St Paddy's Day

So our last day in London we decided to not plan anything big. We had to catch an 11 o'clock train back to the airport so that didn't leave us with much time anyway. The first day we had arrived, we stumbled across a half open-aired market. It was in this big area that had a connecting roof between a bunch of stores and restaurants but wasn't actually a building:

It kinda looked like the Costo of flee markets. The first time we had stopped by there were stalls open, but not very many. I had seen a sign in our hostel that had info on a bunch of different markets and as I was looking at it I thought "huh this one looks familiar". Surprise surprise, it was the same one and it's actually call the Old Spitalfields Market. The info thing also said it was busiest on Sundays so we decided that since it was right near the train station, we'd get there early to have a walk around. It was a good thing that it was the end of the trip and I had very little cash left on me because there were some cool things here that I would've bought. For an American equivalent, it reminded me most strongly of an indoor version of Eastern Market in DC for those that have been.

There also was this hilarious statue nearby:

Kate we found you again!

This was so funny to us because our apartment (mostly Kate and I) has become OBSESSED with goats and making random goat noises since this video:

and this one:

I personally think this is an improvement upon the original song, but that's just me. oh and this one:

Okay, okay I'll stop with the goat videos (don't deny you didn't laugh though). We quickly found our time at the market running out and so we finally left the beloved city of London. I have to admit, London took me kind of by surprise. I don't really know what I was expecting in the first place if anything really, but it quickly found it's way near the top of my favorite cities list amidst Pittsburgh and NYC. I think it's because I have such a bad case of traveller's ADD in that I need to be doing lots of different and new things all the time when travelling and London is so huge that it never runs out of things to do that are new. Even after spending three and a half days there we didn't get to do nearly everything there is to do. Well lucky me I'll get to do all the other stuff I wanted to when I revisit this summer with da schwester!

We arrived back in Cork at around 2 or 3 and had the unfortunate task of getting home...on St. Paddy's Day...after the parade...when no busses were running...with all our stuff. Granted it was a fun walk because lots of drunk people were still wandering around the closed off streets and everything was either green or orange.

If anyone tries to tell you that "Oh St Paddy's Day isn't that big a deal in Ireland" please tell them they are misinformed. At least when it comes to city celebrations. Cork literally went wild that day, and even though I was only there for half of it (the important half), it was a blast. As I said, Cork did have a parade and even though we missed it, we could still see that a lot of streets were closed and float things or carnival games were set up. It was also weirder to see someone not dressed in green or orange or white than someone who was. We actually ran into some friends who were walking back as well and they of course were decked out, fake tattoos and flags and all:

 It also was  GORGEOUS day, and the first real warm day Cork had had. Warm, of course, is a relative term here meaning 47 degrees...which is warm enough for t-shirts for those that had the extra insulation of alcohol.

It seemed as though this was the typical schedule for people across the city that day:
wake-up: drink
get ready for parade: drink
go to parade: drink
walk home from parade: drink
nap time!
wake-up from nap: drink
eat something: drink
get ready to go out for the night: drink drink drink
go out for the night: drinkdrinkdrinkdirnkdirnkdrinkdrinkdrinkdrinkdrinkdrinkdrink

My liver thanked me for not being here for the full schedule and not actually following the schedule. It was an awesome time and I won't lie and say I didn't drink anything, but I definitely wasn't trying to pace with the Irish. I don't know if people actually celebrate St. Paddy's Day for the real reason, some people probably do somewhere, or if the Irish just use it as an excuse to drink. Which they do love to do. I even got into the spirit and turned my Irish flag that I had bought a while ago into a cape. We probably had just as much fun getting ready for the celebration as we did the celebration itself.

Cape and ridiculous hat?

 check.

fake tattoos?

 check.

photo booth effects?

 check.

dance party?

check.

face faaaar to close to the screen?

check.

Another indication that it's not a forgotten holiday over here is the fact that the day after St. Paddy's Day is a bank holiday. Meaning we didn't have class. It was truthfully the only day we've gotten off of class the entire semester so it must have more importance than just being a recovery day.

There's another item checked off the bucket list: St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

Magical Unicorns!!!

