Experiencing The "Real World" a World Away: Mind the Gap

I finally made it to London! I've literally wanted to visit this city for as long as I can remember, and I was far from dissappointed. After a 6:30 AM flight from Edinburgh on Friday, Brittany, Emily, and I arrived in the big city ready for three full days of sightseeing. This is how excited I was upon seeing Westminster and Big Ben:

We managed to see A LOT, so to make this blog somewhat readable, I'll hit you with the highlights:

I absolutely adore the London Underground. Call me crazy. The tube system is amazing! The three of us each bought Oyster cards for the weekend and were able to get everywhere we needed to go so fast. I'm just so impressed with how extensive it is, and it's been around since the eighteen hundreds! Of course, everything is older over here compared to the states, but I still can't believe it. My favorite phrase now is "mind the gap" :)

I'd have to say that my favorite part of the trip was our tour of the Parliament Building. It's always been my favorite building architecturally in this town, it's just stunning:

Tours are usually only reserved for UK citizens, but working for Scottish Parliament has it's perks. We managed to get a tour scheduled within just a week! It was an amazing tour too, the building used to be the royal palace so it's got so much history. I loved it. Perhaps my next potential career path...? ;)

Some of the other fun places we managed to see:

Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. We didn't really see the ceremony, but we saw the guards go in and out. The crowd was INSANE!

Piccadilly Circus (aka Times Square in London)

The Sherlock Holmes Pub (be jealous, Brad!) Great Fish n' Chips here.

The Tower Bridge- This was right before we boarded a river cruise down the Thames.

The legendary Harrods. They sell EVERYTHING (though a bit on the spendy side). We were joking that one could live off of only things purchased from this store, and Brittany has decided she will actually live in it someday, haha.