World Traveler

Hey there, friends! I know. I know… Long time, no see… hear? read? Sure! Let’s go with that. I hate that I haven’t written anything in so long… six months and two days to be exact!!! That is faaarrr to long! I’ve had several things that I have wanted to write about but never the time (and by that I mean that when I did have the time, I laid in bed and watched Charmed instead) or exactly the right words. But today, I have a very awesome thing to tell you all about…. Are you ready? You don’t look ready…. There! That’s better. Today, boys and girls, I am going to tell you a rather lengthy story (my apologies) all about my recent trip to LONDON!!!! :D Yippee!!

Our view from the London Eye! :) 

First, let me start by saying sorry for the length of this post! But, I mean, really… I can’t go to London and not write every single detail (or at least every detail of our best stories that we brought back with us). That just wouldn’t be right. So, here it goes.

It all began on a cold dreary night… oh, okay, not really. It started on the first day of the spring semester 2014. During orientation for student teaching, another professor came in to talk to us about a study abroad opportunity. We all were kind of thrilled because we all thought our chances of studying abroad at this point were non-existent. It would be a one week opportunity in the summer to observe a classroom in Scotland with the chance to spend an extra week traveling wherever in Europe we would like to. I talked with my mom about it and my chances were still hopeful (Surprisingly enough!). So I excitedly began mentally preparing myself for the chance of a lifetime. (I must admit the most exciting part to me was going to be listening to little four year olds with Scottish accents… I mean REALLY!) Two weeks later there was an informative meeting with all the details of the trip. After the meeting I called my mom to tell her that my trip to Scotland wasn’t going to happen. L Why? Because the University that South was working with changed their program to be a full study abroad program – meaning it would be a 2/3 month process and would cost over $10,000. Bummer, right? My mom immediately responded with, “Maybe you and your sister could go to London for a week instead.” Oh, okay! (Yeah right! There’s no way that’s going to actually happen….) Two nights later, we found a hotel and a flight for me, my sister – Brittany, and our cousin – Morgan. CRAZY!!! A week or two later we actually booked everything. I applied for my first passport, still in shock. I just couldn’t believe we would be going to London for a week! We also would be going to Paris for one day. It was truly insane! Morgan and I both started our countdowns on our phones and began preparing for our trip… only about 120 days to go.

This trip was going to be a lot of firsts for me personally. First time leaving the country, actually… first time leaving the South! First train ride! And most importantly, first plane ride!!!! Crazy, right! I was so excited!!! 110 days… 99 days… double digits!! 76 days… my passport came in!! 50 days… 14 days… only two weeks! 9 days… we were down to single digits!!! AHHHH! 7 days… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… THE DAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!! 

My bags packed and ready to go first thing in the morning. 

Takeoff time! We got to the airport at 11:45ish and were to fly out at 1pm. We check our bags (mine was the lightest. **gracious bow**) And then headed through security… whew! Cleared. We grabbed a quick lunch (possibly some of the yummiest chicken and fries ever!) and waited “patiently” for our plane to roll in. 

I got to sit next to the window! I was so excited! (A little nervous, but excited!) We were on a little little airplane… twelve AND A HALF rows! Only 50 people and one flight attendant. Waiting for take-off was weird because it felt like we were moving and sounded like we should be, but we weren’t. It made me quite dizzy. But we were finally in the air! It was so much fun! I have decided that I absolutely love flying!!!! The flight to Atlanta was so short that the flight attendant brought by the drink cart – I asked for water and then Morgan got cranberry juice and sprite. So I tried and it and once I liked it, the flight attendant made me one too. So I sat with two drinks, sipping (and taking pictures) happily. 

Until we realized that the flight attendant was immediately coming back for our trash – meaning the cups. So I quickly chugged my two drinks before he came to our seats. Next thing, we touched down! We were in Hotlanta!! Whoop whoop!

