A Weekend Getaway

   This past weekend was spent in the beautiful city of London! Lucky for us, the entire trip was preplanned and paid for with our program. Flights, hotel, and sight seeing tickets were all included.We made our way to London Friday afternoon for our quick weekend getaway. Upon checking into the hotel we immediately went on the search for dinner. What did we end up eating you may ask? Chipotle. It never ceases to amaze me how much American food I eat while studying abroad.

   Since it was late in the day when we arrived we didn't do any sightseeing. Instead we decided to go to a club in the center of the city. It was a great way to spend our first night in London.

Buckingham Palace

On Saturday we were up bright and early to do the hop-on/ hop-off tour bus.
   Our first stop was the Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Queen.

After spending time at the Palace and tossing a penny with a wish into the fountain we were on our way to Westminster Abby, The House of Parliament, and Big Ben.

Westminster Abby

Big Ben.

 Did you know it's the bell inside the clock that is named Big Ben? I always thought it was just the name of the clock... Fun Fact

The House of Parliament.

The House of Parliament has to structurally be my favorite place in London. The building is incredible, the amount of detail and design is so cool and the fact that it was built in the 11th century amazes me.

 The London Eye is the giant Ferris wheel in the middle of the city. I've been told it takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around and once at the top you can see all of London, how awesome, right? Unfortunately we did not go on it. Eighteen pounds (twenty-eight U.S. Dollars) wasn't in our college sized budgets.

  We made a few more stops while on the bus including a popular market. Before looking around at all the vendors tables we made a dash to the nearest food. There was an area in the downstairs patio where Paella was being cooked for the masses. I've never had Paella, nor did I know what it was. So I took a shot and bought a plate full. Truthfully, I don't think I'll ever be eating it again.

 We then made our way back to our hotel where we took much needed naps and then went out to a pub just around the corner from us.

On Sunday we had prepaid tickets for the Tower of London. The Tower was once a prison and a place for torture and death. The Crown Jewels also reside here, but unfortunately due to strict security I couldn't get any photos of them.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

     Since we didn't have too much time before our flight back to Dublin, we got on the Tube (Subway) to a very popular park called Primrose Hill. After a few wrong turns and some confusion of our location we finally made it and made the walk up to the top. It was a gorgeous park and once at the top we had a skyline view of London.

    It was a very quick weekend and I am glad we got to make the trip. London is such a large city I think we could have used a couple extra days, but it was still a great time.