London Calling!

To be honest, London has never been on my list of top places to see. I've always been interested in more Mediterranean places like Spain, Italy, and Greece, or exotic places like Turkey and Thailand. But when my friend Jess told me the price of the flights and asked if wanted to accompany her, I didn't think twice. Turns our London is even more than it's cracked up to be!
After a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid, 5 hours of waiting in the airport intermingled with naps on the luggage check-in counter, a bus to the city, and a walk to our hostel, we eventually made it to London. On our way from the bus stop to the hostel, we stumbled upon some famous sites:

Apparently the Queen lives here or something...

What's that big clock thing??

Showing London some love

We took a walk through St. James park and stumbled upon some giant vicious squirrels...if you can even call them that. We legitimately screamed when we saw them...

We eventually dropped our stuff off at the hostel and headed for the city!

The London Eye

SO regal.

Lloyd's bank!!!

Stopped by St. Paul's Cathedral and ran into some protestors with some excellent signs:

The Globe Theatre: pretend there is a skull in my hand...

 By then it was getting dark (yep, at 4:30pm...???) so we walked a bit farther down the Thames and grabbed an English meat pie from "Pieminister." Yes, I did laugh for a straight 5 minutes after reading the sign. SO clever!!

Then it was time to search for dinner. We knew we wanted Indian food because London has the best Indian food second to, well, India of course. Finding Brick Lane, as the famous street is called, turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. With both of us being too cheap to pay for a Tube ticket or taxi ride, we just decided that walking was the best choice. Well turns out the Brits don't exactly know their city by foot. We got all kinds of different directions from various people throughout our journey to Brick Lane. After walking a certain number of hours I am too embarrassed to mention with tired feet, cold hands, and stomachs that were yelling at us, we fiiiinally made it! And boy was it worth it. Some of the best Indian food I have ever had, and definitely the best naan I've ever eaten in my life:

We trudged back home to our hostel and woke up bright and early the next morning, grabbed some of the awful but FREE coffee, and headed out for another day of site seeing.

First stop: King's Cross...why? Any true Harry Potter fan would know...

SO close Hogwarts!!!

Then we took the Tube to the Notting Hill neighborhood for one of the most well-known markets in London: Portobello Market. This was my absolute favorite part of the whole trip. Everything was just so perfect!

I've looked through this cookbook numerous times at Anthropologie but had no idea they had a real store! I obviously had to try it out for myself

Black bottom cake with cream cheese frosting. Winner.

Look Mom!!!!

Wait, what is this? A travel bookshop in Notting Hill?

Where are Hugh and Julia?

After our long and fantastic stroll through my new favorite neighborhood in the the WORLD,  we took the Tube to Abbey Road. Yep, THAT Abbey Road.

Paul was too busy to come hang out.

If you're wondering, I absolutely did write my name on the wall.

Then it was time. "Time for what?" you may ask. Well, there's a time to be touristy and a time to go back to your roots and jump at the chance to have quality American food that you have literally been craving every day for 5 months since you have been in Spain. Oh, Chipotle, you never have tasted so good...

Exploring a little more of the city in Soho & Picadilly Circus:

The next morning we checked out of our hostel and went on a hunt for beefeaters. Apparently all the movies lie when they show people poking and taking funny pictures with the dudes in the furry hats. You can't even get that close to them:

On our way to the bus, we stopped for some porridge (with berry compote and honey...YUM!) and later some fish n' chips:

 Also, London has really helpful street markings:

Overall, London went above and beyond my expectations. And I'll be honest, it was nice to have small tastes of America for a weekend. It's a fantastic city and it is so easy to see why people love it so much!