Sisterhood of the Traveling Powells: London, England

Our journey began bright and early on Thursday, April 19th. Per usual, airport security at Will Rogers took approximately 7 minutes and we quickly found our gate by 5:30 AM. Our initial flight was delayed by a couple of minutes, an omen of what was to come. Keep in mind that this was Jordan's first flight EVER and we were flying Southwest Airlines to Denver. Just the day before social media was inundated with the story about the woman who died on a Southwest flight when the window popped open. I nervously hoped Jordan hadn't watched the news. She had. However, our flight was uneventful and Jordan took 8 billion pictures of the wing outside of her window seat. 

We landed in Denver at 7:30 AM and made breakfast at Chick-fil-A our first priority. Starbucks was my next stop as we struggled to stay awake. Our flight to London didn't leave until 2 PM so we had loads of time to kill. Around the lunch hour, we grabbed a sandwich at Subway and filled up our water bottles in preparation for our marathon flight. Determined to operate on London time to avoid jet lag, I downed my sandwich, brushed my teeth, applied firming night cream, and popped a sleeping pill with my birth control. We scored in the seat assignment department and got a row of three seats completely to ourselves. Jordan snagged the window and I took the aisle, leaving the middle seat a catch-all for snacks, headphones, and fuzzy socks. Even with all of my meticulous preparation, I couldn't trick my body into thinking it was actually bed time and only slept about 2 hours. Instead, I watched The Blind Side and read a book on my Kindle. It's worth mentioning that Jordan has an irrational fear of airplane bathrooms and held it for 9 hours. 

We landed in London at 6:30 AM on Friday, April 20th and made it through customs by 7:30. We quickly cleaned up in the baggage claim restroom, hoping that a change of clothes would make us feel more alive. We bought our train tickets to London and hopped on the next train to the city. At Victoria Station we bought our underground cards and took the tube to Kings Cross St. Pancras Station, where our hostel was just a 10 minute walk around the corner. I chose Clink 78 for our 2-night stay in London because it was conveniently located to the train station where we'd be leaving for Paris on Sunday morning. Additionally, all of the sightseeing we planned to do was only a 15-20 minute tube ride from Kings Cross. Jordan gave this hostel 4.8/5 stars, only docking points for lack of air-conditioning. Most of the hotels in Europe don't have air-conditioning so I probably had lower expectations than she did in that regard. One of her favorite parts was that our bunkmates were hardly ever there (except when they came storming in at 2 AM...) and that the showers had their own individual doors with space to change. We stayed in a 12-bed female dorm, but it didn't feel crowded. I attribute that to the dividers attached to each bed. Even though the bunks were shoved right up next to each other, I never saw my stranger neighbor's sleeping face which is a win in my book. I wasn't as much of a fan of the showers, the curtain was one of those that tries to cling to every part of your wet body and the water pressure was what I imagine waterboarding must feel like. I risked drowning whenever I tried to wash my face. 

On Friday morning we were determined to stay awake until it was an acceptable London bed time to avoid jet lag. We dropped off our bags in the luggage room at Clink 78 before scouting for breakfast. We landed on the first cafe we saw because the hanger was real. At this point, I was contemplating the pros and cons of having an adrenal crisis. The exhaustion, severe dehydration, and lack of salt was quickly catching up with me. I picked at my breakfast of back bacon and a croissant, swallowing carefully to avoid vomiting. #glamorous. I swallowed a few more cortisol pills and focused on breathing. 

 Feeling somewhat stronger, we made our way to Leicester Square by way of the underground. Our free Strawberry Walking Tour was scheduled to start at 11 AM so we were about an hour early. We wandered Chinatown and the M&M store, already fighting to stay awake. The knowledgeable JJ led our Strawberry Tour that was made up of myself, Jordan, a German couple on their baby-moon, and a woman who had recently moved to London and wanted to learn her neighborhood better. The 7-month pregnant woman stepped a lot more lively than us, I'll tell you that. JJ took us through St. James Park and up to Buckingham Palace before Jordan and I started to seriously drag. We pow-wow'd to the side and made an executive decision to ditch the tour and find lunch because our Ice Bar time was quickly approaching. After tipping JJ for his time, the motley tour crew was down to 3 and we turned our sights to the Shake Shack we'd seen earlier. We munched on burgers and fries with heavy eyelids before walking through Piccadilly Circus to find the Ice Bar. 

Once finding the Ice Bar we were most excited about pre-gaming for the event with....ice water. At this point we were seriously punchy with sleep-deprivation and only lasted 20 minutes in the ice bar itself. It was aptly named for the 23 degree temperature and blocks of sculpted ice. We each took about 3 sips of our complimentary beverage with ticket purchase before fleeing the ice zone and dumping the provided capes. We couldn't officially check into our hostel until 2 PM so we wandered into a 3-story Cath Kidston so that I could lust over items that I had no hope of fitting into my backpack. 

We took the tube back to Kings Cross and checked into our room where the lack of AC was stifling in the unusual London heat. We took ice cold showers, our first in nearly 38 hours. We succumbed to our desire to nap at 6:30 PM, but roused ourselves for dinner at 8. We decided on the Nando's around the corner before coming back for an early bedtime. We both randomly woke up around 4 AM and I read for an hour before going back to sleep. We had the London Eye scheduled for 10:45 the next morning and we were still the first ones awake in our room. We stumbled around in the dark, trying our best to keep the noise to a minimum as the beds in our room had filled completely overnight. We took the tube to Waterloo where we found a totally local British breakfast of....McDonald's. I did however try the advertised bacon cheese flatbread that I haven't seen hit American franchises yet. We walked along the Thames River before getting in a fairly efficient line for the Eye. Overall, it was a nice experience and check off the bucket list, but it's not something I'd be itching to do again. We crossed the river to gawk at Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Trafalgar Square was packed for the Feast of St. George so we kept moving, intent on finding a quiet place to picnic in Hyde Park. We tracked down lunch at a Tesco and picked up macarons at Laduree for dessert before squeezing onto a packed tube bound for Hyde Park. The park was packed with tourists and locals alike soaking up the rare rays, but we found a shady spot and dug in. The macaron flavors we chose were vanilla, lemon, raspberry, caramel, and mint. Let me save you a mistake and tell you never ever to eat a mint macaron. It tastes like a mouthful of Crest. 

After our picnic, we wandered the park until we came across Princess Diana's memorial fountain. We were expecting a tranquil experience, but were surprised to see it filled with kids as if it was a water park. All of the signs posted requested all visitors to refrain from walking on the memorial, yet it looked like the wave pool at White Water Bay. We turned our steps northward, taking our last tube ride to Kings Cross. We showered, packed up, and got ready to leave in the morning for Paris. We visited Lucas Arms for dinner so Jordan could feast on authentic fish and chips. We also ordered two glasses of Prosecco and toasted to what we thought was our last night in London (spoiler alert-it wasn't). 

London Stats

43,482 steps walked

$61 US dollars spent