Playing tourist in Londontown

In the weeks after returning from Paris, a bunch of people came to visit London including Jon who was still here for his Spring Break! Jen's friend Ally from home came and Cara's sister, Erin came to visit too. This meant we got to play tourist! We saw the Changing of the Guard finally at Buckingham Palace, BIG BEN, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and the London Eye all in a weekend!

The Changing of the Guard was a crowded experience and we only saw parts of it but the highlight was when Jen Chiu literally found 35pounds on the ground which later paid for drinks at the Pub (picture below to prove it!) Took a picture in front of the iron gate although the Queen did not grace us with her presence :(.

We didn't get to go and tour the Abbey because there was a long line but did get nice pictures around Parliament/ Big Ben/ Trafalgar Square area along with a very London red phone booth picture!

That was a nice day out and we made the most of the touring and seeing things! Jon left on Sunday to go back to Boston which turned out to be a travelling nightmare but he did get there safely in the end.

That day was also the St.Patty's day parade in Trafalgar Square so we went back down in green celebratory attire and had some Irish Cider. They had traditional Irish music, dancing, drinking, a parade, and we had a blast; even bought some Irish shamrock headbands. It was such a beautiful day out and because it wasn't actual St Patricks day on Sunday, the festivities continued on Wednesday the 17th of March.

Guiness was sponsoring a bunch of Pubs down in the Picadilly area and all you needed was a voucher for a free pint of Guiness so of course in the spirit of the holiday we had a couple each! Many people had big Irish hats going around and quite randomly a guy came up to me and gave me his it was great!! Jen had her Shamrocks and we did a mini-pub crawl that night before ending up at Waxy O'Connors for an Irish night out with the locals and tourists! However before we got to Waxy's another random guy came up to me asking for the hat because he said he was Irish and said he needed the hat..I told him it was mine and he snatched it off my head and ran away with it...it was the most absurd move of the night but we kept on with high spirits! Also randomly saw a girl from Punahou..of course in London this would happen..

Actually make that double because the next night we went to O'Neills...a popular American college hang out spot, and I saw Patty Boxold and Gretchen saw someone from her elementary school..It's A Small World Afterall?