First Trip Outside of Ireland: London, England!

~February 17th/18th/19th, 2017~

WOO! We finally were able to get our immigration cards to be able to travel outside of Ireland. Our first international stop was none other than the U.K.! Just a one hour, inexpensive flight away, London made for the perfect weekend getaway, especially since there is no language barrier. We took a 1:00am bus to Dublin, to catch a 6:00am flight to London. We got to the U.K. early Friday morning and saw the big tourist spots like Big Ben, the London Eye, and Parliament. Then, took the tube to meet one of my friends from Butler who is studying abroad in London. He took us to a cute, hole in the wall, type of brunch place called Farm Girl. It was a great lunch, and it was so good to see him! Then, Lily and I walked to Buckingham Palace and strolled through St. James Park. We had perfect weather, it was 60 degrees and sunny, which the locals said was the best weather they have had this year! So we lucked out. We also were able to successfully navigate the tube. After our first few trips, we felt like pros navigating the map and finding stops closest to where we needed to be. After Buckingham Palace, we took the tube to Camden, a fun and hip part of London filled with food and craft markets. Such a fun atmosphere. There, we had an afternoon snack at Cereal Killers. This place had every single type of cereal from around the world, so we each had a “cereal milkshake.” You sat in beds, and they had 90’s memorabilia everywhere. It was quite an experience. After more sightseeing, we went to dinner at the most exciting place in the world, CHIPOTLE. There are no Chipotle’s in Ireland, and we have been craving the Mexican chain since we got here. However, they have a few in London!! So we knew that was 100% going to be a stop on our trip. Magical. To say there weren’t tears shed would be a lie. After fulfilling our Chipotle craving, we met up with another friend of mine from high school, who is also studying in London. We walked around the city at night and across the tower bridge, which was stunning. So fun to see her and this beautiful city at night!

The next morning we went to breakfast at a local cafe where I had red berry pancakes with caramelized honey crisps and mint syrup. Devine to say the least. Then, we began day two of sightseeing. We started at Coven Gardens, a cool shopping district and then moved to the west side of the city to visit Harrod’s department store. I definitely felt out of place there, but it was so cool to walk around and see the grossly expensive merchandise. Needless to say, I did not touch anything. From there, we took the tube to Abbey Road to pay homage to The Beatles. A nice stranger offered to take our picture walking across the iconic crosswalk. Then we decided to head back to Camden to try out the food markets and have street food for dinner. We split fresh homemade chips (a.k.a. fries) and a chicken quesadilla with peppers and chipotle mayo. YUM. Then, for the best part, we went to Chin Chin Lab. This is an ice cream shop that has gone viral for its decadent hot chocolate. Grade A dark chocolate from Venezuela is paired with homemade torched marshmallow fluff (MARSHMALLOWS ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE FOODS). We waited in line for 20 minutes, and then we were served the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever had. THIS HOT CHOCOLATE WAS HEAVENLY. I could cry just thinking about it. Make sure to check out the picture below, because I have no words. Unbelievable. After practically perishing from the deliciousness of this hot chocolate, we headed back into the city to go to the National Gallery of Art. Which was very beautiful and a nice, educational stop.

After than, we called it a night, because we had to get up at 4:15AM for our flight back to Dublin. We had to walk to the train station, take a train to the airport, board our flight, then take a bus back to Cork. It was a long travel day, but so worth the adventure. London was amazing. We both were sad to leave.