Day 5, London, England (Tuesday, August 12)

Our original plan of going to the London Temple today fell through. We decided there were still so many things to do in London and the fact that the temple is a ways away didn't help. So we chose to join up again with Liz's dad at the Tower of London.

It's funny how bad I am at history and yet I love learning about it. It was so interesting finding out what the Tower of London was all about even though most of it is morbid and depressing. 

There is a poppy for everyone who died in some war? Obviously I'm not very good at remembering details..

We first went to see the Crown Jewels. It is insane how much gold and jewels are used for royalty pieces. There was a 530 (around there) carat diamond! I couldn't take pictures inside, so there isn't proof, but it's real. 

We listened to a tour guide afterward and found out the history of the place. Facts ranged from polar bears swimming in the moat to a 16 year old queen being beheaded. Crazy stuff happened there. 

We left the Tower of London and crossed the Tower Bridge. 

We got a taxi to then take us to St Paul's Cathedral. The architecture is seriously so breathtaking in this city! 

We went to go inside and found out we had to pay. Lame. But then we saw a sign that said if you were there for a service, you could get in free. Doesn't make much sense since everyone should just go to a service. But whatever. So we took the up on that offer. 

It was my first time witnessing something like this. It was weird. But I just enjoyed looking around the cathedral. I might have taken a few forbidden photos...

We walked around for a bit after the service and then took off to find somewhere to eat lunch. We stopped at this place called Garfunkel's which was super yummy. After lunch, Tom decided to go back to the hostel and rest since he has a cold. Sucky for him. I just hope I don't catch it! So he left and we got in a cab to take us to King's Cross Station. Liz is also a big Harry Potter fan so we had to of course see Platform 9 3/4. We originally wanted to go see the Warner Brothers Studio but we weren't able to get tickets. Apparently you have to buy them like two months in advance cause they sell out fast. So King's Cross was going to have to do to get our HP fix. 

When we got there, there was a crazy long line to get your picture taken. We ended up not waiting in line and settled for these pictures instead. 

I think I'll try to photoshop myself in the picture. 

But of course there is a store right next to it. So naturally we had to buy a souvenir. Especially if I wasn't going to get a picture by the cart. So I bought a t-shirt and we called it good. 

We left King's Cross and took a taxi to Harrod's. First, let me just tell you how fun it was to ride in a taxi. Driving on the left side of the rode is so weird! I freaked out at most left hand turns. We have taken a few double decker buses (which are also very fun) but they didn't give me the complete feel of driving on the left side as much as the taxis did. 

We arrived at Harrod's and walked around for a while. Man that store is HUGE! And also super fancy and expensive. I mean, take a look at this little sweet shop:

Crazy, right? I thought so.. And then they already had Christmas stuff up. Too soon! But these bears were funny..

We finished walking around and decided we should maybe meet back up with Tom. So we said goodbye to Liz's dad and headed back to our hostel. We got there and sat around for quite a bit. Tom was on the phone with his girlfriend, Logan fell asleep, and Liz and I just chilled. 

After a while, Liz and I were getting antsy. So we got Logan up and the three of us left to go find a place nearby to eat. While walking down the street, it started pouring. It's crazy how random rain comes here. You always have to be prepared with an umbrella or something just in case you get caught in the rain. But we found a pizza place pretty quick with a great deal. So we bought two pizzas and went back to the hostel to eat. We then just spent the night at the hostel hanging out. We met and talked with a few people staying in our room. One guys from Vancouver and two girls from Minnesota. We then showered and packed our bags to be ready for another early morning flight. 

I'm sad to be leaving London. I have loved it here. But we have so many other great places coming up that I can't complain about timing. Too much to see, so little time!

Tomorrow: Barcelona, Spain!

Day 4, London, England (Monday, August 11)

I don't think I'm going to sleep much on this trip. I just hope that it doesn't get me sick! We didn't have a super early morning, but we had Buckingham Palace tour tickets at 9:30, so we were up by 7 to shower and get there on time. 