All throughout London we had been seeing signs advertising for a "Harry Potter Exhibit" so of course, us being 3 of the biggest HP nerds, decided to look into it to see what it was and if we wanted to shell out the cash for it. Turns out, it was basically the ULTIMATE Harry Potter experience and a kin to an Orlando Studios tour. Only more magical. It was a bit out of the way, but that's because it was at the actual studios where most of the movies were films. It had interactive stuff (riding brooms, getting sorted) props from the movies, lots of behind the scenes info, and probably the motherload of all gift shops. So, we decide YES we want to go, especially since Ally's birthday was Saturday as well.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that thousands of other people wanted to go as well and that the studios limit the number of people who can visit, meaning reservation in advance is a must. We figured out all the confusing transportation stuff (stupidly) before trying to order tickets the night before. Sold Out. Needless to say, we were fairly devastated, but realized that it was late notice that we were trying to reserve tickets and the chances weren't working in our favor to begin with. We found out later that it was the one year anniversary of the place opening that weekend so tickets had actually been sold out weeks ago. While that made us feel both better and worse about the situation at the same time, we still did not end up going.

HOWEVER, there is always a silver lining (no matter how hard to find it sometimes) and as we would not be spending nearly all day at the exhibit, it left us more time to go about the city sightseeing. To rub salt in our wounds, Saturday turned out to be the day with the crappiest weather of our entire stay so a nice long indoor activity would've been perfect. This was made worse in my situation by the fact that I had yet to re-waterproof my not-so-waterproof raincoat and hadn't even bothered to bring it, leaving me without a hood or umbrella of any type. Well, that last part is just mt stupidity biting me in the ass so I can't really complain.

We decided to start out the morning early-ish and go to Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guards is said to be a big tourist event that's worth the visit, but alas, our luck was long gone this day. During the nice weather months, aka tourist high season, aka summer, aka not when we were there, the guards have the ceremony thing every day. On the off season, they do it every other day, and we just happened to pick the wrong day.

It was still very cool, even for someone who doesn't have royal fever (me) like the rest of the world seems to have.

They have some redonkulous gates at the front, and it's a wonder the guards don't crack up from all the tourists pressed up against them trying to get a good picture of the palace:

Actually, you can't even get up close to the guards to pester them since their pacing track is behind the gate:

This guys literally paced back and forth the entire time we were there and nothing else. I truly do not envy their job as it must be quite boring at times.

I also noticed while I was there that there are a more than normal amount of unicorn statues:

Not that I cared. I actually thought it was quite hilarious and kept having this strange image of the Queen singing that Lady Gaga song while riding a unicorn:

In my mind they're on top of a rainbow or maybe the moon but my photoshop skillz are not yet at that level of hilarity.

The Queen may not be amused but I certainly am.

In reality, I wasn't that far off! Okay maybe I was, but the unicorn is part of the British Royal coat of arms:

Gotta hand it to them, that is one BAMF coat of arms.

After we were thoroughly soaked to the bone, we decided to continue our self-made tour of places where famous people have been. Next on the list was the Globe Theatre:

Even though it's a replica since the original burnt down from the spark of a cannon, (thanks Carmen Sandiego for that fun fact!), it's still cool to see the place where all those plays I had shoved down my throat in high school took place. And as much as I complain about Shakespeare, I actually do appreciate him in a very roundabout way. He gave us some great stories even though I much prefer their modern interpretations like the Lion King and 10 Things I Hate About You. I can't really deal with the whole "Old English" thing unless it's his insults which are probably my favorite of all. He gave us words to insult each other with that not only confuse and astound, but they sound so funny they don't even seem like insults! (don't be fooled they actually are) So next time you want to say something nasty to someone, get creative and try calling them a "mewling fat-kidneyed strumpet" or a "pribbling and beslubbering unchin-snouted giglet"and not only will they not know what on earth you just said, they might be so confused that they thank you!

In our attempt to fill the empty void in our hearts that the failed Harry Potter tour left, we decided to make our own tour of London visiting sites that are in the movies. First on the list because it was right next to the Globe, was the Millennium Bridge:

It's the pedestrian bridge that the Death Eaters destroy at the beginning of the 6th film for those who are not on the same nerdiness level that we are. Here's the clip if you want!

Thankfully, we did not have as bad of an experience crossing it as these people did.

Next stop was the ever famous:

The nerd that I am knew that platforms 9 and 10 actually aren't next to each other, they're across the track from each other. JK Rowling had been envisioning Euston station (another train station in London that's actually within walking distance of King's Cross) when thinking about the platform set up, but the filming did take place at King's Cross, they just used platforms 4 and 5 instead. That being said, it is still a working train station and actually has a quite modern look to most of it:

It's only near the platforms that it looks like it does in the movies. You're not allowed on the actual platforms unless you have a ticket and to prevent nerds from clogging up the boarding areas for the trains, they set up this at a wall close to the platforms:

I honestly didn't care that it wasn't at the actual platforms, I just wanted to revel in all my nerdy glory and get a picture:

They had an organized little set up with a guy who would give you a scarf of your choice (why wouldn't I pick Gryffindor?) and a photographer so you could buy their picture in the gift shop around the corner. Thankfully, they also didn't care if your friends took pictures for you instead.

