España: Esto No Es La Vida Real: Mind the Gap- Reunion in London with the Roomies :)

Not even two midterms the day of my flight to Londontown could bring me down. I was sitting in my cine class writing a two page essay about the role of Franquism in Spanish cinema, oh in Spanish of course. I couldn't help but literally just smile the entire way though. Just the thought of being in a new place and seeing my roommates in mere hours made me absolutely ecstatic. After my cultures midterm, I hopped on the bus and went to the airport. The flight was only two hours and twenty minutes but of course that was the longest two hours of my life.
Getting off the airplane I was instantly surrounded by British accents and signs in English which was an amazing change. I took the underground line to the center of London to meet up with Sam and Caroline, my roommates from UMass. Seeing them at the tube stop was so exciting, I nearly jumped on them. It had been about three months since I had seen them. It was so nice to be reunited again. 250 love forever! We grabbed dinner then went off to Sam's flat. People get ready to go out to the bars soooo much earlier than we do in Spain. It was 8pm and we were already drinking hard cider. I don't eat dinner in Spain until 930 or 10. But we ended up going to Sam's favorite Irish pub in Picadilly Circus called O'Neill's. I soon realized why she loved it so much. They had a live band and it was just a really cool atmosphere to be in. Hearing a live band do Chelsea Dagger, the Blackhawks song literally sent me into a frenzy. But I could not get over how expensive the city was. We paid 6 pounds just to get in and 4 pounds for each snakebite we got. 1 pound is $1.60. Ouch!!! Oh and snakebites are half hard cider, half beer and topped off with black current syrup. 4am rolled around and it was time to leave but since the tubes close at midnight, we were treated to a nice ride back to Sam's flat on the infamous red double decker buses. Getting up in four hours for a full day of sightseeing would be rough.
9am was so rough to us but it was a beautiful day. Looks like I brought some Sevilla weather for us. We grabbed bagels for breakfast. Something Spain unfortunately doesn't have :( We were headed to Buckingham Palace and I ran into my friend Nora from Sevilla on the streets. This world is so small sometimes. We wandered to Buckingham Palace. It turns out we had just missed the changing of the guards but oh well. We continued to Trafalger Square and saw the Olympic countdown. After that we went to the half price ticket broadway booth and bought tickets to see Jersey boys that night! From there, we just wandered getting lost in the streets, finding our way to Westminster Abbey (where William and Kate will be getting married in a month) then to Big Ben. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we walked along the River Thames passing the London Eye. But the line was soooo long and it cost 19 pounds for a half hour ride so we passed on that. We passed so many street performers and even a little concert on the banks of the Thames. We walked all the way down to St. Paul's cathedral and sat down and were just finally taking in that all of us were in London together. It still blows my mind that I can jet off to London or Africa for a weekend and talk about it so casually. But anyways, we ended the day with a the classic fish and chips dinner before going to see Jersey Boys! The show was so amazing and made Jersey sound a little classier when the British actors tried to impersonate Jersey accents. When the show was over we were so pumped and passed out in Sam's apartment to prepare the next day for another full day ahead of us.
The weather on Saturday was nothing like Friday. It was stereotypical London weather. Cold, dreary and a little misty. So we went to see the Tower Bridge, yep the one the Spice Girls jump over in their massive bus in Spice World :) After we went to this little gift shop and Caroline spotted what would be the newest addition to 250 decor. It was a massive union jack flag and in the middle was a heart with Kate and William. Who could resist? We walked down Oxford street passing some protests about taxes and keeping things public...I think. But we went to this amazing store called Primemark. Its literally Forever 21 meets Target decor products...on crack. It was so overwhelming but a shoppers paradise. I ended up getting two pairs of flats and a cheetah print scarf. The cheetah count is getting a little out of control for me at this point...oops. After Primemark, we went to Harrod's! It blew my mind that the designer handbags were next to the sushi bar. They sold everything here and even had puppies and hamsters on sale! We wanted to go see the famous Oxford vs Cambridge regatta that was happening on the River Thames that afternoon but it was cold and raining so we passed. We went back to rest up and of course that included Mean Girls :)
Our last night in London can only be described as not real life. Sam suggested we go to this American sports bar to watch a little bit of NCAA basketball. We were all down for this idea. So we walk right past the bouncers and think nothing of it. We get in there and are instantly floored at everyone in there. It was predominately men, which didnt bother us but oh yes they were all wearing kilts. Yes like Scottish kilts. We had no clue what we had just stumbled upon. Finally after about 10 minutes we asked someone and it turns out we had inadvertently crashed a Scotish rally party for the Scotland vs Brazil soccer game that was happening the next day. At this bar we also ran into someone who lived across the hall from us freshman year who was studying abroad in Grenoble France. Like literally this world is so tiny sometimes. All of my Europe hockey dreams were about to come true. I look at the tv and the Bruins vs Rangers game was playing. It was on NESN to make it better so during breaks they had pictures of Boston playing. It was soooo amazing to see hockey again and seeing Boston on TV made me miss it so much. Having the daylight savings time switch when we were at the bar really messed us up. Yet again we were told to leave the bars at 4am. People in London don't know to party Spanish style. It was an amazing last night.
Sunday was fairly chill considering I had to leave around 2 to get back to Heathrow for my flight back to Sevilla. I am so in love with London partly because it reminds me a lot of Boston and partly because everything sounds better in a British accent. If my job asked me to move to London for work, I would do it in a heartbeat, no questions asked. But my time in London was just lovely and it was so nice to see my roommates again, especially in a place like London :)