We grabbed a quick drink at Starbucks and waited for our next flight. This one was MUCH bigger! I mean, you compare them: 

This time, we all got to sit right next to each other. It was even better because we had little screens in front of us full of movies, music, games and such! I was so jazzed, let me tell you! Since we were flying over night, we were supposed to sleep at some point… I did not. I was never even close! I couldn’t get comfortable and I wasn’t all that tired anyways… I mean, I was flying IN THE AIR! How could I sleep through it? But Brittany and Morgan both tried… but as soon as they were beginning to drift off, the pilot came into our earbuds VERY loudly to tell us there was a bit of turbulence (which I never even felt, now that I think about it) and we should remain seated and buckled. Thank you sir, but I’m pretty sure why the seatbelt light had come on about 5 minutes before you said anything. So that was totally unnecessary. After attempting to watch 2 different movies and 1 show (I was too distracted to actually complete them) and after listening to several playlists, and playing ALL of the games (It was a very fun flight!) we finally landed in London!!!! YAHOOOOOOO!!!

First lesson we learned in London, STAIRS ARE EVERYWHERE! :/ After riding all sorts of subways, and climbing and descending about 1,000 stairs lugging all our luggage the whole way, we made it to our hotel very tired and very sweaty! So we planned to change and freshen up before heading out to tour the city for the afternoon and rest for a few minutes! But…… we can’t check-in until 2.. which was about 2 ½ hours later. Boo. So we left our luggage in their luggage room and walked around the corner to grab a bite to eat. What exotic food could we have for our first meal in the UK? Burger King. We went all out! Then we headed back to the hotel to hang out on the patio until we could check in. Then we decided to not a waste a day at the hotel, so we journeyed a little bit and went to Buckingham and a precious little park. When we finally could see our room, we discovered we were on the third floor… with no elevator… Yippee. Oh, and there’s no air condition or fan in our room. Perfect! And the bathroom was the smallest thing! The shower was barely big enough to turn around in and I hit my head several times during the week on the faucet. Although it was the cutest and sweetest hotel I’ve ever seen! That evening we hung out at the hotel and napped.

Now, I’ll skip around and tell you our most memorable stories from the trip and then add a TON of pictures I took! J Okay? Okay. Sounds perfect!

 - Either our first or second day in London, we were travelling down the escalators to the subway. On the escalator, there are two lanes – if you are going to stand and ride, you stand on the right hand side; if you want to walk up/down, you go down the left hand side. Like normal Americans, we lazily rode up/down. J Mind you, the whole right side was full of people and many people were still flying past us on their way to catch the subway. As we were riding down, someone touched the back of my arm. Thinking Morgan (who was behind me) wanted my attention I turned to look at her. At that moment, I heard a big THUD! Turns out it wasn’t Morgan, but a lady with a half empty bottle of wine in her hand who had fallen on the MOVING escalator and had brushed my arm as she went down. Morgan and I both asked if she was okay. To which she responded “CRIKEY!” She had fallen on her purse which was on her right shoulder, and her left hand was still holding the bottle of wine. So she lay on the still moving stairs flailing her arms trying to get herself up. While her arms were flying around in the air, she found my arm. She immediately tried to use both her arms to grab me to try and pull herself up. I finally had to grab her arm and pull/push her back to her feet. She said thank you and continued to run down the escalator. After she was out of sight, Brittany, Morgan and I busted into laughter!! We couldn’t stop laughing the whole way to the subway and most of the ride. And we continued to laugh about it when we got back to the room that night. As humorous as we found it, no one around her seemed to notice or bother to help or even laugh at her situation. HOW?!? I’m not sure. But I am glad it happened to us because it got our trip started on a very funny note!

 - In addition to all the normal touristy stuff, we also got discounted tickets for a few Broadway shows! First, we got to see Wicked (my favorite play ever!)… FRONT ROW!!! It was pretty life changing!

The next night we went to see Phantom of the Opera – which I will get to in a second. And last, we got to see Les Miserables!!

Les Mis was the most amazing, incredibly awesome, mindblowing show ever! And it just blew me away. To be honest… it may have surpassed Wicked. *gasp* I know! How on earth can I say such a thing?! But seriously, they had a rotating stage! It was the most remarkable performance! Now onto the next highlight story from the trip – Phantom of the Opera. 