Our Harry Potter craving being sated, we decided to do something indoors since the weather had not lightened up. Thinking it a good idea to head to the aquarium where we could use the 2 for 1 ticket deal, we headed that way....along with every family with small children in the city of London. We should've seen it coming since it was raining, on a Saturday, and parents needed things to do with the kids. It was quite the wait to get in but it was cool. My only gripe again was that it was so incredibly crowded, but there's nothing really to do about that. Of course, that didn't stop us from taking ridiculous pictures because let's be honest, not much could stop that.

We kept joking the entire weekend that since our 4th roommate, Kate, wasn't with us in London, we kept "finding" her all over the place.

We found Kate!

We found her again!

 There she is!

Nice 'stache Kate!

Amidst all our silliness, we came across a fish that quickly became our favorite:

I'm pleased to introduce you to the lumpsucker. Ally and I found this so hilarious that we started incorporating it into our Shakespearian insult list. Another favorite work we came across was "denticle" which we incorporated equally. "Geeze don't be such a lumpsucker!" "You lumpsucking denticle you!" Yes. Yes we were acting the age of all the small children around us. But we didn't care and heck, it even made us fit in better.

We decided to head back to the hostel for what had become our daily nap time, but I wasn't really all that tuckered out so I decided to take a stroll around the area. Even though our street was pretty quite, I knew that it ran into a busier street at the opposite end so I headed that way. Turns out it's a bustling place that was BURSTING with ethnic food restaurants. They had everything from typical Italian and French bakeries to halal to Austrian or Nepalese. There were even ones that I didn't really know existed. If I had the cash, I would've tried multiple ones each day but I also had the misfortune of only finding it on our last full day there, so alas, it was not meant to be.

Since that night was Ally's birthday and we hadn't eaten out all weekend, we decided to go out for dinner. Ally chose Mexican since, if you remember from past posts, it's pretty hard to come by in Cork. The restaurant was much schwankier than I've ever seen of a Mexican restaurant and thankfully we didn't need reservations even though it was a Saturday night. We also didn't mind spending the money on the place (it was pricey) since we had been saving a lot that weekend anyway. The drinks were amazing (we even got a free shot since it was Ally's birthday) and the food was even better. We decided to skip out on the desserts as they seemed a bit too odd for our taste at the moment. I would've tried them all, but I wasn't really feeling a corn on the cob for dessert at that time. No joke it was on the menu.

After dinner, we decided to bar hop for a while and tried to find a clubbier place to dance at Ally's request, but turns out most places in London that are clubby and dancey have cover charges. Ridiculous cover charges that we neither wanted to pay nor could afford at this point in our trip. Oppositely, all the bars and pubs that didn't have cover charges had much chiller atmospheres and were more of a place to sit and chat with friends. It actually worked out because we were getting pretty tired as it was late so we decided to head back so we could get an early start on our last day.

Of Birds and Creepy Statues

The next day we woke up revived and ready to go with an ambitious list of places to go. We started out easy and decided to roam Kensington Gardens which was literally across the street from us. It was really really really big. Not central park status, but big enough that we would've easily gotten very lost if we wandered for too long. Not that we didn't anyway but still. There were also a LOT of birds:

Ally actually scared most of them away before I could get a good picture, but there were tons. Like, borderline Hitchcock's The Birds status. There was also this big house thing but, like true college students, it cost money so we just admired it from the outside instead of paying:

We then tried to find our way back to the Tube stop and happily found ourselves wandering embassy row. We were all letting our nerdy-ness shine through as we tried to ID the flags. We also realized that there was a guard at the end of the street who wouldn't let people in, which is when we figured out we had entered at the wrong end and probably weren't allowed there. There also was a gigantic sign saying not pictures so it's a good thing we didn't take any to begin with.

We finally made our way to St Paul's Cathedral. Any Disneyphiles who know all the words to Mary Poppins songs (cough*me*cough), would also know that St. Paul's is where the old woman sits and feeds the birds:

Much to my let down, there was no old woman feeding birds. There were old women, and birds, but no interactions between the two. *sigh*

It's a cool building and so huge I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture:

 until I stood in the middle of the street to take a picture:

and even then it took until walking around to the back edge to get a truly good view:

for reference, here's Ally and Maggie standing at the side entrance:

That's not even the entrance that's supposed to wow you but it does anyway. Another thing that kinda wowed me in a not so good way were the extremely creepy cherub faces peeking out everywhere in the stone work:

I mean, yes it's a church so fat baby angels are expect, almost required! But next time London, try not to make them seem so...possessed. We want babies looking like this:

not this:

Aaaaaaaanyway....Just as the subway seems to be a gathering point for interesting people in NYC, so is the Tube. One happier run in made my not-so-inner nerd get extremely excited:

I know it's a bad shot,I was taking it creeper style to try and not be quite so obvious of my glee, but that is indeed a guy dressed as a Dalek collecting money for something. A for effort, but I probably would've been more convinced into giving you change if you were dressed as the Doctor.

