So, the week started right after I got out of class on Thursday where I took the tube to Justin and Mike's aunt's house. We sat, talked, and ate for the rest of the night and then Justin and I headed back to Regent's. The next day, Mike wanted to take a day of rest after travelling the previous day. Justin and I decided to sleep in and then go for breakfast at The Diner in Camden and walk around the market for a bit. We were there for a couple hours and we only managed to make it through a portion of the market. But, we decided to head back towards school and see the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. Apparently it is the largest one in the world because Ripley started his journey around the world collecting artifacts in England and found most of them here. It had over 200 artifacts there so I didn't take any pictures really besides one or two. Oh, and I can't forget about the lazer maze at the end of the museum. We may have not made it through in the best time, but Justin did set it to expert and we made it out with only breaking one or two lazer beams...yeah I know, we're practically pros. After showing everyone else up, we decided to walk around Oxford Street and just kept walking around until we didn't know where we were. Luckily we had stopped right in front of a tube station so it was easy to get back to school.
Saturday was full of sight seeing. We started early and met Mike in the tube station and set off to Buckingham Palace. We arrived a little early, so we got some fairly good pictures of the palace before the changing of the guards ceremony mob arrived. We tried to get a good spot to see from, but there wasn't really a good spot anywhere. There were things happening all around and we were stuck right in the middle. But, if you could stand on your tippy toes, you could see over the crowd to view the ceremony until your toes got too tired and needed a break. After that was over and we made it through the mess of exiting, we walked over to see Big Ben and then over to ride the London Eye. But, that wasn't enough sight seeing for one day, so we ventured over to see the poppies set up around the Tower of London and to see the London Bridge. After all of this, we made it back to Mike and Justin's aunt's house in time for dinner with some other family members to meet, too.
On Sunday, Justin and I didn't know really what to do. We decided to venture out and see Abbey Road. Come to find out, it's a road! It wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be, but at least I can say I've seen it now. So, to try and make up for it, we walked over to Primrose Hill. It definitely did the job. You could see all of London from that one hill and it was amazing. But, while looking around we saw some weird-looking tent and our curiosity got to us. We decided it must be part of the zoo, so we went down and went through the entire zoo (which is GINORMOUS by the way) in about 2 and a half hours. The only thing that we missed were the reindeer, except we really didn't because we spotted them while leaving the zoo.
Early, early, early Monday morning, we left for Paris! We took the underwater train there (which you couldn't actually see outside) and we got there fairly quickly. Once we got there, we found the currency exchange and also purchased a 'hop-on hop-off' bus ticket to get everywhere easier. Since we only had two days, we had to make it easy to get to all the sights. We immediately went over to see the Musee de Louvre where the Mona Lisa is. The line was extremely long, but we waited in it and found out that there was another one waiting for us inside to get the tickets. After a couple of hours of waiting and waiting and getting the wrong change and waiting some more, we made it into the museum. That is another ginormous place where you could get lost for days. We probably went around in circles about three or four times until we found signs to lead us to the Mona Lisa. After we finally saw it, we had seen enough of the museum and took the bus over to the Notre Dame. By the time we got out of there, it was getting a little dark. We made it over to the lock bridge to find a spot for our lock to be. After a little bit of searching, we found the perfect place and decided we'd come back to get more pictures of it in the daylight. So, we went over to see the Eiffel Tower under the lights and then headed back to the hotel room after we figured out the Metro system. The next morning we got breakfast in the room and then headed out to the Eiffel Tower to make it to the top. We climbed the 600 some odd stairs to the second floor and waited in line to take the elevator to the summit. While standing there a man came out and told us we were waiting for nothing because they were evacuating the summit due to the wind. But, even though I probably would've left, Justin said we should wait a couple more minutes to see what happens. So, as we watched a couple people leave the line, we made it up closer and only about 5 or 10 minutes later, we boarded the elevator to the summit and it was definitely worth the wait. After we got all our pictures we made our way down the tower and over to the lock bridge to find ours in the daylight. After a little bit of search and help from the pictures taken the night before, we found our lock and took some more pictures before we left.
The next day everyone decided it was more of a resting day. So, we slept in a little bit and then met Mike at the tube station again to go do some souvenir shopping before they left the next morning. We took a couple walks up and down Oxford Street to stop at the multiple shops that line it. The only thing that we couldn't find was a figurine of a Queen's Guard. So we ventured back to Buckingham Palace to visit the gift shop right next to it where we finally found one suitable to bring back. All in all it was a great trip and definitely made being away for so long a little easier.
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