The Last Full Week

Monday began the first day of our last full week in London. While we still have another partial week left (Monday to Wednesday, we leave this Thursday!), it is crazy how little time we have left!

On Monday, we toured St. Paul's Cathedral.

Unfortunately, as with most places in London, you couldn't actually take pictures inside the cathedral. After our tour, we walked up the 528 steps to the dome, which included three different levels that you could see London from! The top gallery had the best views and it was awesome.

After that I went to Hamley's on Regents Street, which is pretty much the largest toy store I have ever seen... I wanted to get something cool from Build-A-Bear since I collect the bears... and I would say my trip was pretty successful. PS: the British outfits are so cute.

After that I went back to the flats to eat dinner and study.

On Tuesday, I went to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour - the Making of Harry Potter!

Studio Tour bus!

I even wore my owl earrings! :)

We got there an hour early, since our tour started at 5, but we were able to go in early (probably around 4:15 or so) and it was super cool!
Obviously I cannot post all my pictures here or this blog post would be super long, but I took around 721 pictures there (including all of the ones of people in my group), so it was really cool!
We got to see a lot of different sets including the cupboard under the stairs, Dumbledore's office, the Gryffindor Common Room, and a ton of sets from the Ministry of Magic! We also saw a ton of cool props, like all of the wands, and the horcruxes and things like that.

Little Boom and I riding Hagrid's bike!

I also got to open the doors to the Great Hall, so that was really really cool! If you want to see more pictures, you can ask me to show them to you once I'm home or check out the ones I did post (not very many though) on Facebook. It was such a cool experience and I loved every minute of it!

On Wednesday, we went to Dover Castle and Canterbury Cathedral. We took a coach there, and our first stop was Dover! We left at 7:30 and made it to Dover by 10 or so.

We got to take a tour of the Secret War Tunnels (used in WWII), which were so cool! After that we got to go into the castle part, and the view was incredible!

We had to leave after a while of enjoying the great view, since we had to be on our way to Canterbury! When we got there we had an hour of free time so we could eat lunch and such. I got Subway (which was delicious), and then we all waited for our tour of the Cathedral.

 

The Cathedral was really pretty, but our tour guide was impossible to hear, so that was kinda lame. However we got to see lots of stained glass and we could take pictures inside, so that was super cool!

At 5 or so, we headed back to London after a long day. We finally got back at 7:15 or so, and got the chance to relax. It was a fun but exhausting day!


On Thursday, we went to Greenwich after class. We took the boat cruise down there, and got to see lots of the London sights again:

Tower Bridge

We finally found the London Bridge!

Once we made it to Greenwich, we went to a market and hung out for a little while before heading back. The boat ride was super fun though!

Friday was my birthday! We had class from 10-1, so I got a birthday muffin and the class all sang me Happy Birthday. It was really nice.

After class, Alex and I went to the Natural History Museum. We got to see the dinosaur exhibit, which was really cool, and then we walked around an explored for a little while. We were only in there for about an hour, but we still saw lots of cool things! I even found a Giraffe!

T-Rex!

It was a really cool museum and we both loved it! We wandered around the area near there for a little while, before we headed back to the flats to get ready to go out for dinner! First we stopped at Kings Cross Platform 9 3/4 for pictures.. :)

And then we went to a cute little Italian restaurant for dinner. 

 

It was yummy and a fun birthday dinner! After that we came back to the flats and enjoyed some cake!

And then this happened.

It was a really fun day and I really enjoyed it. It's definitely a birthday I will never forget!

Well, that wraps up our final full week! For the next 4 days I have to be in serious study mode for my paper (due Sunday at midnight), and two finals on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we are going to Stonehenge and Bath so that will be lots of fun!