London (Part 2)

London Part 2

Picking up where we left off, Alex, Anna, Steven, Becca (from Colgate!  Knows Erin!), and I went to dinner at Pizza Express - fancy, right?  Despite its delivery pizza-esque name, it was a nice place and the food was great.  Afterwards, the group headed back to Alex's before hitting the town.  We tubed it to Bakerloo - or was it Piccadilly Cirus?  Maybe Waterloo?  We were just sure that it was "something funny."  Emerged from The Underground into a swarm of people - I'm pretty sure every single nationality, race, religion, hair color, age, gender, and sexual orientation was represented in Leicester Square.  We made our way through the crowd to O'Neill's, a three-story pub with live music on the top floor.

Some of you may now that I bought a cute little cross-body purse in Granada that sometimes decides to unhook itself and fall to the floor.  One such occasion was circa 1 AM at O'Neill's while I was dancing to the band.  As soon as I looked down, it was gone.  Good news and bad news:

GOOD:  FAST FORWARD to me asking the bartender if anyone had found a tan purse and I must have had the luck of the Irish working for me because it had been turned in!!!!!!

BAD:  40 pounds and my Spanish cell phone stolen.  Got the purse back though - glass is half full, right?

(Famous last words.)

You're probably thinking that it's time for fourth meal, right?  Right.  To Anna's and my good fortune, O'Neill's is conveniently located in the middle of Chinatown - endless possibilities - buffets for four pounds, street stands for even less, etc.  What do we choose?  The sit-down Chinese restaurant, of course.  One order of noodles and one order of ......... those long green stalk vegetable things?  IDK, JILL.  Friday night concludes.

 (Anddddd it went a little bit like this....Healthier than doner at least?)

Saturday morning, another beautiful day, woke up and checked out of the hotel by 10 am (got the 20 pound security deposit back - phew!), and hopped over to Alex's apartment (literally next door) to drop off our backpacks.  The roommates Alex, Steven, Anna, and I grabbed some eggs and fries for breakfast in the pretty Russell Square Park, dishing about the prior night's gossip and late night food absurdity.  Do I even need to mention the obligatory caffeinated beverages??

Afterwards, we headed back towards Trafalgar Square, and then Steven, Anna, and I ventured to Westminster Abbey before the tours stop at 1:30 on Saturdays - after we said what up to Big Ben and snapped las fotos.  The entrance was pretty steep (25 pounds I think), but we were given free headphone-esque guided tours - unlike other tourist destinations in the rest of Europe who charge - which compensated a bit.  We took full advantage of the free information, checking out every nook and cranny of the huuuuuuuuge monastery.  An hour and a half later, we had walked past enough dead kings, queens, priests, artists, poets, writers, and other honorary members of this giant tomb that we couldn't muster up the energy to check out St. Paul's Cathedral.  Instead, we decided to grab some lunch.  Where?  Back to Chinatown, of course.  What is wrong with us?????  We don't know, and immediately regretted the decision afterward.

(Anna, Ben, and me)

 (Westminster Abbey, which I mistakenly called St. Petersburg ONE time.)

Since Anna and I wanted to do a little shopping while in London (and because Steven was outvoted), we headed to an area that Alex recommended on "Oxford Street."  Turns out we were at the wayyyyyy wrong end and all we could find were tourist shops and a salesman giving away free stuff - love my new batteries and kids toy phone (makes up for the one that got stolen.  not.).  Exhausted and too lazy to find the actual shopping district, we headed back to Alex's to shower and rest up before a delicious dinner of fish n' chips.  YUM.

 (Hair.)

(This happened.)

Saturday after dinner we decided the night would take us to PROUD - old horse stables converted into a hip bar and club.  The line only took ten minutes and the cover was 8 pounds (not bad compared to some discos in Valencia).  The huge douche of a bouncer tried to reject Anna for not having a proper ID - which reminds me to mention that a ton of the Brits love the power trip (i.e. airport security guard that dumped out Anna's entire backpack and spent about 20 minutes extra going through it than necessary and then confiscated my face lotion.  Oh yeah - Dad, please bring more when you come!!! Clean and Clear, white bottle, purple writing.  Thanks!).   The club was awesome - two huge dance rooms - one with fire breathing dancers (read:  strippers?) and a fun outdoor deck area.  The had-been pins were converted into private party rooms, each with a different theme.  Wish you could've been there.

 (Proud Camden)

 (Becca, Alex, Anna, me, and Alex @ Proud.)

 (Good times.)

After cabbing it home, we all hung out in Alex's room and killed the hour and a half between club and train to the airport (4:15 am.............cool).  So after a long night of not sleeping, douche bag airport security, waiting around, two hour flight, metro to the center of Valencia, and walk home, I 'hit the hay' and slept all of Sunday (80 and sunny was very beach-tempting, but the combination of my exhaustion and still fresh memory of the sun poisoning fiasco propelled me straight to bed).  All in all, awesomeeeeee weekend!    

REGRETS:

- Not seeing a musical (preferably Jersey Boys or The Phantom of the Opera, amidst other great options like We Will Rock You (all Queen music), Chicago, Grease, Wicked, Legally Blonde, and more).  Totally would have been worth the 30 pounds.

- Not going to St. Paul's and climbing to the top

- Not buying that pair of earrings from Portobello Street Market

- Not checking out Harrod's

....Next time, right?  TTYL.