London Part II

November 7

We started our day with a classic English breakfast at our favorite place, yet again. This day, however, it was sprinkling just a tad on our way to the cafe, and down-pouring when we got out. The rain lightened as we got closer to the metro station, but once we got off at Green Park, it was still very rainy. 

Dara trying to steal a blown away
umbrella because hers sucked.

We walked through Green Park, which is gorgeous this time of year, to get to Buckingham Palace.In off season the Changing of the Guard only takes place every other day, so this was the day to see it. We got there fairly early, about 45 minutes early, to get a good waiting spot. As we were waiting we spotted the sign that said that "The Changing of the Guard may be cancelled due to wet weather," really? We are in London, you would think they'd be used to some rain. Pfsh. Yet, we waited. The Policemen came around at 11 telling everyone it had been cancelled, but we didn't let a little rain detour us from taking photos.

We decided that, with continuous rainfall, we should do something indoors, therefore, it was the perfect time to go to The London Dungeon. Neither Dara nor myself knew what The Dungeon was, but we went anyways. It's actually a very cool theatrical walk through of the history and myths of London. It was interactive and sometimes very creepy. We met Sweeny Todd in his barber shop and Jack the Ripper in a bar. In the Jack the Ripper scene, the lights would go out and then come back on with him in front of someone, it was extremely terrifying because you couldn't see where he was or hear where he was going. The actors told us the history and were in character the entire time. They were not allowed to touch us though, which was a blessing, because Dara and I were arm and arm the entire time. Anyways, if anyone were travelling to London in the near future and were into that sort of thing, I'd highly recommend it, it was very cool. 

Our (Dara's) friend, Valentina is studying in England and took a train into London in attempts to meet up with us, and stay with one of her friends. After The Dungeon we tried to find WiFi to contact her, but we were never in it as the same time as her, and it was just a mess. I convinced Dara not to wait around, not after mine and Jacqueline's experience with Brittany in Germany, so we continued onward, wherever that was. 

Onward led us into darkness. As we started walking the sun had already fallen and it was only 4:45...how sad. We made it to the shopping district in London. As we walked we just happened to pass by a Cinnabon Store...so we stopped in, and we both got two humongous cinnamon rolls. They were amazing. Amazing. We walked and ate until we came across the restaurant that we decided to eat at. Cinnamon rolls first, then dinner. 

Our waiter at dinner spoke Spanish, so he and Dara were chatting up a storm for a good part of dinner. We good food AND dessert, but we decided to save the wine for Italy because everything in London is super expensive. Seriously. We left the restaurant and took the metro to St. Paul's Cathedral, the second largest church in the world, just to walk around the outside. We didn't make it inside during our trip to London, which was extremely disappointing once we walked around the outside of it that night. Neither of us realized how huge it was, and didn't know it was the second largest in the world until our trip to Rome this past weekend. Regardless, it was great to see and I'm sure I'll find my way back to London soon. ;)

Once back in the hostel we packed up our things to prepare for our 3:30 am departure the next morning. It was only 10:30 pm at the moment, so Dara climbed up onto my bed, the top bunk, and we Skyped Lia, Brittany, and Jacqueline who were still in Valencia. It was a very interesting night. The WiFi was very shotty, which made for a more memorable Skype experience with mis amigas.

 November 8

At 3:30 in the morning we took a cab to the bus stop to catch our bus to the airport. It is awful sitting in a taxi in London because they drive on the wrong side of the road and every time our driver turned I kept thinking he was turning into the wrong lane of traffic. It was terrible. He also tried to convince us that he could drive us to the airport, which I'm sure he could, but we're not that dumb. There was a cheap bus that would take us there so we didn't need his stupid, expensive, taxi fare. 

Once we got home both Dara and I ended up taking naps and packing for our trip to Madrid the next morning. I also recall watching a lot of Netflix, because I had very little motivation to do anything else.