Ciao Benito. Oops, that's Big Ben...

Just a short week after Dad and Berb returned to the real world I got to escape from my reality.. To LONDON, England!!

Thursday November 11th was supposed to be the day of our Italian Grammar midterm. London was to serve as the 'Yay, we finished the exam.' However, it was rescheduled to the following Tuesday. Hm...
Anywho, we headed straight from the BCSP office to the airport to being the long weekend in a non-schengan state.

As a first-time RyanAir flyer.. I was a bit nervous. It is quite possibly the most inexpensive airline ever. We soon found out why.. Our evening flight started off just as any other after getting through security to our gate just before a group of about 40 people lined up behind us. After sitting at the gate for a while, a line began to form at the gate.  There are no assigned seats on RyanAir. It was a bloodbath, but somehow we got seats together. The duration of the flight was the interesting part... You know the AirMall magazines on flights.. well on RyanAir the flight attendants try to sell those things over the LOUD SPEAKER.. including smokeless cigarettes, lottery tickets and a selection of other gems..

The WE I keep referring to were the lovely Tatiana, Nicola, Ellen and myself. Maried and Mallory joined us on Friday.

We made it to Gatwick Airport, then took a bus into London for about an hour. The bus dropped us off at King's Cross! We were here EVERY DAY taking the tube from place to place.

Thursday night proved uneventful after getting HORRIBLE directions from the concierge (if you want to give him a proper title, dude if not.)

Friday marked the real start of the trip. We decided it would be a good idea to take the free hostel tour.. oh boy was it! Haha our tour guide and about 70 other people walked all over London stopping at some really neat places and got a short description of each. Saturday we decided to get an extended tour of old London. That time there were only 8 people, including the guide. The sites included...

Our tour guide in front of Parliament. This was the end of the tour, but whose counting.. 

Yes, the tea company. They have been paying rent in this building for over 300 years!

Well.. this we saw at every intersection. What a brilliant idea for those pesky tourists and other idiots that forget they drive on the opposite sides of the road in England.

Tati was a bit disappoint with Big Ben. It was impressive, but too small for her standards.

Westminster Abbey. Breathtaking.

This beloved site was visited SEVERAL times over the weekend. Yumm.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the only royal ground on which an Olympic event will take place in 2012. You guessed it.. Sand Volleyball.

We had someone take a picture of us in front of Buckingham Palace.. It's behind that pesky pole.

And the trip would not have been complete without a picture inside the telephone booth.

Caroline, Kimberly, Jessica, Tati and me.

Friday night was a bit more eventful than Thursday had been. Tati, being the world-traveler that she is knew several people living in London. Thankfully, she was able to get in contact with them. They were able to show us a real night out in London. We went to Proud Gallery in Camden Town. This photography gallery by day and dance club by night welcomed us with a line of about 75 people. For the first time in my life I can say.. we were on the list! We skipped the line and headed into the club. The dance floor was full of people singing along to songs EVERYONE knows. The DJ was Fantastic.

I was hugged by a tree.....

Saturday was another day of exploring.. after the second tour we met up with one of Ellen's friends, Stephanie. We made it to Buckingham Palace just in time for the Changing of the Guard ceremony. It was a bit underwhelming because we couldn't see anything. So naturally we went to Satrbucks. A little while later Stephanie took us to Harrod's. Can you say 'one-stop-shop'? It was AMAZING. Period. There were clothes, puppies, a sweets store, a food section.. it was incredible. We ended the night with a movie  because we were worn out. Due Date.. it was terrible. Don't waste your money.

On the way in to change the guard.. the hats were epic.

Killing time before the movie.

Sunday we decided to be super touristy and head over to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum. In all honesty, it was a bit terrifying. I was waiting for them to wake up and jump out at me. It was a good use of a few hours while the daily rain came and went. Later, because we had originally planned to go to London for the premiere (in theaters) of Harry Potter, we HAD to stop by Platform 9-3/4. It was conveniently located at King's Cross Station.

The group.

After a long weekend we were able to make it to Stanstead Airport at about 4:30am for our flight back to Bologna. We made it back and to class! Well done girls.

All in all, London was amazing.