Now, to be completely frank, I did not like the show at all! So why is this a “highlight”? Because of the people we got to sit next to. There was an older British couple two seats down from us who made the show the best thing ever! To begin, I will say that the theater did NOT allow photography (I know... I am a rebel, what can I say?). How are we sure of that? The ushers screamed it only every 2 minutes before the show and during the intermission! Why did they scream it so often? Because after about 2 minutes, some idiot in the audience would somehow forget there was no photography and would take a picture of the set WITH THE FLASH ON!!! My goodness, these people. Meanwhile, the old couple (let’s call them…. Robert and Anne) was separated; Robert was off somewhere and Anne was sitting in her seat next to us. But they had both complained that they couldn’t see much of the set from here (which was very true… I only saw about 2/3 of the show). Anne, right before the show started got up to take a seat next to her husband who had found empty seats a couple rows up that had a better view. About 3 minutes after the show had started, the couple who had paid for those seats showed up so Robert and Anne had to move back to their seats next to us. But in the process Anne got lost. So an usher had to show her back to her seat. Well this just got them so tickled! The usher even had to hold his finger to his lips like he was telling a two year old to be quiet. Well this just got us so tickled too. So most of the first act, Robert and Anne were giggling which made Morgan and I giggle which made Brittany giggle. It also didn’t help that Morgan had never seen the play/read the book/seen the movie, and the show explained NOTHING. So most of the time I was retelling the movie to Morgan to try to help her understand, which didn’t work because half the time I couldn’t explain it enough to make the play make sense. So that just added to the giggles. The best part of our time with Robert and Anne was when intermission came around. They were both still laughing about Anne getting lost and having to be shhhed by the usher. And we (Robert, Anne, Morgan, Brittany and I) were all laughing at how many times the ushers were screaming “NO PHTOGRAPHY” (in excellent British accents). Then suddenly, Robert leans forward to a little Asian lady who was sitting in front of him texting on her phone. He gently taps her on the shoulder and said (a little louder than a spoken voice) “No photography!” She jumped and put her phone away thinking she had gotten in trouble with the ushers – even though she wasn’t taking any photos. Then she turned around to find Robert, Anne, Morgan and I all dying laughing! I laughed so hard and looked down at Robert who made eye contact with me and gave me a wink and a nod as to say “I know… it was perfect!” Morgan, Brittany and I laughed about it throughout the rest of the show and all the way home and still today. But the fun with Robert and Anne didn’t stop yet. The end of the show, when all of the actors come out and bow one at a time and then as a group, and all of the audience claps continually for about 20 minutes for everyone. Well Robert ended the show on a great note! As each actor/actress bowed, he said as he gave a nice golf clap, “Bravo!” and every few bows he would yell “Encore!” and he continued to yell and clap until the actors all left the stage. By this time, Anne was crying she was laughing so hard. Needless to say, Robert and Anne (or whatever their real names are) are super fun people and we wanted to take them with us all over London!

 - This next story isn’t a funny one… it’s a scary one… *dun dun duuuuunnn* (I mean not super scary… *Spoiler alert: we made it back to America alive*) It is our next to last day in Europe. Tomorrow, we would be getting on a train to Paris and then the next day we would be flying out. One of the main reasons we came to London was so that Morgan could cross “taking a picture of the London Eye at night” off her bucket list. Tonight was that night – our last night in London! We were all so excited, mostly Morgan! So we walked down to the river about an hour or so before sunset. We found a bench to sit on and took photos of Big Ben and of the London Eye (because we didn’t have about 50 of each by this time) and of the cute twinkly lights that were strung along the street. 

I would like you to notice it is 9:15pm and not dark... at all!

We saw a group of mimes walking around going to collect change for street performances, and lots of families strolling along the river, and several runners sprinting down the sidewalk, and lots and lots of cars driving down the busy street. As it grew darker, we walked over to the wall in front of the London Eye and set up a makeshift tripod to take our pictures. Morgan took several and then I stole her spot to take my own. While bent over my camera taking a shot of the twinkly lights and the street, 

