Hello, ole chaps! Sorry there aren't any fish or chips to offer, but I hope you are reading this with a slight British accent stuck in your head because it's the rightful thing to do upon reading about my jolly good adventures in London! I'm still waiting to bump into my guilty pleasure band, One Direction. Wait. I'm not guilty about that. I love those little British boys.
Besides that, Elissa and I took a seven hour trek to get to our hostel and realized that we were wayyyy too tired to actually try and do a whole lot for Day 1. So we casually strolled to the supermarket and...FOUND MORE DR. PEPPER. it was a magical day despite the rude information guy and mess of an underground they have here. It was just sooooo good hearing English again. I didn't realize the comfort it held for me after not hearing it fluently for nearly two months. After we got our energy back, we made our way to the Tate Modern museum. The best part? It was free. Ok ok not the best part but free art by Kandinsky, Picasso and other influential modern painters is a great day in my book! And right beside the museum was the fancy bridge that the death eaters attacked in Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince! Poor muggles. Unfortunately my trek across London is completely full of muggle like capabilities. I can't apparate anywhere. I can't make food appear and I can't give myself more time here.
Nonetheless, the first night was still AMAZING. So here's a little backstory, when I visited Liverpool in 2012, my best friends took me to a place called Nando's, a little chicken place with the ABSOLUTE BEST garlic peri peri sauce. So of course I'm craving it, and I'm telling Elissa about this magical sauce and BOOM BAM out of no where Elissa sees it. She sees my place. She is looking at Nando's. My Nando's. My beloved Nando's. So after walking to tower bridge and taking a selfie or two, I have convinced Elissa to go inside my place. AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY POUND SPENT. We got ice, bottomless drinks, and a full chicken to ourselves. How magical does that sound? I could eat there forever. It was so good. I highly recommend that to anyone who goes. Definitely six stars right there. You're right, I'm probably over exaggerating, but after two months of straight pasta that may or may not be good, this chicken was amazing.
Now that you're hungry, you can wipe the drool off your mouth and read about Day 2. We started off with free breakfast. We love free stuff and they had cold milk. COLD MILK. I dont know if I told you, but Italy doesn't have cold milk. And their milk is gross. So here I am two months after my departure and I'm having milk for the first time!! It was absolutely magical like the rest of my day. Elissa and I took the Tube, which is the fancy name for the underground subway system. There's a catch. No one calls it the tube. It's called the underground. Here I was happy to hear and be near English again, and I CAN'T EVEN ENGLISH HERE. There are so many words, meanings and accents that I still can't get. But we still managed to trek our way to my old chap Ben. Big Ben. Ba dun tsss. Not sure what that does but Ben is Big and a very nice little clock tower right next to Westminster Abbey. We then traveled to Buckingham Palace. And let me tell you. IT WAS A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. LIKE. I had my game face on getting ready to take my picture next to the palace guard. But noooooooo. They aren't there. Psh. Whatever. I saw the palace. Became a princess. No big deal. It was magical. Actually the most magical part of the day was traveling to King's Cross where I barely missed my train to Hogwarts on Platform 9 3/4. In reality half of a buggy is attached to a wall permanently in the station where pictures can be taken with you running, jumping or whatever. It was awesome nevertheless. After a small lunch and strolling through hyde park. Elissa and I ended up at the National Gallery. Which was also free! Saw some more of my favorite impressionist such as Degas, Van Gogh, Monet and Manet. Ugh. I loved it!
Since it was Halloween, Elissa and I wanted to do something entertaining for the holiday we are missing. So what do we do? We end up at a GIANT shopping mall with a cinema. That's a fancy word for movie theatre. After I resisted the urge to buy Taylor Swift's cd, we ended up at a movie theatre to watch Annabelle. IT WAS TERRIFYING. I don't know how I slept. Actually, I slept well because our Halloween dinner consisted of movie theatre pop corn and, later, ramen and Belgium apple cider. The dinner of champions my friends. Even if it did take me thirty minutes to figure out the stove....
And then we had the absolutely most magical day of all. MAGIC. MAGICALLY MAGICAL I TELL YOU. BECAUSE...we toured the set of Harry Potter at Warner Brothers Studios. I cannot describe to you how absolutely amazing it was. I almost cried. I know I know. Serious fangirling but Harry Potter wasn't just a book or a movie. It was a massive masterpiece of my generation. From the art to the story, every bit of it as art in some form. The set design, the make up artist, the costumes, the architecture, the concepts and even better, THE GRAPHIC DESIGN. I learned that practically everything you see in the movies is handmade. Every artist had to take calligraphy classes and such to create unique handmade packages, letters, labels and scrolls. And everything!!! All the graphics are very, very authentic. I think I found my calling in life. And how to use my degree. Not only the art was amazing, but the props were amazing too! Just everything was jaw dropping. It was well worth every pound I spent on it. Plus, I bought my butterbeer and chocolate frog to make my magical day complete. Why oh why am I a simple muggle? I just wanted to love there in the world that JK Rowling created. It was hard saying goodbye. But I'll be back. I promise.
With the pain in my heart growing bigger, I'll say that's a wrap for my very long beautiful adventure across Europe. I get to return to my little fairy tale town in Italy for more free food and chocolate salami.
I now only have 26 days left here. Oh how the time passes here. I miss it already.
See ya later ol chaps.
Sincerely yours,
Sadie