April 10th, 2014

We had to get up painfully early this morning because we had to be at the airport by 6 am. We checked out and walked to the nearest airport shuttle stop. While waiting a taxi pulled up and the driver said he’d take us to the airport for the same price as what the bus would've cost us.

We got our passports checked and got through security no problem. By then we were starving and we had over an hour until our flight, so we went to a lounge for breakfast. Best breakfast so far! Bacon, eggs, toast, yum! Our flight was pretty boring, not much going on and it was a short flight.

We flew into Luton Airport, which is about an hour from London centre (where our hostel was) so we caught a shuttle into the city. It dropped us off on Baker Street of all places, just down from the Sherlock Holmes museum, so we decided to check it out. We couldn't take our luggage into the museum itself but we saw the gift shop. On the way out I asked one of the interpreters if he knew where they filmed the TV show Sherlock, one of my favorite BBC shows. He told us to take the underground one stop over, to Eaton Square, and it’s right there.

Franny said she didn’t mind dragging her suitcase (by this point I’m really thankful I didn’t bring a suitcase as well as a backpack), so we followed the instructions… We probably walked around that area for an hour and a half. All of the buildings looked like they could be it, but in the show there’s a specific café beside their home that we couldn't find for the life of me. It probably didn’t help that Franny had never seen the show so she really couldn't help me.

We stumbled across a small farmers market, near the university campus so we decided to stop for lunch. I had a sausage, and like everything else we've eaten so far, it was fantastic! It was around then that we decided to give up and just go to the hostel. We were both tired, it was hot out, and we wanted to drop our stuff. As we are returning to the underground station… there is it. Literally right beside the metro station. I was so mad at myself, but hey, I found it after all! 

From there we followed the directions the hostel gave us to get there. We took underground to Liverpool Street where we were supposed to catch a bus to the hostel. We tried to get on the bus but they wouldn't accept Scottish pounds (even though that is a legal form of currency). The driver of that particular bus as a witch! She was so mean! She “attempted” to call head office (I don’t really think she did as she didn’t press any buttons) then told us to get off. So we dig through our change and find enough to take the next bus… turns out we got on in the wrong direction. It was going to London Bridge instead of Shoreditch. So we got off, crossed the street and tried to catch the next bus. And who is our driver but the mean one from before! We asked if she’d take pounds yet and she said that dispatched still hadn't replied to her. So off we get and we decide to go into the Gap store to exchange the Scottish pounds for British ones, and we get onto the next one.

By now, I’m stressed and pissed off, and I feel bad because this is Franny’s first time in London and it’s not going so well so far! But we finally arrived at The Dictionary hostel. The people at the hostel were absolutely fantastic. They gave us information on where to go, what to do, where to eat, etc. What was also cool was the bar attached to the hostel was called "Translate". So we dropped off our stuff and decided to walk around London.

We hit all the major spots; London bridge (we saw Tower Bridge from it), Millennium Bridge (the bridge the Death Eaters destroy in Harry Potter), the Globe Theater. In one of the underground stations we stopped for some fantastic cupcakes! I had a delicious red velvet cupcake, it was so good it should be illegal! It was about this time that my legs really started killing me. Just from overuse but I was actually in a lot of pain. But that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying London! 

We had supper at café rouge, a French café near Trafalgar square. After supper we checked out the square then walked up to Piccadilly Circus. Unfortunately, lots of the city was under construction so we couldn't get many good photos but it was still nice to return to the city. I was only there for a few days, three years ago, but it all seems so familiar.

From Piccadilly, we took the underground to Kings Cross station, because you can’t do to London and not try to find Platform 9 ¾ !! And we found it! It made me so happy! They had props and a professional photographer, even a specialized gift shop (really cashing in on the Harry Potter craze). It was so cool!

We caught the underground back to our hostel where I showered and washed some clothes in the sink before heading off to bed.