Ally, Heather, and I left for the airport around 6pm thursday evening. we only brought a small bag each, no checked luggage, because it costs a lot for even one bag. we got to the airport, checked in, and through security no problem. grabbed some dinner at the food court and boarded the plane. It was very nice because it was not a full flight and I had the aisle and another guy had the window and nobody sat in the middle. The flight was just long enough for me to listen to like five or six songs on my ipod before electronics had to be stowed away again for landing, haha.
We bought an oyster card at Heathrow.... it gives you discounted rates on the tube, I put 10 pounds on it to start with. the three of us got on the Picadilly line and headed to the city. Ally was staying with a friend so Heather and I got off at our stop and changed to the District line... our hostel was right across from the Bayswater station (one stop after notting hill gate, which made me want to watch that movie so badly!).
So, my first hostel......the main area was pretty active when we arrived with people hanging out, playing pool, drinking, etc. Since this was the first time Heather and I had booked a hostel, we did it seperately. Not a good idea, we were in seperate rooms. good thing only one person booked for everyone for all the other hostels from now on. We got our keys, sheets, and tag to put on our bed and headed in. There was a weird smell everywhere, hahaha. We were each in a room of 14. My room was packed, and everyone was already sleeping! I had to get Heather to come help me find the bed that was open because I couldnt find the empty one in the dark. Bottom bunk in the corner... I put my sheets on in the dark and shoved my bag under my bed. We walked around the block but pretty much everything was closed so we just went back and went to bed.
We woke up early the next morning and got our free breakfast, which turned out to be toast with butter and jelly, hahaha. We took the tube to Westminster and took pics of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. Since Heather had never been to London I decided it would be best to just do the hop on/hop off bus tour so we could see everything. We found the stop and a man was selling tickets that were valid for 48 hours, perfect! He gave us a 4 pound discount for paying in cash! We hopped on the bus and started seeing the sights, haha. We didn't want to actually go in to everything because we didn't have much time so we would just get off and take pics and get back on the next bus.
We met up with Ally in the shopping area between oxford circus and bond circus. We ate lunch and then shopped til we dropped at H&M. The prices on their clothes are in Euros and Pounds and since the pound is weak these days it was so much cheaper than buying things in Ireland. By the time we finished browsing in the other stores we had to go back to the hostel to get ready for our night out.
Heather and I met Ally at the South Kensington tube station and we walked together to her friend Tiffany's apartment. A group of us went to dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant down the road and stopped at Tesco afterwards to get some wine. We hung out until 10:45ish and then all 11 of us headed out to the tube station. We went to Fabric nightclub. It was crazy. Soooooo much techno my head was hurting, but it was fun! I made the mistake of wearing heels and my feet were killing me by the time we got there, yikes! The place was cool and had a few different rooms along with a vip like section. we ended up in a less crowded corner by a roped off section with only 4 people in it! As one of them was walking by us to go get more drinks he asked if we knew who Blondie was.... Heather said yes, and he said she was right there. After he walked away we looked at each other and realized neither of us knew who this person was, hahahaha!! I still don't.
The bus Heather and I needed to take home definitely flew by us as we were trying to wave it down, along with a few other people at the bus stop... so we took a different bus to hyde park corner because we figured it would get us closer at least (our hostel was on hyde park but we didn't know how close to hyde park corner it was because it is quite a large park). When we got to Hyde Park corner we got a cab to take us to the hostel.... we were definitely on the opposite corner of the park, hahaha!
We got up early on Saturday, had some free toast for breakfast, and went off to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. After that we went to Harrods and rode the bus some more, haha. We were going to get tickets to a musical, but they were all sold out at TKTS. So we had some time to kill. We had a yummy meal in notting hill at a tex-mex restaurant and then walked back to the hostel. We stopped at some little shops along the way. Once at the hostel, I definitely took a nap. When I woke up heather and I got ready for the night and went to get dinner. I got a waffle with gelato, hahahaha. It was soooooooo good. heather had a cheeseburger from McDonalds. We walked around the mall that was across from McDonalds and tried to kill some time.
Buckingham Palace- changing of the guards
Finally we went to meet up with Ally and her friends again. This time we went to the Ministry of Sound. it was even more crowded and loud and sweaty than the first night! Benny Benassi, a dj I have never heard of, was playing in one of the rooms. I guess it was a big deal but I definitely couldnt not have cared less, it was just more techno to me. ally and I went to get some fresh air outside and ended up spliting a hot dog from this cart in the smoking area that was delicious. We made friends with the men working in the cart and ally even took a picture with them, hahahaa!
This time there was a direct bus to Queensway... a 3 min walk from our hostel, so that was really nice. Another late night and another early morning... this time to catch the plane. Heather and I had our last free toast breakfast and packed up our things. we got on the tube and headed back to Heathrow. I returned my oyster card to get the 3 pound deposit back and we headed to the gate. The plane was full this time. I had a man all in my space most of the time but since I found an US Weekly magazine near the hostel before we left I was perfectly happy just reading that.
We got on the bus when we arrived back in Dublin and I was actually really happy to be back. I just wanted to have my own bathroom again, and sleep in my bed. Once I got back to my room I took a very long nap to make up for my lack of sleep in London.... it felt great!
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