If you were in a sorority or a fraternity, that probably doesn't sound weird to you. If you weren't in a sorority or a fraternity, it might sound pretty strange. Michaela was my little sister in my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. We did EVERYTHING together. Most of all, we liked to make party cups. But we only made them for ourselves, haha. We have some CUH-RAY-ZEE memories together! That's what college is about, right?
Currently, Michaela is married, has a baby boy, and just bought a new home in Houston. She began her university career as a Red Raider (Texas Tech University) , but thankfully made the transition to be a Coog (University of Houston) soon after. She teaches math to middle school aged kiddos (just like her big used to do). When she got married, she went from one tough pronouncing surname to another (just like her big). Also, when she got married, she went from having one sibling to tons of siblings (just like her big). We have lots in common, and I miss her dearly!
RANDOM FACT:
Phi Beta Kappa (1776) established the precedent for naming collegiate societies after Greek letters.
After a really long day on Friday, Jill, Ryan, Luke and I had a pretty slow start. We didn't have any reason to get to the city by a certain time in the morning, so we took our time getting out the door. We eventually got moving around noon.
We headed to Borough Market first which is located at London Bridge station. We strolled pushed & shoved through the market for a little bit. The market is very crowded, especially in certain areas. Ryan was careful walking through, and we were careful to have to his back. We weren't far from Tower Bridge, so we took a bus to the bridge. This was my second time seeing the bridge up close, but I was looking for something in particular: a chimney. The bridge is lined with street lights with the poles painted blue. One of the poles is a chimney rather than a light. It was used back in the day to keep the guards who were guarding the Tower of London warm. Random fact, yes it is. Anyway, we walked along the bridge taking pictures while looking at the skyline and the River Thames.
The pole on the right is the Tower Bridge chimney.
We had a tour scheduled for 3:20 which began at the London Eye, so we got on a bus to take us to that general area. We had some time, so we got a drink at a pub while we waited. Turns out that our tour was having route problems due to some marches having to do with the Woolwich machete incident. Luckily, we were given the option to get a refund which we took advantage of. It was irritating, but thankfully we didn't plan our whole day around this tour. We took some terrific pictures of the Parliament building from across the river though!
Duck Tour bus... 45 min on land then drives into the water and tours for 30 min.
We found ourselves back in Leicester Square, walking by M&M World again, but we refrained from entering and only smelled the chocolate from outside of the building. For the rest of the day, we had some drinks, had an Italian dinner, had some more drinks, and then made our way back home for the night.
They refuse to take a good picture. So I refuse to NOT share this picture with you.
On Sunday morning, it was such a terrific day! Jill and I got up for another jog, and I took her by the Wimbledon tennis area. I knew Ryan wouldn't be interested in that, so I decided our jog would be a good time to go by that area. When we got back from our jog, the boys were actually awake! We all decided take it even easier than Saturday and stay around Wimbledon rather than go into the city. We found a place where we could enjoy a small lunch while sitting in the sun. Then, we went to the shopping center (called Centre Court. Get it? Centre court. Tennis. Get it?) to get some frozen yogurt. We were all so tired and exhausted that we couldn't even enjoy the beautiful weather. We went back to the flat and watched a movie with the doors wide open to let in the fresh air. Around 4pm, Jill and Ryan needed to leave for the airport.
We had a really great weekend with them, and we are so glad they came to see us! Luke and I have been discussing when our first visit back to Aberdeen will be - hopefully not during dip-n-dot season! I hope that one day you can come visit Luke and I in London because we would LOVE to have you :-)
RANDOM FACT:
The Tower Bridge was painted red, white and blue for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and received a face-lift beginning in 2008 for the Summer Olympics.
Luke and I are so thankful to have such great friends! Our friends Jill and Ryan came to visit us over the weekend from Aberdeen. Ryan and Luke get along really well because... they both have... similar personalities. And Jill and I are angels living with these personailities. hehe
Jill and I went back and forth about what to do for the weekend. We wanted to have a relaxing time, but also make it interesting. It was Ryan's first time in London, so we wanted to show him some highlights. After a terrible knee break while skiing in the Alps in March, he is still unable to walk for long distances, so we planned to make use of the tubes, buses and pubs.
They arrived late Thursday night, and Luke and I drove to Gatwick Airport to pick them up. The airport is pretty far south of London, but there was work being done on the train tracks, so it made easier to pick them up. It was dark outside, but apparently the countryside is very pretty around there. We ended up chatting until around 12:30 before heading to bed.
On Friday morning, Jill and I got up early to go for a jog. It was the last day of May, and she had worked out every single day of the month so far, so there was no stopping her from completing the full 31 days! Way to go Jill! (Remember, this is the lady who ran 26.2 miles just two months ago!) After our jog, we all got ready and were out the door by 10:30am to have a fun day.
We headed to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. I knew the "show" was daily (except for a few days throughout the year) at 11:30am at Buckingham Palace, but I didn't know too much else. When we arrived at the Palace around 11:15, there were crowds of people, which I expected. I had no idea what the event consisted of, which really was a mistake. We stood just outside of the gates to Green Park, so we were across the street from the Palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial Statue. We heard the band and saw the guards marching into the gates of the Palace, but that was all. After looking online for a bit, it seemed that if you don't arrive to the palace at least an hour before, you wont get a front row spot at the Palace gates and won't see whats going on (the two videos below include the only thing we saw while standing). So, our location was pointless. We all decided to move on to the next thing.
From Buckingham Palace, we walked through St. James' Park. The parks in London are so pretty! The city really does a great job of making them nice to walk and lay around in.
