London, England

London was amazing. Not the city itself, (though it does have its merits) but the people I stayed with! London is not quite as budget friendly as Paris. It's a bit bigger and more expensive travel and activities, so I had to search harder for frugal fun. Fortunately, I filled those touristy activities with free skateparks, which London had aplenty :) Here are photos from my two weeks with cousin Jess and her two marathon champion roommates, Abby(Abbie?), and Claire.

 First day in the U.K was definitely made easier with these handy reminders while crossing the street!

 Finsbury Park is both gorgeous and right next to the flat. I love seeing the leaves fall! I get to experience seasons here :)

 You know how I do enjoy a good museum! Museum of London didn't disappoint.

 It even had a Sherlock Holmes exposition coming up!

 This light fixture is from the Olympic games in London. It's massive!

 There was a cool section of the museum that was set up like a Victorian town. Very cool.

 And these interactive tables to learn about the past, present, and future of London!

 St. Paul's Cathedral was cool but cost money to go in so I just strolled on by ;)

 I sat on the steps and enjoyed people watching instead.

 Just down the road from the flat was a shopping area. This TK Maxx was here and I thought it was funny that it looks exactly the same as TJ Maxx from the states! There was also a PoundLand, for all of my frugal needs in the way of groceries ;) It was common knowledge in the flat that this store is the best store and therefore is worthy of an article. So we call it The Poundland! This was more widely accepted than the 'water machine' title I gave to the electric kettle they had as I was unfamiliar with the contraption...

 This adorable car was adorable

 My first visit to a skatepark ended with this girl's face attacking the concrete... I think she might need to switch hobbies, as her balance was a bit lacking. Also, there was a pebble.

 I saw Big Ben and explored the area, dodging slow moving tourists with a speed they should aspire for. It's odd to have road rage without a car, but they need to MOVE FASTER!

 The London Eye

 Westminster Palace

 Westminster Abbey and Palace. I did not go in the abbey because it was 18 pounds to go in! That's about $35 to look inside! Churches should be free. I went into Notre Dame twice for free, and it's cooler! But the outside was cool, so whatever!

 I liked the view from across the Thames

 Street artists in South Bank

 South Bank skatepark looked cool, but didn't look fun to skate, so I just watched for a bit before moving on.

 I feasted my eyes on this massive book sale

 And these two learning how to bounce around!

 Lounging in bed before starting the day was fun!

 I met up to skate a couple times with Danielle and a few of her friends and they showed me some good parks and spots to skate. Thanks for the good times!

 I went to the British Museum and loved it!

 A Mayan tablet

 They had a cool Rosetta Stone replica so you could touch it and get really close, which was great since the original was in glass and had super bad glare for photos ;)

 The center of the museum was massive!

 I really thought this was a cool piece.

 I don't like spamming the blog with a bunch of museum stuff, but I saw a ton and ended up having to leave because it was closing. I went back a second time to see the rest, fear not ;)

 I was excited to see all the red telephone booths and the red double decker buses!

 I didn't even try to get close to the Buckingham Palace. The amount of tourists in this city was insane.

 I can't even begin to explain how great it was living with these girls, even for a little while. They took me in and really made me feel at home. We cooked and ate dinners together and always had great conversation. They shared their flat with me and I showed them that their stove top igniter button did indeed work for the past eight months... ;)

 I got this stealth shot of us cracking up about something. So many laughs!

 Jess and I did a graffiti and street art tour that was excellent!

 This throne was in the British museum and was made in Africa entirely out of gun pieces.

 So was this tree. Very cool idea

 A nice stroll through this park took me to a cool skatepark, where I took no pictures...sorry! I met a Hungarian rollerblader who just moved to London and we skated for a bit, so that was fun. It's always cool to make friends while traveling :)

 Covent Garden was one of my favorite places to visit. There were so many street artists and musicians to watch. A great place to people watch and hang out.

 Mr. Bean impersonator!

 The streets just outside Covent Garden were littered with theaters and restaurants

 The metro is always silent and full of people not making eye contact with anyone else. If I tried a staring contest with anyone, I'm pretty sure I'd win.

 I think this was Piccadilly? I can't quite remember, but I liked this area!

 I speed walked through the art museum and left, remembering that art museums are boring.

 I checked out this Shakespeare fountain with some cops photo bombing. Side note: hats.

 Jess is really good at playing speed :(

 I bet people get really excited from far away when they read this sign.

 I promised dad that I would go into at least one guitar store on my travels, and this was it. I had to go in since it was screaming of guitars!

 You're welcome, dad!

 I saw the London Bridge and strolled around the area as the sun set...which is at around 4:30 now!

 The view of the city of London was great as it got darker :)

 And all the plastic poppies remembering the first world war were cool!

 More of the great times. Check out those SUPER classy plastic bottles of red wine ;)

 They really love Kate Bush...

 Our Poundland Halloween decorations were really scary and not at all last minute.

 I shared with everyone the wonder of candy corn and all its halloweeny glory. Needless to say, it was not a hit...

 Good ol' pumpkin carving took a bit more elbow grease than they were expecting haha!

 I was in charge of the bonfire and it was a successful mission!

Dr. Who uselessly trying to light Becky's cigarette. She wasn't pleased as it didn't work.



Becky and I had an awesome cleaning party in the morning as I got ready to go up to Liverpool! I'll really miss seeing all the new friends and family that I met on this trip. I'm lucky I'll be able to see Jess when she flies through Florida, but it'll be ages until I see everyone else. So thanks for making my time so fun and memorable!


See ya, London!