young and full of running.

EVERYTHING WAS WONDERFUL.  My friend and I had so much fun.  Except getting pickpocketed in Paris and getting my phone stolen.  Could have done without that.

We did sooo much in our short time there.  We went to Chatsworth House, which is the house used for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice.  We went to Bath, which was just gorgeous, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle.  The Harry Potter studio tour was one of my favorite things.  It was the actual studio where they filmed all of the movies, and they had all the real sets, props, clothes, everything.  It was amazing!  Then we did all the touristy downtown London stuff.  London Bridge, Tower Bridge, saw the Crown Jewels, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Millenium Bridge, went up in the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (sooo many important/famous dead people are buried there!), Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road and Abbey Road Studios, Hyde Park, Oxford Street for shopping, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, and the Hard Rock Cafe London.  We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and the band played Lion King songs.  We saw Leonardo da Vinci ‘s The Anatomist.  He had sketched and drawn the entire human body, inside and out.  Muscles, bones, arteries, veins, nerves, everything.  It was insane.  We went to Madame Tussauds, which was so much fun.  We were like little kids running around seeing all the wax figures.  Our Paris day could have gone better, due to the pickpocketing and the weather.  It was pouring, windy, and cold the entire day.  But we took a boat tour along the Seine River.  I got to go all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower, go in Notre Dame, walk the Champs-Elysées, see the Arc de Triomphe, and visit the Louvre museum.  The Louvre was beautiful and absolutely huge!  We saw many works of art, including the Winged Victory Statue, the statue of Aphrodite, The Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa.  I also had so many good breads and pastries when I was in England and Paris and rode more trains than I ever have before (which isn’t saying much really, since I live in the country in Indiana. But we rode a lot of trains).

I bought way to many souvenirs, took way too many pictures (over 1,000), and spent way too much money in general.  But it was so worth it.  It was the best time of my life, and I’m so excited I got to go.  I can’t wait to go back!

After years of wishing and hoping, months of planning, weeks of getting everything I need, and hours of packing, I am realizing a huge dream of mine.  Today I leave for London!  I’ll also go to Paris while I’m there.  This is the biggest dream I’ve ever had, and I can’t believe it’s finally here.  I have wanted this for so long and I want to remember every second of this adventure.  I’m a very happy girl right now :)