I felt someone gently stroke my back. I thought it was Morgan wanting her spot back to take more pictures, so I planned on finishing the photo I was working on and then I would move out of her way. Until, they stroked my back again and leaned forward and I heard a man whispering in my ear “Hello.” (It was possibly one of the most creepy and scariest moments of my life.) I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I stood straight up as fast as I could and spun around. It was one of the mimes. (Wait a second, mimes don’t talk!) He was dressed and had makeup on to look like Charlie Chapman. He reached out a hand and shook mine and said with a smile on his face, “Hello, I’m Charlie.” “Okay?” I responded and he asked if we would like to take a picture as he started to lean forward to put his hands around my shoulders. (Immediately, I couldn’t remember a single thing my friends Andrew and Caleb had taught me about self defense several months earlier.) All I knew was if he touched me I was either going to run or kick him as hard as I could! But luckily my sweet sister saved me the trouble of figuring that out. She was standing behind him at this point and spoke up and said, “No. no. we’re good.” The next thing I know, he spins around and puts his hands on her face. Holding her cheeks, he tries to kiss her!!! She ducked down and said very firmly, “Do not touch me!” He let go and walked away to talk to another group of people. (I don’t remember too much else except trying to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible). We walked very fast and grabbed a couple of last photos and headed to subway to get home! 

The part of the story I didn’t know until later, was that he had come up and tried to talk to Brittany and Morgan first. Morgan, who got the living daylights scared out of her, apparently ran to join another family further down the wall. It was an exciting night to say the very least.

 - The next morning we woke up very early to board our train to Paris. Once we arrived in Paris, we had to purchase metro tickets to travel around. We told the teller where all we were going and it would only be a day. So he gave us our tickets. We got on the subway to Disneyland Paris (every Disney fanatics dream, right! I was sooooo jazzed!) As we walked down the steps, the train was there but about to depart but a man on the subway stood in front of the doors and waved us on to hurry and we could make it. So we did. (By the way, it was a double-decker subway which was awesome). 

So while we are just talking amongst ourselves the same man walks around to everyone and hands them little business cards. We took them and read something about how he had a family with two kids and couldn’t feed them and yada yada yada. He was well prepared and had the cards printed in all different languages. Well it didn’t matter if we had bought his story or not, we had about 8 euros which belonged to Morgan, and those were for an emergency (like using the public bathroom later – and not tipping our very very nice waiter). When he came back around to collect the cards and any money people would give, I had pulled out my diet coke out of my purse to take a sip. Once we said we didn’t have any money to give, he asked me for my drink! I was stunned. Was he seriously going to take my drink? First of all, that is just plain weird. Secondly, that’s gross. And third, I was thirsty. But I decided that if he was truly desperate enough to ask and take a stranger’s drink, that I shouldn’t be the one to refuse him when I can get another one. I handed him my drink and after thanking me, he got off the subway at the next stop. I assume to get on the next train and ask those people for handouts. (Later, a little boy and his brother played the same stunt. This time I didn’t even have a diet coke to give them, so sorry folks.) Finally, we made it to Disneyland Paris!!! 

We got our bags checked, got our tickets and went in! Sadly, Disneyland Paris does not meet up with Disney standards. First of all their “quick service” restaurants are full sit down restaurants (although they were very quick) and we HAD to order a dessert with our meal (which we didn’t even have the time to stay to eat!) 

This was their idea of "quick service" 

All of the cast members in every section of the park were wearing red, white and blue, and at least one part of their uniform was striped. NO NO NO! That’s not how Disney’s costumes work! Every land of the park, every attraction and every store has their own ridiculous costumes to match the look and feel of that section. The castle was pretty, but little. 

The landscaping looked like the grass hadn’t been cut in a month! And the wire structures for the plants were visible, as were the lines for the sprinklers. 

I purposefully took a picture of the uncut grass and unkempt bushes as proof. I also took a picture of the sprinkler lines, but now I can't find it. 

None of it was perfection like I am used to seeing from Disney. We rode the Haunted Mansion (which was MUCH scarier than Disney World’s) 

and It’s a Small World (which was essentially the same, maybe even a little better!). 

Say hello to Morgan's eye.................... ^ 

After Disney we went to see all the touristy stuff in Paris. 

Not the love lock bridge that partially collapsed, but another, small one still full of locked away promises.

We had trouble with the subway because our tickets wouldn’t work. Every time a worker had to scan their badge to let us through which was a hassle in and of itself, or we had to wait for someone to go through and follow closely behind to get through the gate before it shut. We also found out that it wasn’t just us. Several of the locals were having to the same thing too, so many of them didn’t mind letting us tag along to get through. We saw the Louvre (we didn’t go in) and then walked along the river to the Eiffel Tower. 

