London, Baby!

As many of you know, my husband and I recently returned from vacation; we were in Ireland visiting family, and we took a short side trip to London.

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Now, I could go on and on about what we did each day, but I don’t think you’re that interested. Instead, I’m just going to tell you some of my favorite things we did and saw.

If you want to know more about anything I mention, just ask in the comments!

Drinking on the street

Our first night we decided to explore our neighborhood and discovered the first thing we loved about London: you can drink outside!

I don’t mean, like sitting out on a patio, I mean literally just standing outside the bar drinking your beer.

Ok, I know that doesn’t sound super exciting, but it was really fun. And it may have only been because we can’t do it here, but it doesn’t change how much we enjoyed doing it!

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We just thought it was really funny.

King’s Cross & Platform 9 3/4

I mentioned our magical day in the Wake Up Call, and I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but seriously, our Harry Potter day/ anniversary was so freakin’ awesome.

The first stop of the day was Platform 9 3/4. Our proximity to this fictional landmark directly correlated to the pitch of my voice. I kept telling Steve, “Thank you so much for this. You’re the best husband ever. I can’t believe this is happening!!”

I had a really hard time deciding between a Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff scarf for my photo op. I am a proud Hufflepuff, but I thought the scarf might blend in with my cream-colored dress too much. In the end, I went with Gryffindor because I was really embodying the whole Harry experience, ya know?

And, fine, the Gryffindor scarf just looked better.

I did wear my appropriate house scarf for a second photo op in the gift shop, though.

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

We also had tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One & Two. How amazing is my husband???

The show was phenomenal. The transitions were fabulous (although Steve was like, “What’s the point of this?”), and the effects! It looked like they were actually sucked into the phone booth at the entrance to the Ministry, and you should have seen the dementors– so awesomely terrifying.

Our seats were wayyyyyy up– seriously, we were three rows from the very top. The tickets even warn, “Balcony is high and steep,” and that was no exaggeration. When we first sat down, it was disorienting, and frankly, a little nauseating, but once the show started it wasn’t a problem.

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In all my excitement/ nerdiness, I asked Steve to take my photo with my Playbill. Alas, I can never seem to keep my eyes open when the flash is on so this was what happened:

He thinks it’s hilarious. Partly because my eyes are closed, but also because he says my head looks like it was photoshopped onto someone else’s body. IDK. But I figured I’d share the laugh.

My friend Bob said to me yesterday, “I asked Steve if you enjoyed London and Harry Potter and stuff, and he said, ‘I’m pretty sure she was happier that day than she was on our wedding day.'”

Although not (100%) true, it perfectly sums up our Harry Potter day in London.

Sightseeing

Of course, we did a lot of the usual tourist-y stuff and saw The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, etc. We didn’t go IN to any of these places, as we were doing our own sort of self-guided walking tour. Thus, we did most of our oohing and ahhing from the outside.

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Quirky bars

It seemed like every bar we went into had some sort of quirkiness, or homey feel, and I really loved it. More bars should have arm chairs, or be in a cave.

Cat in a bar!

I mean, need I say more? There was a cat named Earl (and a cat named Grey, who I did not see– Get it? Earl and Grey?). I got to pet him, and it made me so happy.

EDIT: HOW COULD I FORGET THIS?!?!?!

We’d just left Buckingham Palace, and there was a motorcade coming. 

“Oh, let’s stop for a second,” Steve said, pointing.

We peered at the line of cars, and in the second to last car was an old lady with white hair. THE QUEEEN– the fucking Queen of England!

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Ugh, writing this makes me wish we were there now. I miss it so much that I don’t even have a witty ending for this blog post. I’ll be back for you London.

Have you ever been to London? What was your favorite part?