Buckingham Palace was amazing! Obviously we only saw parts of it, but it was so cool to walk through a palace. And not just any palace. The palace of the Queen of England! I kept trying to imagine living there. Books I've read about being in palaces kept going through my mind. It would be unreal to live that way. It was cool to also get a history of the royal line. We all thought Prince William was next in line and didn't even realize it was actually his father Prince Charles. We had figured the bloodline went through Princess Di since she was so beloved and you don't hear anything about Prince Charles. I guess people don't really like him that much. 

We weren't able to take pictures inside so at the end of the tour we took advantage of taking pictures of the back of the palace. 

Seriously, that place is amazing! 

We walked back around to the front of the palace to witness the changing of the guards. What we didn't realize was how many people actually show up for this! It was crazy crowded so we weren't able to get a decent spot. But it was still pretty cool from what I did see. 

Once it finished, we walked towards Big Ben and just toured more of the city. Goodness this place is beautiful. Once again, I have more pictures taken on my camera of the landscape. 

It rained a little on us again at this point so we made our way to a cafe for some lunch. What we all ordered ended up being like sandwiches you would make for children going to school. But they still tasted great. The best part about lunch though, was watching these two girls flirt with a group of guys. Watching them laugh super loud and write their numbers on napkins was quite the entertainment. 

After we ate, we all decided we needed a little break from all the walking we've been doing. So we headed back to the hostel and ended up taking naps. I hadn't planned on sleeping, but I succumbed to the exhaustion. When we all woke up, we got ready and headed back into the city to meet up with Liz's dad, who happened to be here at the same time with his tour group, to eat dinner and see Les Mis. 

Les Mis was amazing!! I absolutely love this play. Beautiful story, beautiful music. I get the chills every time. This one was a little raunchy- could have done without a few things. But you can't expect it to be as clean here in London as it was at the Hale Theatre. I'm not in Utah anymore! 

It was another great day spent in London. I love this city! We only have one more day here before we move on to Barcelona!

Tomorrow: London day 3

Day 3, London, England (Sunday, August 10)

We had a very early morning in order to get to the airport in time to fly out to London. Waking up at 4:00 when you've been sleep deprived and struggling with a time difference is rough. We barely made it to the airport and through security and we were once again on a plane. It was a three hour flight which I passed out for the majority of. Thank goodness for that. I wouldn't have survived the rest of the day if I hadn't slept more. 

We got to London and experienced the hustle and bustle of using public transportation. But it worked out great because the real first sight we had of London was coming up out of the underground right in front of the LDS church just in time (well okay, slightly late by a few minutes) for the YSA ward at 1:00. Good thing I'm the only one out of the four of us that ward even applies to. Unfortunately I didn't spot any attractive men for me. Bummer ;)

It was great to be able to attend church. Even though I might have been slightly on the tired side and I'm not sure how much I really got out of the talks it was still great to know that wherever I am in the world, the gospel stays the same and I can be filled with the spirit. 

Once sacrament was over, we decided we needed food. Since we left so early, we didn't really have time for breakfast. Tom and I had scarfed down sandwiches at the airport before going through security, but they weren't very filling. And Liz and Logan hadn't eaten anything at all! So we took to the streets in search of a good lunch place. As we were walking we were commenting on how perfect the weather was- nice and sunny. Not even a minute later, it started pouring! Like really? We ran into this little doorway in order to get our rain jackets on and cover our backpacks. 

We then set off in the rain. We came to a place called Nandos and enjoyed a yummy chicken lunch and a break from the rain. 

By the time we finished eating, it had stopped raining and was perfect weather again. We went to our hostel to drop off our bags and went back out to explore the city. 

Our hostel. 

We went back to the church cause we thought there was an organ concert but it ended up being next week so we went to Picadilly Circus (not an actual circus, just what the part of the city is called) to walk around.

At this point, it was dinner time. We walked around forever trying to decide what we wanted to eat. We even entered a restaurant, sat down, and then decided we didn't want to eat there so we got up and left. After probably three hours of just walking around and not making up our minds, we ended up at Burger King. Yeah, that happened. It was 9:00 at night and the place was packed! But at this point we were starving and just went with what we knew was good and was cheaper than other places. 

We finished eating and headed back to the hostel. 

