cobblestones and places unknown: london

Sorry it has taken me so long to post this!!! I had two papers due last week and needless to say I was a little burnt out on writing! So- London. What a great weekend with wonderful friends. Anna and I travelled by train on Thursday night to go and visit our friend Juan, who is living in London, and for all of us to meet up with our other friends Seth and Blake, who flew over during Furman's fall break, and Meagan, who is studying in Ireland this semester. Now of course no trip of mine would be complete without a few mishaps. Here was our first. Anna and I thought that because we were going by train (once again, another endorsement: train travel is the way to go!!!), we would only need to arrive at Gare du Midi about 30 minutes early. Well knowing us, and the fact that we were coming from work, we were inevitably running a little bit late. What we forgot to calculate was the fact that London is not part of Schengen, so we would need to show our passports, get our visas checked, and go through security. This involved several long lines, and we got on the train with literally 5 minutes to spare. Definitely a stressful experience, but hey, at least we got on the right train this time! So we were off to London! We arrived about two hours later, beyond excited. Because Anna's dad is a member of the Marriot rewards system, we were staying in a very nice Marriot on Park Lane for very little cost (thanks Bower family!!). It was such a beautiful and nice hotel! The next morning, we slept in a little and then went to meet our friends in Leicester Square for lunch. We ended up eating at a little cafeteria place. After that, we basically took a walking tour of London on our own. The weather was perfect and the company was even better. I can't tell you how nice it was to be back amongst my best friends, in a wonderful city like London. We passed several of the big London landmarks, and I even randomly got stopped to be interviewed on television outside of Big Ben. With the afternoon drawing to a close, we were getting pretty hungry and were excited for some dinner. We ended up eating at this fabulous little Italian place. It was delicious, and we had a long dinner just sitting around catching up with our friends. The next day, we once again slept in and met up for lunch with our friends again. This time we decided to get sandwiches and go have a picnic in Hyde Park. We grabbed some food at Pret a Manger (fabulous place!) and then headed to find a perfect spot in the park. Once again the weather was beautiful- we were really blessed. After lunch the girls wanted to get some shopping done, so we split ways with our guy friends with plans to meet up for dinner. We headed to one of my favorite American stores, Anthropologie, and took the rest of Oxford Street by storm. Don't worry Mom and Dad, for once I didn't actually purchase anything! After about 3 hours of shopping, we were definitely tired and ready for some dinner. We headed back in what we thought was the right direction....and if you've been reading this blog, you definitely know what happens next! The good news is, we got to see London in the evening, and it was SO beautiful. The bad news was, we were lost for 2 hours and were late for our dinner date with the boys. We ended up finally back at our hotel around 8, where the lovely concierge pointed us in the way of a delicious restuarant for dinner. We'd decided to splurge a little and have a nicer dinner that night, and it was definitely worth it! We went to this really nice hole in the wall restuarant, where we met up with the boys. Once again, it was just a really nice long dinner with good friends. Sunday was our last day in London. We wanted to be sure that we got in one of the staple London activities- afternoon tea! Meagan had to leave early that morning for her flight back to Ireland, so the rest of us met up at this nice teahouse and got some tea, scones, and other delicious brunch food. We topped off our day with another picnic in the park and several hours of lounging, just enjoying being with each other. The boys put Anna and I in a taxi around 4 PM, and we headed back to the train station for the ride home. Overall, this trip to me was about experiencing London in a different way. I knew that I was going to go back and do all of the tourist-y stuff with my family in November, so I didn't have any set schedule for this trip. The result was a beautiful, relaxing time experiencing London with my dearest friends. It was nice to have a taste of home, and the trip truly left me so happy and feeling once again so blessed with my life. I have to admit that I did get a little homesick, but my family arrives in a little less than a month!!