One of Ryan's requests for the weekend was to attend the Churchill War Rooms. The cabinet war rooms is the underground shelter where the British government stayed during The Blitz. As we walked through, we saw bunkers, meeting rooms, offices and other rooms. Many rooms were set up as they were during WWII with original items as well. We also learned about Winston Churchill's history.
This looks like a doorbell but it is actually a cigarette lighter.
After standing for a few hours in the museum, it was time for a break. We walked toward Westminster Abbey for a few pics, and then found a pub for a beer before eating our sammiches I had made for lunch.
We knew where we were going for dinner, but we still had a few hours before we needed to get there, so we hopped on the tube to Blackfriars to go to the Tipperary (a very old Irish pub - claims to be the oldest in London). Luke and I had been before on a Saturday and had a great time, and we were hoping for the same experience. Total. Failure. (Will have to try again some other time.) We had a beer, but the sun was shining and we needed to get outside asap. We caught a bus to Leicester Square where we hoped to enjoy the sunshine. Instead, we found M&M World and went a little overboard. We each dumped our preferred M&M's into baggies - the boys got their university's colors, Jill and I got dark chocolate peanut. After weighing the M&M's, we figure out that we had 45GBP worth! That's over $70 worth of candy!!! YOWZA!! It made for a funny memory :-)
photo bombing M&M World employee :-/
With 5lbs of M&M's in a bag carried by Jill, we headed toward Wahaca in Soho for dinner. Vicki, a fellow expat in Aberdeen, raved about it, so we had to try it out! A delicious Mexican restaurant with a tequila bar downstairs... sounds great to me! We got there early to avoid having to wait which was a brilliant plan because there was a wait when we finished. Jill and I ordered yummy Passion Fruit margaritas as the boys stuck with Mexican beer. The food was more authentic Mexican rather than Tex-Mex, but it was still good!
Pork burrito - the staff recommends the pork
After dinner, we made our way downstairs to the Tequila bar for a few more rounds of Passion Fruit margaritas and beers. And then we started winding down, so we decided to go back to Wimbledon for a drink around there and be closer to home.
We had a fun day, but did a little more walking than we wanted, so we decided that we would take it a bit easier on Saturday. Read about it next...
RANDOM FACT:
After the surrender of Japan in August of 1945, the cabinet war rooms were abandoned, and the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms museum was opened to the public in 1984.
Yes. That date is correct. I am REALLY behind on this one, and its because I just forgot. But I have to document it because taco bell is awesome!
When Luke I made the decision to drive from Aberdeen to London for our move, we decide we would stop somewhere for the night. The quickest drive from Aberdeen to London is about 10 hours, and that's a pretty long way. We also weren't going to be able to get the keys to our temporary flat until Monday, so we were in no rush to get there.
I had done a little research when I heard that Taco Bell existed in the UK. I had never seen one, so I just HAD to look it up. I miss me some Taco Bell! Sure enough, there is a Taco Bell located way east of London (its like a 1.5 train ride from our flat, which is worth it, yes) and there is also one in Manchester. There are only three in all of Great Britain. Get with the program!
When Luke mentioned to stay the night in Manchester on the way from Aberdeen to London, I immediately said "YES! TACO BELL!!!!!" It wasn't exactly on the way to London, but it was the way to Taco Bell. Both of us were so super excited that we would get to eat some delicious fast food. Remember the whole horse meat scandal that is going on in the UK? Yeah, I am sure Taco Bell is involved in that, but who cares?!?!??!!! Cover it up with some sauce and nomnomnom.
After 6 hours of driving, we arrived in Manchester and decided we would swing by the Manchester City stadium as that is one of Michael's (Luke's youngest brother) favorite European football (soccer) teams. We took a few pictures to brag and send to him.
We then arrived at the hotel and had tons of stuff, including a cooler of frozen food, so we had to unload our things from the car to the hotel. We did it FAST, so we could go find Taco Bell. By this time, it was around 5:30pm on a Saturday. We discovered the Taco Bell is located in a mall, which made me very nervous. Shopping stores close early in Great Britain, so there was a chance that the Taco Bell could be closed. Yikes! As we entered the mall, we saw stores pulling their gates down for closing. We were walking as fast as we could through the mall with hungry bellies in search for horse meat grilled stufft burritos. Finally, we arrived and it was open!!!!! Yay!!! And there was no line? And KFC had a line 20 deep?? These Brits don't know what they are missing!!!!! Horse meat? Maybe. So Luke and I stared at the menu with hunger in our eyes. We ordered what would be enough for probably 4 men, and the cashier lady looked at us as if we were pigs. No, lady, we are Americans! I am a fan of the fire sauce and they actually had it! We chowed down! Luke even went back for seconds. It was so good... like heaven!
After Taco Bell, we decide to go do some walking around Manchester. We stumbled upon a BrewDog, so we had to stop in for a drink. We also stopped at a few pubs so I could experience my very first English ales. Love these English ales!
Above: Left - Random Florida Gators sweatshirt in a charity shop?
Center - One of our favorite places in Aberdeen was Abergeldie, so I had to take a picture.
Right - I thought this British outfit would be perfect to wear for my arrival to London. Luke's disagreed.
It had been a long day of driving and we had another long day of driving on Sunday, so we called it a night. Manchester seemed like a really fun town... seemed like it had a good young crowd. I would love to go back for another night sometime! The next day, we made that trek to our new home city of London. As Luke was regretting the decision he made to get Taco Bell seconds, I still had good thoughts of my Taco Bell experience :-)
RANDOM FACT:
According to Taco Bell UK, at some point when it was tested, they found horse meat in their beef. Laughing.So.Hard.Right.Now.
