Goiiiin to the chapel and we’re going to watch Kate and William get married: LONDON/End of Spring Break!

I have just returned from my first experience with socialized medicine.  After hacking up the majority of my lungs, I decided it was due time to conserve the remainder and go see a doctor.  My appointment lasted approximately four minutes and my two prescriptions cost 8 euros in total.  

But back to my spring break travels.  As a last stop on the Tara’s European Tour, I made my way to London to watch the royal wedding, drink tea, and enjoy the ND kids before they flew back across the pond to the good ol’ U. S. of A.  Even though it was a trip I originally did not have my heart set on, it ended up being one of my favorite trips of the semester and was the perfect way to end break.

After getting quizzed by the London customs patrol to make sure mine and Kathleen’s stories matched up (…yeah I don’t think we had any grand terrorist schemes for the three days we were there.  Here and I do look pretty shifty though don’t we?) we successfully made it from Luton into the city mostly thanks to the fact that people speak ENGLISH in this country.  We decided there was no better way to celebrate our successful trip than to have a traditional English breakfast at 3 pm.  What a delicious decision.  We then quickly dropped our stuff at the hostel before meeting up with the ND London kids so we could see one of the ND classes perform Shakespeare at the Globe.  I don’t know which was better, being in the Globe or being surrounded by ND students, but the whole experience was fabulous and the performers did an incredible job.  We followed our theatre rendez vous with an equally classy excursion to Perfect Chicken for dinner and then drinks at a pub.

Day two began with a grand event: the Royal Wedding! We chose not to camp outside the palace and instead joined thousands of Brits in Trafalgar Square where we watched the wedding on big screens. It was so fun to be in the middle of the excitement and to see everyone waiving flags and wearing ridiculous Kate and William things. Our view wasn’t fabulous so during the ceremony we took the tube to Harrod’s where we were able to peruse the store free of crowds. We then made our way to Hyde Park to see the first kiss on the big screens. 

 After the royal hub-bub died down, Jane led us through the tourist circuit as we hit Picadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Ben’s Cookies at Coventry Garden, red phone booth pictures, and finally a dinner of fish and chips.  So London.

Day three we tourist-ed once again with our fearless guide Meg, who I have missed dearly in the past semester!  It was so good to see her.  She brought us to the Millenium Bridge which is in Harry Potter, then to the Burough Market for a taste of London, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. 

We concluded the perfect London day with tea time at a beautiful tea house called Bea’s with a group of London and Angers girls.  With our steaming pots of tea we were served trays of sandwiches, scones and jam, cookies, brownies, macaroons, meringues, and gorgeous cupcakes.  We were all so full by the end but it was truly one of the perfect London experiences and one of my favorite memories from all of spring break.  Unfortunately, we were tight on time and had to run back to the hostel to get ready for the ND booze cruise.  This semester we actually were allowed to stay on the boat so it was a great success. 

On my final morning in London I enjoyed some quality time with Jane before agreeing to go on a Burberry search with John.  Sadly, my feet had all but given up during my 16 days of traveling and I struggled on our walk, only to find that Burberry was closed.  Boo, but it was nice to catch up.  I remet up with Jane for lunch where we said our au revoirs before I headed back to the land of baguettes.  London truly was the perfect way to end the perfect spring break.  I was surrounded by people I love who went above and beyond to make sure I had an amazing weekend.  I am so grateful for their friendship and am so excited to be reunited with them when fall comes. 

And thus I conclude (admittedly very en retard) my blogs about spring break.  I am currently a little bogged down with finals and such but will update you on trips to Ile de Ré, Barcelona, and Paris as soon as possible.  Until then, wait in suspense dear readers.  Good blogs come to those who wait. xoxo.