Now I guess I can talk briefly about our hostel. There are some very interesting people in our room. It's supposed to be a youth hostel, but there have been some 40 year old creepers! Luckily I'm on the top of a three bunk bed so I'm not too worried about anything happening. But it sure is a different experience! 

View from my bunk bed. 

I am having the time of my life and it's only day 3! London has been amazing and I can't wait to explore more of it!

Tomorrow: London day 2

Europe trip: Days 1 & 2, Home & Iceland (Friday & Saturday, August 8 & 9)

Considering the fact that I bought my initial flight to Iceland back at the beginning of February, this trip felt like it was years away. And then of course it comes up faster than I think possible and all of a sudden I only have a few weeks to get ready for it. Let's just say amazon and my credit card became quite good friends within the last few weeks..

Finally the day arrived and after packing up my little backpack, I met up with Tom, Liz, and Logan to head to the airport. We had a quick flight to Denver with a short layover and then we were on our way to Iceland!

The arrival into Iceland was beautiful. We were able to watch the sunrise after only having seen the sunset a couple hours before. 

Sunset

Sunrise

We arrived in Iceland around 6:30 am August 9th after a seven hour flight with very little sleep. I slept for probably a total of two hours and knew it was going to be a long day (and it probably didn't help that the previous night I only slept for about five and a half hours..) but we only had one day in Iceland so we all had to survive without going to sleep and just start our day right then and there. Plus it would help us adjust faster to the time difference anyway. 

We got off the flight and I received my first stamp in my passport. Wahoo! 

After getting slightly lost in the airport, we made our way down to rent a car which took longer than expected, but we got a car and headed to Reykjavik to find somewhere to eat some breakfast. We stopped at this little cafe where I ate a ham and cheese sandwich and shared this cinnamon maple/caramel doughnut goodness with Tom. 

We then made our way to the hostel we would be staying at to see if they had any recommendations on what to do for the day. We had talked about a few things to do at the airport in Denver, but nothing was finalized since the major things we knew about were too pricey. 

After receiving little help from the front desk, we settled on doing what is called "The Golden Circle." Look it up if you want detailed information, but it pretty much is a big circle around part of the country where some major sites can been seen. 

On the way to the first stop we came across this little place with all of these piles of rocks everywhere. So naturally we had to get out and take pictures. 

Then we made it to Thingvellir, the National Park. Interesting fact we found out: Iceland is closer to continental Europe than to mainland North America so the island is generally considered in Europe, but geologically the island includes parts of both continental plates. 

This is where the tectonic plates split. We walked from one continent to the other!

We then made our way to "Geysir." There was a "Litli Geysir" and a big one. 

Obviously the big one was the exciting one. I made fun of all the people standing around with their cameras out waiting for it to go off, and then I became one of those people. It was worth it though. 

We are lunch at a little cafe during this stop and it was ridiculously priced for not good food. We pretty much at a baguette  and weeds. Not our best meal choice.

The next stop was a giant waterfall called Gullfoss. It took my breath away!

Yes, that is a rainbow in the bottom left corner!

After this stop, I finally succumbed to the exhaustion and took a quick little nap in the car. When I awoke, we made it to another one of the stops but this time we had to pay to see it, so we decided to skip it. It was close to dinner time anyway by that point and we figured we should find a grocery store to save some money. The first store we found happened to be pretty much the Iceland Costco. And everything was expensive! So we made our way over to a cheaper store and settled on ingredients to make PB&J sandwiches. We stopped off in a church parking lot to eat in the car. 

We then made our way to the best part of our day in Iceland, the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa. 

It's pretty much one big giant hot tub! It felt great! It was chilly in Iceland, around mid 50's so it was perfect to get into this warm/hot water. They had this special mud to put on your face as well. It was a perfect little spa. We stayed in it for a little over an hour before getting out. 

We headed back to the city and decided to walk around for a bit. 

We watched the sunset and Tom and I each bought a souvenir and then we decided to get back to the hostel to shower and finally get some much needed sleep. 

That concludes day 2 of my Europe trip. So far, it has been amazing! Iceland was seriously so beautiful. I have plenty more landscape pictures on my camera which I'll have to upload later since I'm blogging on my phone and can only use pictures on my phone. 

Tomorrow: London!