Londontown

Because I like to use analogies, I will describe this past weekend as a roller coaster. Extreme lows: flight cancellation, hostel cancellation, sleeping about a combined 3 hours total for the weekend. Extreme highs: London, seeing some of my best friends, free 4 star hotel stay with two free 4-star hotel quality meals. Let’s just say, my friends and I were not fated to go to London this weekend. Just about everything that could have gone wrong, did, but when it came to being in London around old friends and new friends, it became impossible for anyone to be upset.

We left Toledo at 6 am on Friday morning to head to the airport in Madrid. We were supposed to leave Friday morning around 10 am, but right before we were going to board the plane, our flight was canceled. Oddly enough, the flight that was flying out an hour after us (also in to London) was NOT canceled. Easyjet offered us either a refund on our tickets, or a flight out the next morning at 7 am. We chose to stay the night in Madrid with a free four-star hotel and two free meals. We stayed in the Auditorium Hotel, which is supposedly one of the biggest hotels in Europe, but it was located very far outside of Madrid. We went grocery shopping, took a nap, and ate in the hotel for the rest of the day. With less than 3 hours of sleep, we headed to the airport the next morning at 5 am in order to check in for our 7 am flight. When we landed in London, we took a train to London Bridge in order to check into our hostel. Since we had had the hostel booked for Friday, but obviously couldn’t make it because of the canceled flight, my friend Katie had called Friday afternoon and canceled our reservation for that night, but made sure that we still had the reservation for Saturday. The receptionist said everything was fine, but clearly he was incompetent because he ended up canceling our entire reservation for the weekend, and then we had nowhere to stay. Luckily they had availability at their other hostel (but it was 30 minutes further on the tube at the Hammersmith stop). By the time we settled into the hostel we had about 12 hours to see the whole city.

We decided first to go see Notting Hill which is a very chic district of London (also the scene of a Hugh Grant movie). There I met up with my cousin Phil, although it was a little difficult because there were several drunken New Zealanders lining the streets to celebrate their independence. We continued on to the Portabello Market which takes place every Saturday. A two-mile stretch of street is lined with any kind of trinket, food, or accessory imaginable. I bought a dress for 15 pounds and my friend Meghan bought a vinyl Led Zeppelin record for her boyfriend. I met up with my Notre Dame friends studying in London at the market, and Kim who had flown in from Rome for the weekend. After the entire group was together, we decided to do a speed tour of all the hotspots of London: Trafalgar’s square, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, etc. After we finished the walking tour, we finally could check into the hostel (at about 6pm). We went back to the hostel for about 20 minutes and then we to dinner at this restaurant in Trafalgar’s Square (we passed the theatre district on the way which had Les Miserables, Jersey Boys, and several other popular shows playing). Whoever said all food in London is bad lied, because this restaurant was very delicious. Later we again met up with my Notre Dame friends studying in London and went to this three-floor bar/club called O’Neill’s. The first floor was a restaurant, the second floor was more relaxed with tables and loud techno (a little ironic), and the third floor had a really decent live band that covered popular 90s music. We spent a little while on the third floor with the band, but the drunken Irish and British people were a little pushy and the area was too crowded so we spent most of the night on the second floor where we were able to talk for a while. That was one of the main differences: British people like to drink just like American college students do.

We came home at 3 am and left again for the airport at 4:30. Suffice to say, I was extremely tired when I arrived home in Toledo. The 24 hours we spent in London were amazing. I got to see some of my best friends in the world (coming back to Spain only made me miss them more), a family member who I haven’t seen in awhile (but who I will several more times throughout the semester), and hang out with my new friends all together in one what I am convinced is one of the best cities in the world. I have made it my goal to live there at some point in my life (even if it is only for an internship). The city is beautiful and the people are amazingly friendly. My writing is a little less interesting today, probably because I am too tired to think of colorful adjectives that truly describe the excitement of the weekend.

Next weekend I am going to Dublin with a few of my friends to meet my mom and see Phil again. Should be pretty exciting and the Irish folk we met this weekend were INCREDIBLY friendly.

I am pumped.

I can’t believe I’ve been here for a month already.