A Jolly Good Adventure!

I hope you all understand that "jolly good" means I was in England! Because I was. This time, the trip was all girls - just me, Tiffany, and Shannon. I decided to deny the fact that winter has not yet ended and wear just my inner coat, which was probably a mistake - EXCEPT that it meant that I got a cute new sweater and a coat that apparently makes me look like Kate Winslet, which is just fine by me. 😉 And yes, we did spend a while shopping our first day in London. I mean, come on. It was a girl's trip. What did you expect? (Did I mention they had an entire Harry Potter section?)

Right as we got into the city, we met a worker in the metro named Patrick. Patrick was our hero. He had a little more colorful language than any of the rest of us, but that's not hard to do, since we're all Mormons. He told us about the best places to go in the city for great nightlife, and he helped us purchase Oyster cards! We never really found out where the name "Oyster card" came from, though Shannon did her best to find a Brit that could answer the question for her. Turns out most people in London aren't actually British - it's a huge melting pot. I think we heard more people speaking foreign languages than those speaking English!

Our first dinner in London was amazing. Naturally, it was more expensive than we wanted, but by the time we found the restaurant, we were too tired and hungry to care. It was a Thai restaurant, and we all thoroughly enjoyed our food. The best part was probably dessert, though. We agreed to get 2 desserts to share among the 3 of us. One was a chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream, the other was fried bananas with cinnamon ice cream. The vanilla ice cream was the greatest any of us had ever eaten, and all of it was just...perfect.

Of course, we had to check out 221B Baker Street, especially after Shannon and I introduced Tiffany to the BBC Sherlock series. We had to sneak awkward selfies next to the door, because otherwise getting a picture required buying a ticket to the museum (which was not in our budget), but it was well worth it. We also discovered the Beatles gift shop next door, which was quite a treasure! It's the next best thing to Abbey Road, right?

Our Airbnb was pretty cozy. This time there were 4 separate rooms with shared kitchen and bathroom spaces. That meant we had to work our showering time around the other tennants, but we had the privacy we needed, beds to sleep in, and a great view onto the street! We had some great morning studies in that room, as well as enjoying an episode of Sherlock (because, well, London) and some great Indian food!

Day two, we knew we had to get English Breakfast, and we set out for Regency Cafe, which has been featured in several films. Unfortunately, the line to get in was longer than our stomachs could wait, and we opted to go down the street to a little place called Astral Cafe. We were treated to an amazing English breakfast there, complete with sausage, hash browns, bacon, beans, and of course a nice cup of tea! We definitely lucked out to find the perfect place right where we needed it.

We took some photos by Buckingham Palace, while Tiffany fan-girled about seeing the guards, then we had a beautiful walk through Green Park, even successfully finding the public restrooms in the station on the other side. We got to see Westminster Cathedral - whose ceiling and walls are covered in the most beautiful mosaics! We saw Westminster Abbey, but unfortunately didn't get to go inside. We got a lunch of traditional fish & chips, which we all regretted to some extent. (I'm still glad we did it.) I talked to some pigeons (my spirit animal - we both like bread). We played in a park! And I even ran into a friend from BYU! (Small world!)

I took loads of pictures of all the beautiful buildings, just loving every sight I laid my eyes on. I picked up hair-ties (because I do that) and trash (that too), and ended up getting ink all over my hand. I even let my hair loose in its natural state, not tying it up or straightening it (because in London, it's useless anyway).

The three of us climbed on a giant lion on Trafalgar Square and even got a nice girl to take our picture, handing her brother a phone to give to her, so that we could get the full shot. And, to end the night, we stopped by Platform 9 3/4 to finally fulfill our dream and go to Hogwarts. I represented Hufflepuff (or, as they say in Russian, poofendooy, lol) with my yellow and black scarf. Shannon is a Ravenclaw, Tiffany a Gryffindor. (Coincidentally, David is a Slytherin, so all of the houses are represented here!)

Day three was Sunday, and I walked around in my fancy "Kate Winslet" jacket on top of my church clothes. Sunday was filled with pastries and museums - as Sundays always should be! We fed hot cross buns to some swans in Hyde Park. Shannon warned me that they would bite me, and one did. Still didn't regret it. We enjoyed sacrament meeting with the YSA branch there, and went to the Museum of Natural History right after - just down the street! We then discovered my new favorite restaurant - Leon - where I had an amazing falafel wrap, which was exactly what I needed after the greasy fish & chips the day before. We ended the night with a Jack the Ripper tour (free through Strawberry Tours), and thoroughly enjoyed our tour guide, with her wonderfully British accent. While somewhat horrifying, it was also incredibly intriguing how she told the events through the eyes of the victims rather than Jack himself.

We explored Borough Market the morning of our last day (more pastries!) and enjoyed the massive British Museum. We easily could have spent longer there, but we were glad to leave, because checking out of our Airbnb that morning meant that we had to carry all our belongings around the city and the museum with us. My last meal in London was a falafel wrap in the airport, accompanied by a delicious slice of carrot cake. A kind waiter at an Italian restaurant even filled our water bottles for free! (A plus of London was definitely that restaurants don't charge for water, unlike basically every other European country.)

It was truly a good trip. We had our share of rain, but never so much that we felt we were drowning. I will be happy to go back again someday and enjoy Big Ben and the London Eye. Until then, London. 👋