Paris wasn’t as magical as I thought it would be. The streets are very dirty and there is trash everywhere. I don’t love it. And my feet situation didn’t exactly help my feelings at all. From all of the walking of the week and the dehydration and the tiredness and the fact that I was unprepared as far as shoes went, my feet got so so so swollen in Paris. By the time we reached the Eiffel Tower, I didn’t have ankles! It looked like I was wearing ankle weights!

Forgive the awful ugliness of my feet... although, that is the point of this picture. (This is once we got back to the hotel and I had only washed my feet to make myself feel a little better) 

  - All week we had heard from our parents “If you miss your train, you miss your plane!” Because in order to make our flight back to America, we couldn’t miss the train from Paris to London! All of our family members were apparently so worried that we weren’t capable of making it back to our train on time. So we decided we were tired and had seen all we wanted to of Paris, so we headed back super early for our train. (Our parents would be so proud; we were at the train station about three hours before we were supposed to board! Go us!) Getting there, however, leads to my final story. From the Eiffel Tower, we had to take a subway to get back to the train station we would leave from. We had already had so much trouble with our tickets. We again had to get the attendant at the station to let us on to the subway. We were almost back to our train! We get off the subway, and SURPRISE! Our tickets don’t work… again. (You have to use the ticket to get into and out of the subway station). The difference though is at this station there is no attendant to let us through. We didn’t know what to do.  We tried all the gates and none of them would take our tickets. There weren’t any other people going through that we could follow either, except one French girl whose ticket wouldn’t work either. She went and got on the phone with a friend, I am assuming to get her out of the station. So we paced back and forth trying to find someone to help. But there was no one. Suddenly, Brittany drops to the ground on all floors and begins to CRAWL UNDER THE GATE!!!! She successfully stood up on the other side and died laughing. Quickly Morgan and I slid our purses under the gate to her and each took our turn crawling under the gate. (We were very lucky we were stuck at that station because some of the stations have full length gates that we wouldn’t have had a way out.) We brushed ourselves off and strolled out of there like nothing happened… as we were laughing about it. A few minutes later, we saw the girl who had been stuck with us. She had now joined her friend and they were laughing hysterically at what we assumed was us.

All in all, it was an eventful trip and an amazing journey! We boarded the plane back to America, sad but also happy to be coming back to normal. We were coming home to a place with our own comfy beds, our sweet and loving pets, tall glasses of diet coke and sweet tea with FREE refills, air conditioning, vehicles to ride around in, no one passing out business cards for handouts and no creepy mimes! It was a wonderful trip that I won’t forget and a lovely place I hope to return to. But for now, I’ll enjoy the comforts of home.

Unlimited Diet Coke, air conditioning AND a personal fan!

Now, I think I’ve given you enough reading… Enjoy these photos… (Be warned: there are A LOT of photos... 143 to be exact. But I think they are worth looking through!)

PARIS:

Getting our tickets.... they are in French and English! 

Mine and Brittany's tickets! Mine is Goofy - how appropriate!

Tower of Terror in the distance!!!! I wish we could have gone on it!

City Hall and American flags... we are HOME!

Bert and Mary AND the castle! Perfect!

"Thunder Mesa"? You can't fool me! 

Our "live band" for our "quick service" meal

The Haunted Mansion... or Phantom Manor rather.

The "grave yard" which was completely empty... another example of a Disneyland Paris mishap

The train goes over "It's a Small World" so that's cool.

Small World posters... How are they going to represent America?

...with a cowboy. Perfect. But better than an American flag suit.

Space Mountain Mission 2..... I had hoped we would be able to ride, but no. :(

Eeyore and Tigger!!!! :D

Imagine how perfect this would have been if the kid had on his ears! I love using random people to take photos. 

Fun sidewalk games randomly in the middle of the city

Not THE love lock bridge... but since that one collapsed, this one will do. 

Apparently happy goats just hang out at the Louvre... they weren't tied up or anything!

Panoramic of The Louvre! 

A real life feed the birds moment!!!! HOW AMAZING!!!!

Whoops... never mind. Didn't expect you, sir. 

There was a DOUBLE DECKER CAROUSEL!!! Do they stack everything in Europe? 

LONDON:

Of course we had to stop by Platform 9 3/4. In fact, our hotel was right across the street!!!

