Think of me fondly

My time in London has been a complete whirlwind! --this is my tourist blog for the weekend--London is a lot bigger than Dublin (obviously) and I can't decide if I consider it more to be like New York or Paris, I guess it is a nice mix of both. 

Last night was one of the cultural highlights--going to see the Phantom of the Opear at Her Majesty's Theatre. It was amazing. I have seen the movie and knew that I've loved the music but seeing it live was unbelievable! *Note: my sister LOVES this show. She has seen it live twice. Once for Valentines Day my dad bought tickets for my mom, sister and grandparents to see it on Broadway...and then they got to go backstage...I got some chocolate in the mail. Thanks dad. So I don't feel too bad about going without Katie, well maybe a little. 

The Queen was in! When I first arrived on Thursday afternoon I was spent. I didn't sleep at all the night before, a mix of weird sleeping noises of hostelmates and also knowing I had to wake up early for my flight. 

Luckily, I have a friend who is studying in Cantebury this semester and she met me at my hostel and got me walking around and we saw all of the big sites (fun fact about London--it takes like ten seconds to see all of the sites). 

Buckingham Palace

Me and Buckingham Palace

Memorial in Front of Buckingham Palace

Big Ben Tower and cute phone booth 

Westminster Abbey

Better pic of Big Ben Tower

I had a surprisingly nice dinner my first night here. Like I said, I didn't get a very good nights sleep the night before and when I tried to take a nap nothing was really working. So I wandered into an Italian Restaurant because I needed some serious calories in me with all of this walking. 

There was live music (Frank Sinatra like...but with friends and more personality) and everyone was laughing and it was nice. I got dessert. Lemon sorbet in a lemon. I thought it was great.

This is St Pancras --very beautiful hotel...I may have thought it was KIngs Cross Station until I saw Kings Cross Station which is right next to it.

And of course...Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. Upsettingly, there isn't a wall between the two. Its pretty funny though because to the right of this picture being taken Kings Cross has created a Platform 9 3/4 and the line to take a picture there was shockingly long. 

Lastly there was this demonstration giong on around Parliament (note Big Ben is a part of the Parliament building). I thought that this was interesting mostly because of how uninterested the students I talked to were about this topic. Almost like its taboo...but its obviously not taboo for everyone in London.

I am a pro (basically) at the Underground...once you know how to use the subway in one place you really can do anything.

Today's my last day and I have a few more things to finish up on and then its on to Paris!