DAY #2 - London

Day number two in London was absolutely crazy! It was New Year's Eve and the city was insane. I was a little over excited and shot out of bed by about 8:00 am. We walked across Westminster Bridge to Westminster Abbey, it was so so pretty on the outside but unfortunately we didn't get to do in due to the massive line (about 100 or more people long at opening time) and expense. Afterwards we headed for a little stroll up the street to Buckingham Palace! After taking about a hundred touristy photos in front of the Palace we hopped onto a bus to do our second city tour (a slightly different route then the one from the previous day). We went all around the city past the Wellington Arch, Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, St. Martin in the fields, the Royal Horse-guards, the Waldorf, the city courts, St. Paul's Cathedral, over London Bridge, over Tower Bridge, and past the Tower of London with amazing views all around of the City of London and the City of Westminster. After our tour we hopped off the bus for a quick lunch and headed to the infamous platform nine and three quarters at King's Cross! We ended our day of sight seeing at the amazing British Museum. Unfortunately we didn't get to go through the entire museum, but everything we did get to see was pretty cool (the marble carvings from the top of the Parthenon are housed here and they were pretty awesome).
After an exhausting day of sight seeing we headed back to where we were staying, but our day did not end there! We still needed to ring in the New Year. We freshened up and headed to our local corner store to grab some drinks (yes alcohol was allowed at this event...who knew!) and head to Westminster Bridge. Although it was only about 7:45 when we arrived at Westminster Bridge but the crowds were already starting to form. The bridges had all been closed to traffic at this point, so we wandered about halfway up the bridge between the London Eye and Big Ben and took a seat in the middle of the road. We ended up meeting some other teachers on the bridge (who sat in front of us) and the night was sooo fun with a DJ playing music all night until the countdown began! I've never been in such a loud and happy crowd and the countdown was insane. I had an amazing time and the firework show was unbelievable. Christina and I could hardly talk the next morning from screaming our heads off for about 20 minutes straight. I still get excited when I see video footage of it. Getting out of the crowd and back to where we were staying (usually about a three minute walk) was also an adventure in itself. It took us a full hour to move through a sea of people to get back but it was totally worth it...such a cool, experience!