A Trip Across the Pond - Day 2

Well if you didn't fancy day 1 enough, day 2 was just as eventful, but a bit more touristy. Since I had never been to London but my companions had, it was easier to navigate ourselves and get the most done in little time, since we had a slightly later start than expected. Perhaps the 4:30am bed time had a bit to do with that?

We started off the day with that else but fish & chips. You can't go to London and not eat f&c!

The fish & chips were delish! The peas went uneaten, obvi. 

Today we visited Millennium Bridge, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, had a crepe with nutella (Oh.My.God), saw Buckingham Palace, and took loads of jumping photos! Unfortunately, those were all captured by Alex's camera, and she is uploading those tonight. So, plenty of photo blawgs to come! Below are just a few of mine.

 Big Ben. Interesting fact: the bell inside the tower that makes the sounds is nicknamed Big Ben, thus the name.

 It took us a while to adjust to looking the opposite direction before crossing the road. Here, we show how we have mastered this!

 London welcoming me! So wait, where the heck was I all day yesterday?

A fuzzy photo outside Buckingham Palace. 
This was only about 4pm, but it got dark in London really early.

The Queen invited us in for tea, but we had to decline, as we had plans to meet for drinks with our friend Mr. Tom. Which leads us to the evening time. We made our way to O'Neills Pub in Earl's Court to meet up with the bloke we met on the street day 1. He was super funny, so we figured why not? We had a drink with him and his Slovakian friend, and they left around 8 because of work the next day. The pub was closing at 10pm, so I was nominated to go up to strangers and find our 2nd location. Well, as luck would have it, we wound up talking to 2 managers of the bar and they invited us to stay after hours with a group of them. There was an Irish West End performer who was NOT GAY (ummm k), another performer who was a ballroom dancer, Monty who was....well....Monty, and John Conner. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't have many photos from this evening. Alex has all of these. She calls them her "Why Jessica can never run for President" photos. Here are a few of my dad-safe ones:

 

Look Dad, both hands! (My dad claims he never sees photos of any trip I go on with both of my hands)

 A badly wrapped kebab, circa 4:30am.

A Motley Crew. Ray, Monty and Alex

More photos to follow once Alex has the chance to upload. I promise you will be entertained.

Lessons Learned - Day 2
*Talk to random strangers. Hopefully, they are the bar managers and will leave the bar open an extra 5 hours for you.
*When meeting people from foreign countries, follow their lead. Since many other countries kiss on the cheek, you want to make sure you don't want up lip locking with a total stranger. Aaaaaaaaaaawkward.
*Eat crepes. Trust me.
*Always carry an umbrella in London.
*Learn the local slang. I can not publish here what I learned, but feel free to ask me. And don't be offended because this is your warning.

Tomorrow we will sadly be on day 3 of the trip, which has highlights of Marks & Spencer sandwiches, crisps, the Tower of London and other touristy photos.