Day 26: London Calling -- Day 2

Saturday - June 12, 2010:

Day 2 in London... what do we need to get us up and ready for our day? Starbucks. Same as yesterday and somehow it was more delicious the second time around. Our alarm went off at 9 a.m... Rome time. That means it was 8 a.m. in London. Of course we didn't realize this until we were ready and out the door, but it's one of those times that we were so thankful we accidentally woke up early. Now we had the whole day ahead of us! We were really trying to make the most of our short trip in this big city.

From Starbucks we took The Tube to Notting Hill (ahhh!!) Gate -- we had big plans to hit the Portobello Road Antique Market. I was so excited about this because it's something I've always heard about, and I love antiques (and not to mention that Hugh Grant's Notting Hill is one of my all time favorite movies)!

Once off The Tube and on the streets, Becca spotted Prince Albert's Pub... it would be where we ate lunch later in the day!

Portobello Road :) Antiques here we come....

You can't tell me this is the cutest street you've ever seen. I'm sold on Notting Hill -- I'm starting to look for flats today!

Becca had been to Portobello Road on her Spring Break trip but the only thing she remembered about it was this cupcake shop. Seriously, she wouldn't stop talking about it! She claims she has had dreams about them... so I figure they must be pretty good. It is about half way down the road, so we mosey our way there, pop in and get us 2 cupcakes each to go. The bakery was SO cute! I wasn't disappointed. I was disappointed when I ate them either... they seriously might have been the best (and most tasty looking) cupcakes ever. I wanted to go back for more but we resisted!

With our cupcakes in front of Hummingbird Bakery!

Aren't you craving one now that you've seen this picture?

This was a sign on one of the vintage store's door -- we found it pretty hysterical.

We were wandering around the streets of Notting Hill (secretly I was looking for Hugh Grant's apartment in the movie) and, just when I was about to give up, I spotted it. THE Travel Bookshop. From Notting Hill. EEK! I was so psyched. So we walked in and wandered around (I reminisced on the scenes from the movie). It was precious - just like I had pictured it. I was so excitedddddd, I mean we literally just stumbled upon it. I told you this trip was good! Things just kept working out :)

We were on a high after finding the bookshop (and scoring some really cool purchases at the market) so we figured we might as well grab some lunch and enjoy our time in this cute part of London. Like I said earlier, we decided on Prince Albert's Pub. Gooood choice. I felt like a local in there -- the people were so nice and the place was so cool. We had a typical American lunch (burger and fries... splurge) and savored every bite of it!

Our view from the booth of Prince Alberts. I'm in looooove with Notting Hill!

Remember how I said there were these painted elephants around town? Well we spotted this one and had to have someone snap a picture of us in front of it. It says "You stole my heart" -- we like to think of it as "London, YOU stole my heart" :)

The Tube... London's Metro system. It was surprisingly clean and we didn't have too much trouble navigating it at all. Thats a major plus!

After Notting Hill and the Portobello Road Antique Market, the next thing on our list was Buckingham Palace. So we took The Tube to Victoria Station, got off and started walking towards it. Well, we were just walking and talking and then both of us noticed the crowd that was walking in the other direction... Becca and I both looked at each other and were kind of like "What?" We kept walking... then we saw police cars driving... then it dawned on us -- IT WAS THE QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY! Are you kidding?? We are in London for 3 days and one of them is the Queen of England's birthday. LUCKY DUCKS. So we start freaking out and once we get to the gates of the palace we realize we just missed the parade. SO SAD. We were seriously so upset. It was like we missed our best friends birthday party. I wish we would have known and we could've made it to the parade... but we got to take cute pictures! I guess this a good excuse to go back next summer....

We were soooooooo sad. First mess-up of the trip (and we didn't even know about it!)

Maybe my favorite picture from the trip. "Happy Birthday Your Majesty God Save The Queen"

The Guards! Their black hats really are that big...

Then as we were leaving we saw the guards in the back of the Palace taking a smoke break. For some reason we found this so funny! They look so legit and so tough out front in their uniforms, marching around. And then we go outback and their just guys hanging out. Too funny.

The area down around Victoria Station. Loving the big buildings!

Again, we were on a high after seeing Buckingham Palace and the crowd. We took The Tube back to Oxford Circus and walked around for a little bit. But our day had completely worn us out. We were so tired we couldn't walk -- more or less try on clothes (this is me attempting to but I'm so exhausted. The shirt won this battle).

So after realizing we were to tired to do anything, we walked back to Piccadilly and took a power nap. The power nap served us well -- we felt energized and ready to go for the night (that didn't last long). During our day we had discovered this really cute part of town called Carnaby Street. It is right behind Oxford Street and it's like a little secret of London. It has all these cute boutiques and restaurants, so we had explored it earlier and decided this was where we were going to eat dinner. Once we got dressed and ready we headed to Carnaby. You wouldn't believe it but we stumbled upon... a thai restaurant. Yep, thai. It was the only thing left on our mental to-do list for Saturday. Things worked out, remember? So we eat dinner at this thai restaurant (which is so delicious) and then go to get frozen yogurt at this other place in Carnaby. Love love love Carnaby!

A view of Carnaby Street

We had tickets for Les Mis at 7:30 and it is conveniently located near our hostel and Carnaby. So we walk there after dinner and sit down for the show. What a greattttttt show! I didn't know what to expect because I didn't know what it was really about, but I loved it. It was a little different than the others shows I've seen, it was more intense and dark, but it still had a great story and I loved it. (What I really loved was that cider we got at intermission!)

We thought it was a good idea to go to the play and sit down for a while, but turns out that backfired on us. After the play we were even more tired, but we weren't quite ready to head back to Piccadilly. So what do we do? Head back to Carnaby! We spot a cute bakery shop and order us a Cappucino and Muffin-thing for dessert. It was so pleasant to sit outside, talk and people watch in Carnaby. Perfect way to end our night!

After our dessert, we headed back to the hostel to pack up (sad). Of course, now that we're back and ready to go to sleep, we get a second wind of energy. We decide a photoshoot in the nasty hallways of Piccadilly Backpackers is the perfect way to get out this energy. Aren't you jealous you didn't get to stay in this place with us?

Oh and yes, those are matching London Underground souvenir t-shirts. We got caught up in the moment and thought we couldn't live without them. Now when we wear them at night in the Chigi Palace, we can look at them and think of our time in Londy!