We seemed to have the rain follow us from Ireland as it started just as we went to go look at the London Bridge:

now you see the ship!

now you don't! See? I really should've gotten that letter from Hogwarts.

It's actually referred to as the Tower Bridge for obvious reasons and the London Bridge is something entirely else. So when we showed up to a bridge that had a "London Bridge" sign on it, we were kind confused for a while before we finally spotted the bridge we wanted to see. Turns out, the Tower of London is right next to the bridge. We were planning on actually paying for that and going so we decided to go and walk across the bridge, since we had a lot of time to kill. As expected, you have to pay to go up into the towers on the bridge since I think there's a museum or something in them. We were quite content to just stroll across it free of charge.

We even got a lovely group picture in which I smiled nicely:

We (I) had learned from our failed group photo at the Cliffs of Moher (in which you can't really see the cliffs and there are strangers in the picture):

 to never again ask someone who looked as if they had never held a camera in their life.

Once we headed back towards the Tower of London:

 we decided to eat lunch before buying tickets for the Tower of London. Before we had even gotten on our flight, we had all agreed that to save money and inches on our waistline, we would only eat out on very few occasion because as cheap as cafes might look, buying meal after meal at restaurants and such really puts a ding in your wallet. In the true style of cheap travelling, we had gone to a supermarket the day before and had made sandwiches to bring along. We happened to be in luck because there was a fish and chips store nearby that had endless kinds of sauces that we sneakily added to our sandwiches. Since the rain stopped, we decided to eat at one of the many benches that were around all whilst trying to avoid the segulls. It was a good idea because they were like this:

They were vicious in their hunt for food. A kid at the bench next to us accidentally dropped his fries and he and his friend actually abandoned their stuff and ran away until the fries were all gone:

In the interest of our personal safety, we decided to move to a cafe indoors to finish our lunch. Afterwards, we finally headed into the tower. It's actually more of a complex rather than a single tower, but it's still a royal building and so it's still guarded. The Queen's Guard are actually the ones that give tours of the place and even if they don't move a muscle outside Buckingham Palace, they're pretty hilarious tour guides. Ours was extremely loud in a drill sergeant-ish way but highly amusing to listen to:

He informed us the "costume" he's wearing is actually one of their uniforms and he's required to wear it not as a tour guide, but as a guard. He was very touchy on the fact that most people don't believe he's a guard so if you ever visit here, don't call it a costume.

The place is pretty big (this is only one corner):

 and has loads of different history museum stuff ranging from armor, the crown jewels, and info about people who've lived/been imprisoned/died/executed there. There were a lot. The main building:

is actually where the royal family lived for a time, but now houses the armor and weapons display as well as this beauty:

which I have decided is going to be my next pet. It can play in the yard with my micro pigs, Dinner and Bacón.

There really were guards all around and we even got to see what I think was a changing of the guards:

Not a single one had the trademark red coat, but the hats more than make up for it. All I could think whenever I saw one was that they looked like Winkies from the Wizard of Oz:

The whole place is really cool with lots of history and the crown jewels are redonkulous but the whole thing is well worth the visit. It's a bit pricey as far as attractions go, but we could've easily spent twice the amount of time there so it's not a dud. Plus, it was basically the only thing we paid for all day. They even have shwanky bathrooms and the awards to prove it:

They literally have awards for everything now. Seriously? "Loo of the Year"? It's like the Golden Toilet Brush from Hoover, only in the real world. 

Since that took up most of our afternoon, we decided to head back to the hostel for some much deserved nap time. We didn't have anything planned for the night, so Maggie and I (Ally wasn't feeling well) decided to go and see Parliament all lit up. And man did it make for some good pictures:

We also made a pit stop at the Marble Arch which was actually pretty close to our hostel since it was at the opposite end of Kensington Gardens. Unfortunately, it did not have lights like the Eye or Parliament, so my pictures turned out kinda dark:

Probably because a lot of embassies are in the area, they had flags from different nations down either side of the walk way, which would've made for a cool picture if you could see. But ya couldn't. They did have some creepy horse statues close by that we checked out, but lord if I knew what they were there for. They were illuminated so apparently London likes to flaunt it's creepy statue collection. Whatever floats yer boat London.