London!

I came back from beautiful warm Spain to ugly, rainy Italy.  Get it together Florence!! It poured Monday while I was walking to class but it cleared up in the afternoon thank goodness and has been nothing but gorgeous and 70+ degrees all week.  That’s what I’m talking about!  I bought a dress from H&M after class and then bought some groceries at the central market to hold me off until I came back from London.  I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went on a short run that afternoon.  We went to the Lion’s Fountain and then headed to Yab which was interesting… There was a fight and pushing and confusion and chaos so Casey and I just decided to go home.

In my wine tasting class Tuesday night, I tasted seven wines again including a 16% dessert wine that I just did not enjoy.  Wednesday morning, I went for a nice run and made a stop at the API center to sign up for excursions and a stop at the train station to see what train I needed to take to get to the airport on time. 

My flight was a late one, but two girls that were studying in Florence were on it as well and we talked the entire way.  

Kathryn was waiting for me after I got off the bus, and I was so happy!!! It was really nice to spend a few days again with someone that knows you really well, especially after James had just left.  We talked until five in the morning catching up on life.  

While Kathryn was at her internship, I took a bike tour to all of the touristy spots in London which was really nice.  I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, three of London's beautiful parks, and Trafalgar Square.  

My tour ended around 3 and Kathryn got done early so it was perfect!  I was really lucky weather wise too because it was beautiful both of the days I was there even though rain is always in the forecast.  Kathryn and I walked around and I ate fish and chips of course.  We drank some wine and watched a movie that took us probably six hours instead of two to watch because we were constantly pausing it to talk.  

I slept in the next morning, frantically finished my nursing scholarship application that was, surprise, due that day, and waited for Kathryn to get back.  We headed out to see platform nine and three quarters, which my mom mistakenly called nine and three fourths. Wowwww.  

And then we went to the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, the London Bridge (the song makes it sound wayyyy cooler than it really is), an outdoor market, and the best cookie store everrr!  I had bankers and mash for dinner, and we had full intentions of going out after butttt we realized we still had more catching up to do so we stayed up talking until my 3 am bus to the airport.

Getting home was another story.  I was supposed to get home by 11 so I could catch up on some sleep, lay in the warm sun etc.  However, I spent four hours in Genova airport because our pilot was ten minutes from Pisa but turned around because of fog.  Instead of waiting for the fog to clear out and fly us back to Pisa, someone decided we should take a two hour bus.  But we couldn’t take a bus from Genova… we had to wait for a bus to drive two hours from Pisa,  Then I sat on a two hour bus ride to Pisa, and thennnn, catch my one hour train back to Florence.  I was home at 6 pm instead of 11 am, and it sucked butttt what can you do?  At least I was lucky enough to have to company of a Dad and his daughter who were from Newcastle.  I enjoyed listening to Bethan call everything “lush.”