parties, the wider and more decorated your dress is, the richer and more important you were because you were taking up more space. Women always carried a fan with them. Waving the fan in different ways signaled different things like “I’m single” or “I’m married” or “I’m married but still open.” There was a certain wave for when she needed to use the restroom. Because the parties were incredibly crowded and held in small rooms, women didn’t leave to go to the bathroom. The wave signaled a page boy to come over with a gravy cup. The page boy would slide the gravy cup under the woman’s dress and she would go to the bathroom right then and there…while holding conversation! Then when she was finished, she would wave again and the page boy would pick the gravy cup up and take it away. Pretty gross but the more you know.

Next, we took a cruise on the river Thames and saw all of the major sites of London from the water. We floated under the famous Tower Bridge and the London Bridge…which thankfully didn’t fall down on us (a ha ha).

The Tate Modern is a LARGE art museum. We didn’t have much time at the Tate Modern so we picked the most interesting exhibits.

For dinner and to look for tchotchkes, we checked out Camden Market. Sadly, we got there in the rain as everyone was closing up. We ate Mediterranean food for dinner and finished with super sweet dessert.

After dessert, we headed back for an early night…and because our legs hurt a lot.

DAY 3:

Sydney, Savanna and I ate a traditional English breakfast, shopped at the Borough Market, toured Shakespeare’s Globe, browsed the British Museum, and saw a live performance of Wicked.

Sydney and Savanna ordered a true traditional English breakfast, but I didn’t because I knew I wouldn’t eat the mushrooms, tomatoes and beans on it. Who wants to eat vegetables for breakfast…especially the worst ones?! Instead, I had some kind of egg on toast dish which was super filling and delicious.

After a fat breakfast, we headed to the Borough Market where we should have eaten breakfast instead. There was so much fresh food, it smelled so yummy.

Then we took a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe, which turned out to be much smaller than I thought it would be. The real Shakespeare’s Globe burned down, so the Globe in London is the best replica possible. It was really cool to see since I read a lot of Shakespeare in high school. I think my English teacher would have been proud that I visited. On the tour, they talked about how the Globe was built, the audience, and the shows. The poorest people would stand down by the stage and were called penny-stinkers because they were smelly. The richest and most important people would sit behind the stage so they would see the actors’ backs. Aristocrats sat behind mainly so that the rest of the audience could see that the aristocrats were there. What a weird way to flex, I would much rather be poor and see the actors’ faces than rich and not what peoples’ backs. Unfortunately, The Globe doesn’t have performances in the winter because it’s an outdoor theatre so we weren’t able to see a show.

We quickly browsed the British Museum. There was so much to see and read but we didn’t have time for it all. I would love to go back in the future and spend a whole day inside.

To make up for not being able to see a show at the Globe, we opted to see Wicked at the Victoria Apollo theatre! Wicked was INCREDIBLE; I had chills the entire time! I think it is my favorite show I’ve ever seen live; it beats School of Rock that I saw on Broadway. I really liked Wicked because it gave me a deeper insight into the Wizard of Oz.

DAY 4

For our last day, we visited Buckingham Palace, Lush and almost missed our flight home.

We got up early to head to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard…but then we saw a sign that there was no Guard Changing Ceremony. I was pretty upset we didn’t see it because it’s a staple of London and if you don’t see it, did you really go to London? But since it was beautiful out, we had a photoshoot in front of the Palace instead. Buckingham Palace was gorgeous on the outside, I can’t even imagine the inside. If I go back to London, I will definitely be checking it out.

After, we headed to Lush to grab a few things before we left. We started talking to some of the workers and before we knew it we were already running late to our flight. We had to head back to the hostel to grab our luggage, then take the Tube to the train station, then take a 45-minute train to the airport, go through visa check and security, and then RUN to our gate in 3 hours. I think we would have been fine if my travel bag hadn’t gotten flagged. Apparently, you need a liquid bag to fly out of England and ALL of your liquids must fit. Because my dry shampoo didn’t fit (which should be considered an aerosol instead of a liquid but that’s none of my business) the mean security lady threw it out.

ANWAY, we BARELY made it to our gate in time. Ryanair had finished the final calling. We were the last to board. But we made onto the airplane!

We landed back in the Krak safely and Ubered home.

Overall, I really enjoyed London. My favorite parts were St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hyde Park, and seeing Wicked. My least favorite part was Oxford Street because it was too overwhelming and crowded, you couldn’t enjoy it. Although, I don’t think I would want to live in London, I would definitely love to visit again. In four days, we were able to see everything we wanted! I don’t regret a second of our trip and would do it again 100%.

For my next adventures, I will be visiting:

• Wrocław, Poznań, and Łódź, Poland next weekend!
• Budapest, Hungary and Vienna, Austria in March!
• Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel for spring break in April, also during Easter!
• Athens and Santorini, Greece at the end of April.

You may ask, “Helene, aren’t you in school?” and to that I’d tell you “Hardly!” This semester has been a joke compared to my last semesters. But I am thankful it’s like this because it gives me the opportunity to travel, which is the real reason why I’m here. (Besides pierogies, of course.)