LONDON

I don't know why she said she'd promise... two posts in one day? That's asking a little too much... But alright, one day late. Here goes...

London- What can I say? It's one of my favorite places in the whole world!! We stayed with Chelsea's friends who are studying there for the semester so not only did we get cheap boarding, we also got a jam-packed weekend of fun! But let's start from the beginning- the Shannon airport. Well, this was quite the event. Shannon airport is quite small and we got there early enough in the morning where we were pretty much the only ones there, and we even checked in online ahead of time. You'd think we'd get right through with no problems, but you are wrong. First we went to the security desk without having our boarding passes stamped. Then I found out I had gotten my return ticket stamped so I had to go back to get the appropriate one done. As I was doing this, Camille fell victim to the "Random Frisking" and Chelsea got her bag searched and a lecture on how "anything that can become liquid must be in a plastic bag if she's carrying it on"-- referring to her deoderant, which for the record, Camille and I carried on with no problem AND no baggie (rebels, I know). Finally we were through and got to our gate, where we waited for over an hour to board. While in line to board, Camille and Chelsea decide that now was a great time to freak out about whether or not our bags are small enough to be carried on RyanAir planes, as if we could do something to change them. No worries, we got through just fine. Once on the plane, however, we were searching for our seats only to find out that you can sit anywhere you want! I chose the middle of the plane, which got us off last since you exit from the front AND the back... UGH talk about a strugglefest.

Alright, back to London events... The first night we arrived we pretty much went straight to the theater to see "Phantom of the Opera" which was, needless to say, amazing. Although we had a large group of Spanish high schoolers surrouding us who found it necessary to talk and sing along throughout the entire musical. Awesome. Loved it. But it was great anyway!

The next day we got up semi-early to try to make it to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards. As usual, we had difficulties and the Tube caused us to be almost an hour late. Thinking we had missed all the good stuff, we walk up and hear a band playing "Thriller" and joked about how it was probably the guards, as "Thriller" is obviously the Queen's favorite song... Turns out it was! The guards, that is. Although we decided it is likely that MJ was definitely on the iPod that Obama gave her when they met... Ha! The guard band went on to entertain the crowd with other pop-songs including Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" (which, for those of you who don't recall, happens to be the song that Camille debuted as a solo in our fifth grade Millenium concert. Fun fact.) Chelsea got extremely picture happy at this time, and if you would like to relive these events second-by-second, her photos will surely do the job. The rest of the day was dedicated to touristy stuff: Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London...

Saturday was dedicated to the Harry Potter tour that our hosts put together. We journeyed through the city to see the spots where Harry ran from Death Eaters in front of a small souvenier shop, where Harry ran from Death Eaters over the Millenium Bridge, Platform 9 and 3/4 (which was conveniently relocated as the station is being remodeled) and we even saw Hermione in a Burberry ad! Mixed in this day was several shopping stops where Chelsea and Camille bought a few too many items to fit cleanly in their suitcases, causing more fear in their hearts as we boarded our flight home.

Don't worry, we managed to fit in some culture at the Tate Modern and the British National museums. And at three a.m. on Monday night, my bed in Galway was never better. :)

Love, Katie (and Camille)