At around 5 am, I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. Typical. So I got up and went to open the door. It wouldn't budge. I tugged on it for a minute or so, and then Umme woke up and asked me what I was doing. I told her that the door was stuck, and she instantly dismissed it as me being weak (as usual). When she came and tried the door, though, it STILL wouldn't move. At all. We were freaking out. It didn't help that it was 5 am, dark, and neither of us had our glasses on. Eventually, we did turn the light on and put our glasses on, but that did not change the fact that the door was 100% stuck. Umme decided to call Raj, even though we felt terrible about waking him up at that ungodly hour. I really needed to go to the bathroom, though, and we just didn't like the idea of being trapped in the room. Luckily, he got up right away and had no trouble opening the door from the other side. So weird! Needless to say, though, we did not close that door again.
We woke up again at 9, but that was obviously planned. Getting ready, making a plan, and eating breakfast took some time, so we weren't out of the house until 11. If you know me well, you'd know that I would've preferred to leave quite a bit earlier than that, but I was still determined to make the most of the day anyway.
We first made our way to Abbey Road to take a Beatles-inspired picture. It's actually in a really nice area, where every car we saw was a Bentley, Maserati, Rolls Royce, Range Rover, etc. And yes, there were many, many cars--trying to drive on Abbey Road! And then here's all these stupid tourists (us included) crossing the street and running out into the open road to take pictures of other people crossing the street. It was so ridiculous, but so worth it. I honestly can't even believe I got to do that! How many times have I seen that album cover, and now I actually got to go there! It's really such a minor thing, but it was just so cool for me.
Next. we headed in the direction of Buckingham Palace. I really needed to go to the bathroom, so this kind of tainted this experience, as there was only one public restroom in the area, and it cost 50 pence. We did not have 50 pence. I managed to hold it for a long time, though.
So anywho, we saw the palace, which, honestly, is not that pretty. I mean, it was really cool to see, but compared to places like Versailles and the royal palace in Madrid, it wasn't really all that aesthetically pleasing. We also visited the Queen's Gift Shop which was very cute and fancy. They even sold orange marmalade made from the oranges in Seville! When we were in Seville, there were just a ton of orange trees everywhere, but Raul had told us not to eat the oranges (not that I would anyway). He said the oranges are bitter, and are only used by the British to make orange marmalade. Naturally, then, I was really excited to see some of this marmalade!
Umme trying to get artsy taking pics of me
One of the guards wearing his winter uniform!
A Christmas tree with only crowns as ornaments
ALMOST bought this adorable ornament (he has a French horn!)
Finally, we went to a Pret a Manger (a little chain coffee place) to use the bathroom. I had to wait in line for a veeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy long time, but it was worth it.
We realized we were just a short, easy walk from Picadilly Circus, which was one of the places we wanted to visit that day, so we headed in that direction. It's basically like the Times Square of London, so we got to do some fun shopping and stuff along the way. Umme got macaroons from Ladurée (since I forgot to bring some from their main store in Paris) and showed me Cath Kidston, a store that's very popular amongst British girls my age apparently. I don't doubt it, because it was more or less the British version of Vera Bradley. I got a really cute beret there, but I wish I could've bought absolutely everything!
Pics around Picadilly Circus (featuring my new beret)
We were getting pretty hungry, and considered having lunch at Whole Foods (weirdly located in my opinion), but then Umme saw that one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants was right near us. Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef, who she is apparently a fan of, and it was an Italian restaurant, which we were both in the mood for. We put our names down and were told to come back in half an hour to get a table.
In the mean time, we headed in the direction (or so we thought) of Trafalgar Square. After heading down a street for some time, we realized it was actually not in that direction, but also realized we didn't have time to go to it either. Instead, we turned around and popped into Whittard of Chelsea (a famous tea store) on the way back to the restaurant. I had some samples, admired all the pretty packages of tea, and ended up buying a box of Regal Blend tea bags (it's a black tea with vanilla. I had a sample--it's amazing).
It was finally time for us to get seated at Jamie's Italian, and they did seat us as soon as we walked back in. The food was soooooooo good. And so was the drink I got! I probably would've liked every cocktail on their drink menu, but I went with one called La Dolce Vita. I don't remember what it said it had in it, but it basically tasted like a slightly sour cherry limeade from Sonic. It was fabulous. To eat, we split some fried mushroom risotto balls as an appetizer, and then I had a veggie burger for my main course. We hadn't initially planned on having a sit-down lunch, but we were very, very glad we did. It hit the spot.
Me with my pretty drink
We continued down Picadilly toward Leicester Square, and then on toward Covent Garden. Everything was decorated all pretty for Christmas, and we were just loving it. Another store Umme had told me is very popular in the UK for people our age is Ted Baker, so when we saw one in Covent Garden, we had to go in. I actually ended up buying another hat! A reeaalllyyy cute red one (which you'll see in pictures from Sunday). Ted Baker is sort of like an edgier Kate Spade, so I really liked it. We actually went to Kate Spade, too, as well as a couple other stores around there. Other than the two aforementioned hats, though, I didn't buy anything. Prices are obnoxiously high there, especially since the pound is so strong.
Earlier that morning, we had booked tickets for the London Eye for 6:30 pm, so it was about time to head over there at this point. It wasn't a long walk at all, so that was nice, as it had become dark and extremely windy. I think it started to drizzle as well.
We picked up our tickets with no issues, and then were told to go to the brief "4D Experience" video before getting in line to get on the Eye. It was probably the most ridiculous thing ever. First, they have you take a couple green screen pictures, just like you do on Top of the Rock, so that was kind of cute in a silly way. But the video itself is so weird. I can't even explain it. It basically just shows you some landmarks around the city (in 3D), but doesn't say what anything is. After that, I really can't even put into words what went on. I keep typing stuff, and then backspacing because I just can't explain it. There were bubbles, dancing--I don't even know. It made no sense, and felt like a waste of time. So if you ever go to the London Eye, skip the 4D Experience.
The Eye itself, though, was really neat. We bought "Fast Track" tickets, so we didn't wait in line more than 10-15 minutes. You share a capsule with a bunch of other people, but it isn't that bad. One lady in ours was explaining to this little girl what all the landmarks we could see were, so we gladly eavesdropped on that. The views were super cool, but the pictures don't really do it justice since they're all taken from behind glass with rain drops on it. Definitely a great experience, though!
After the 30-minute trip around the Eye, we went to this little market we had passed on the way there earlier to get some Dutch mini pancakes (my favorite thing ever). We split a dozen with Nutella and whipped cream on them. It was hard to eat them with all the wind, but we managed.
Umme was dying to show me Tower Bridge, so we then took the underground to London Bridge. London Bridge itself isn't really anything special, but from it we could see the Shard (the tallest building in the city) and, of course, Tower Bridge. We crossed the bridge, despite the howling wind that even made me scream at one point because it was so strong and terrifying, and then made our way over to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It was raining, windy, and miserable, but in the end, I'm glad we got to see all of that. Finally, then, we made our way home.
A restaurant named after Lewis Carroll! (Hard to see his name in the pic)
Since we had a late lunch, we waited until we got home that night to have dinner. Raj was very nice and ordered food for us: kebabs for himself and Umme, and a little cheese pizza for me. It was weirdly good pizza for a kebab restaurant in the UK, and just what I wanted. After eating, I showered, did NOT close the door to our room, and then went to bed.
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