An amazing street performer! I don't know how he stood so still - he didn't even blink! And a random family. 

These "floating" guys were everywhere! We later saw how they were doing it... but it is still amazing. 

A man doing some awesome sand sculpturing 

... And he had the most precious puppy with him who just sat and watched. 

And then I totally creeped on him preciously loving his pup pup. 

Panoramic of the crowded subway....

... and one stop later

We made a friend on the subway! 

... and then I got busted. 

7:15 - Second star to the right and straight on til morning! (I'd like to point out in June, it isn't nearly as dark as it is in the movie)

The Peter Pan statue!

My first cup of tea I had at our first breakfast in London! (It is pretty delicious!)

Feed the birds, anyone? Tuppence a bag... Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag. 

Yes, we did spend a few minutes in an M&M's World...

But, look how cute!

And I totally creeped (again) on these guys' picture.

We also used a drink machine with pounds and stuff! 

The London Eye (I think I have the most pictures of this)

My ticket and viewing guide to ride. 

In line underneath it!

Morgan and Big Ben

Brittany and Big Ben

Me and Big Ben

The view from the top! It was SOOO HIGH!!! :/

Bein silly

Down the river. (It wasn't as gray as it looks)

Nighttime! 

A cool random skate park

... Fun graffiti 

Awesome food trucks were everywhere!! 

Even a lemonade and vodka truck.

Kate's home! 

 I reluctantly agreed to walk across.... I hate bridges!!!! But on the bright side, I caught 4 selfies in one photo! Can you spot them all?  

Yeah, no thanks! 

We also found the British version of TJMaxx... a.k.a. TKMaxx

Super jazzed!

It was even TWO stories!

ANNNNDDD I found Chacos for 17 pounds!!!!! CRAZY

Jonathan Adler: Brittany's favorite! 

This awesome store had its walls lined with old sewing machines! It was so cool. 

Of course, we went to Harrods! It was crazy.

Portobello Road is the cutest little shopping place! 

It was soooo cute!

Someone owns the cutest pink door and knows how to garden appropriately to match! I just loved Portobello Road!

I had to see Baker Street! 

And the Sherlocks were made of tiny Sherlocks! 

We just saw the outside, the line and price was kind of crazy. 

221B! :)

Their hats hanging outside! 

Mrs. Hudson's restaurant right next door! 

The Sherlock Holmes Pub where we ate later! And it was pretty yummy! 

It also was a "football free zone" which was cool, seeing as how every other restaurant was playing the World Cup. 

Had to get touristy!

And what we looked like to the rest of the people!

On this cool bridge, we got to be in the background of some random music video... So we will be touring and signing autographs at a later date. 

Playing with the art across the street. 

We even got to see Wimbledon a few days before it started up!

A public bathroom that was so cool and cleaned itself after each use... We got too scared to use it though. 

The beautiful Neal's Yard.

From "inside" the Abbey. No photography was allowed inside, so we got pictures of the courtyard.

The Transportation Museum which we got into for free! It was cooler than I expected...

We got to drive a "bus"! And had the cutest little boy as our passenger! 

A really awesome old car... everyone else was taking pictures, so I joined. 

Changing of the guards has worse crowds than Disney!

Photobombed by a horse...

A "King's Cross" from Coffee Dogs (who became our best friends because they were right across the street and had the best ice cream and 'chips')

Yummy yummy pizza

Having no international cell service, this is how we spent meals, checking for free wifi and using it when available. 

Morgan and I on a "date" or at least that's how it looked!

I finally found potatoes here!!!! (my favorite food) but these weirdos put cole slaw ON the potato. :( YUCK!

The best waffles in the world

Old school bus! 

Cute taxi... but who painted these lines? Cousin Eddie? 

I shared my coke with Ben.. Big Ben, that is. 

A giant bird cage, with a SWING!!! I wish I could have played on it!

Let's start the creeper photos.... This one I was trying to get a pretty picture of the park and didn't notice the couple kissing  until we got home. 

Best friends hanging out on the river. 

Cute couple cuddling. 

Fun perspective (Thank you, Morgan)

Big Ben, a double decker bus and a taxi... how much more British can you get! 

Finally, my favorite picture of Big Ben! Some amazing people set up across the street blowing bubbles! They are my heroes!