day three in london: walking around the thames

I have so much to tell you about the day! Ok, may I just say that London is absolutely amazing! It's everything you would think it is, plus a hundred times better than that awesomeness you can picture in your imagination. This morning we went to our first class, which means a short trip up a flight of stairs and sitting in our classroom while we had our "London Walks" class, which was basically our teacher saying, "Okay, get your Tube pass and go have fun in London" for an hour. We also have certain "walks" through London that we have to do(I know, right? Such a bummer - note the sarcasm in previous sentence. i'm so excited to do these walks). There are 8 walks. I already did the first one, which was to go around our neighborhood. Today we decided to do the walk around Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It was a drizzly London day, just how you imagine it to be here - I loved it! I've always been a big fan of rain and overcast days, so I really enjoyed it.

To get to the start of the walk, we took a double-decker bus, which is officially my fav way to get around London! If you sit on the top, you can see everything around you, which pretty much rocked my world, for sure. People were probably pegging me as an American as I squinted out the window, with my camera at the ready, but I can't help taking pics of everything! It's so unreal to be here!

We got off the bus right in front of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and I'm not gonna lie to you, I got a lump in my throat like I was going to start crying, just out of sheer wonder that I was really there! We're going back on Thursday as a group too, for which I am so excited! We walked around Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, which included chatting with some kids on a school trip. They were so cute in their uniforms and with their little English accents. They were Kaity's age and they talked to us for nearly twenty minutes. They asked if I had seen Zac Efron. I told them the Jonas Brothers were coming to my city this summer and they got super excited. It was fun to chat with them!

We crossed a bridge and walked past the London Eye. Guys, London really is incredible! I cannot believe that I'm really here, still. We ate lunch in a "pub" even though it was just like any other little restaurant. It was called "The Slug and the Lettuce," though, which made me laugh a little. After lunch, we took a walk down to Buckingham Palace, but didn't go inside, just because we need to devote a day to the Palace, probably. The street and St. James Park is beautiful, though. The parks here are really very picturesque. Very tree-y and green. Also, lots of pigeons.

After dinner, a bunch of us wanted to go see a show, and we went to get discount tickets. We'll get better at choosing which shops have the best discount tickets, but we ended up getting all nine of us in the group in to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I forget how much I love that musical! It wasn't one of the ones I was planning on seeing here in London, but I'm really glad we got to see it. Also, the chorus children were totally singing with cute English accents, too. I can't get over kids and their accents. I love it. Anyway, the show was great and I've been singing it all day today.

After the show, we went for a nighttime walk across the Thames (pronounced "teh-mms). Again, it was so beautiful. I was hypnotized. I literally stopped and stared for about a minute, mesmerized. The pics I have aren't even close to doing it justice, but I did my best.

I LOVE LONDON!