After 3 relaxing free days we are now facing 3 days of very early days. We woke up at 6:30 this morning and met downstairs at 7:15 for the train... and we were off! We went to Chatsworth House in Chesterfield, which is so far may favorite place we've been to! It has been evolving for more than 450 years, with 105 acres of gardens, including a 300 year old Cascade, a huge trough waterfall in the rockery garden, an enormous gravity-fed Emperor fountain, a huge (confusing) maze, cottage and kitchen gardens and much more! It ended up being another rainy day and of course I forgot my umbrella, so I was a little discouraged about walking around outside, until we pulled up the the estate. It was gorgeous!! The best part about it was the gardens. It was huge and so much fun to explore. If I were a kid and I went there, I would have been in pure heaven! It was a mix of Narnia, Lion King, Never Land and any other magical outdoors. There is not a single picture that can capture the beauty that surrounded me. So me, Andrea, Danielle, Phil and Lee ventured around and felt like we were back in our childhood days again!
Chatsworth
just getting ready for a nice little horsback ride with Lee :)
Last free day today... once again everyone took advantage of sleeping in, and I came out of my 16 hour coma. As we sat at the table for breakfast we randomly decided to go to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, it was raining so they didn't get to do the full march with the band. But it was fun to stand around and see all the tourists migrate together. Afterwards, we walked around and looked at the little shops on the street, until we came across a cute little tea shop. The lady that worked there was giving free samples of tea, expecting it to be a regular sip of tea, I was highly mistaken the moment that liquid hit my taste buds! It was the BEST tea I have ever had in my life!! We tried their White Hot Chocolate... which was also amazing. I wanted to buy the whole store, but I wouldn't have enough room in my suitcase. I will be ordering from them online once my stock runs out. :)
HAY!! WE HAVE THE SAME HAIR :)
I was in tea heaven <3
After our little shopping adventure we decided... well my roomies decided to go to the London Temple which was about an hour away. We road the train to Gatwick Airport and then from there we got a taxi to take us another 15 minutes down the road. It was hilarious though, because the moment we got into the car, he started blasting that depressing song that goes..... "ALL BY MYSELFFF, DON'T WANNA BE ALL BY MYSELF!!!!" I was trying so hard not to laugh! Then he probably realized that song was a little awkward so he changed CD's and put on some Black Eyed Peas and started dancing a little bit, so we had a small dance party with the taxi driver, it was cool. Once we arrived at the temple, we didn't really know what to do because the visitors center was closed for another 2.5 hours, so we just walked around the grounds and took pictures and sketched for a bit. After we were all done, we realized we didn't have a way back to the train. So we went inside some building and tried to use their phone to call a taxi, but we had no idea how to use it, It was a little embarrassing. Then luckily we found these two nice little men and they said they would give us a ride to the train station.. I know it was a little sketch to be hitchhiking... but we were feeling desperate, and they were Morman men at a temple. So they dropped us off safely at this small little train station that was about 8 minutes from the Temple. We got on the train and went straight to our flats.... and that is where the fun began and we got ourselves into a little trouble... as well as some new friends :)
The London Temple
More details on getting in trouble and making new friends later.... good night!
Today was Beatles day! Andrea, Danielle, Phil & Lee went on the Beatles tour this morning with a random group of people that were Beatles fans as well. We had the cutest little tour guide with a sweetie accent as well, he knew pretty much anything in the world that had to do with the Beatles, if he could talk about them all day he would. As we walked around London, finding all sorts of little places the Beatles had to do with... a guy that was studying abroad as well noticed my American accent and introduced himself. He was a nice fella, but a little odd, but very nice. So for the rest of the tour he followed us everywhere & even invited himself to have lunch with us afterwards. He actually took our picture crossing Abbey Road, which by the way was quite a hard task! There was traffic everywhere and they didn't care if you were in the way or not, the drivers were gonna run you over if you were in the road. So it was a little scary crossing the road, but we got our picture and we also signed the wall, which was all we really cared about. Afterwards we had to ditch our new friend... I felt kind of bad but it was kind of weird.
this wall in London was inspired for the Beatles Album below
while on the tour we came across a huge gang of motorcycles/scooters that were decorated like this, they get together every year and have a little show.
The Beatles preformed in a TV show here
This is where they had their rooftop concert
here is a clip of the concert on the roof
Of course another jumping picture
Hey! We just moved in!
The famous Abbey Road crossing
Here I am! Crossing Abbey Road in the footsteps of the Beatles!
Our sweetie little guide :)
I found my name twice!
My name again
This time I actually wrote my name
Strawberry Fields Forever... yeah I wrote on it twice.
more love messages to the Beatles
ABBEY ROAD!!!!!!!!! Here we are crossing it!!
cool kids
our new friend
and still following...
After we got home, I was exhausted for some reason and my allergies were going crazy! There was a lot of pollen in the air this weekend because I couldn't stop sneezing and getting a faucet nose. So I went to take a little nap around 5 or 5:30pm and I didn't wake up until about 10 THE NEXT MORNING!!! And I didn't even wake up to get up or move around once! So I slept for almost a whole day... It felt really good to sleep, but I don't think I've ever done that before! Even when I have pulled 3 all-nighters in a row. So that was weird, but at least my body was able to catch up on some actual sleep!
Today was a free day! So we were finally able to sleep in, it was very nice! Once we all kind of took our time in the morning we decided to go to the London Zoo, on our way over there we came across the London Green Festival! So we ended up staying all day walking around, listening to music and checking out the fun booths selling all homemade and hand-made items! It was a lot of fun!!
here we are as we arrived in the park
just taking a stroll in the park :)
we got to make flower buttons!
he was defiantly the hottest one there catching the rays
this was a cool art piece made out of recycled furniture
they made this with a spinning wheel powered by a bicycle! It was fun to watch!
this is defiantly a good look for us
a happy little English man selling yummy organic food
