Adventures in Londontown

Today was quite an adventure. I went for a run this morning around the neighborhood and into Hyde Park a bit, which was nice. After showering and everything, Katy, Bess, and I headed to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The paintings inside were AMAZING. We saw almost every room but there were so many artworks that I still feel like we barely touched them. I got to see the ones I really wanted to though, so that was great. Now we just have about 20 more museums to explore and that should do it! Anyway, the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square were really beautiful. I took loads of pictures, most of which are on Facebook. Here are a few:

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

After that, we headed to Cafe Nero, which is a chain all over London. I had a Chicken Caesar sandwich, a blueberry muffin, and a hot chocolate. Super yummy! The three of us basically just hung out there for a long time until finally we decided to head back to campus. Not too exciting back in the room as we did homework for a few hours :(

Finally dinner time! Katy, Bess, Emily, and I ventured to Notting Hill because I found a postcard for a place called the Boo Bar, and it seemed like it would be a fun place to go. We had quite the time figuring out the tube line to get there, but we finally did and headed down the street in search of somewhere to eat dinner first. We came upon Pizza Express and decided to try it out. Emily and I split a pepperoni pizza with a glass of wine each :) I feel so old. Dinner was really good--may have to go there again--which was a plus because when we got to the bar, it was closed down! A man walked by and said it had been closed for a while! So weird. I even had looked it up online earlier today and it never mentioned that. We basically just headed home after that (with a dessert stop on the way--chocolate cake and gelato for 3 pounds! Yum).

We planned on watching The Hangover but got caught up in making travel plans and never got around to it. We planned out a trip for next weekend to Liverpool and Manchester for Friday and Saturday! We leave Friday morning for Liverpool and get in around 1:30 PM. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour starts at 2:30 nearby so we'll go to that and then check into the hostel. We'll leave for Manchester the next morning at 7 or 8 AM and spend the day in Manchester until we leave Saturday evening t 6:30 PM. It was WAY cheaper to leave Saturday instead of Sunday so we did it. We have homework to do on Sunday anyway so it worked well. PLUS it only cost us 60 pounds each for everything (not including food). So awesome. I can't wait!!

:)

Jackie