January 24th: This was our last day of discussion groups! Yay! After we had all had our discussion groups, Anna, Lisa, and Alicia and I decided to have one last day of sightseeing in London since there were still places that we hadn’t gone to that we wanted to see. First, we stopped at Harrods. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Harrods is the biggest department store in the UK. Sounds like my kind of place, right? Wrong. As soon as I walked in, I basically felt like I couldn’t even afford to be in there, let alone breathe in there. I was immediately overwhelmed with the sight of Gucci, Prada, Chanel, and more! Either way, I decided to explore around a little, just for kicks... I saw a beautiful display of headbands and barrettes, and decided to look at a barrette that caught my eye. I saw a saleswoman eyeing me, and unfortunately, my clumsiness kicked in and I dropped it. However, fortunately (and I mean, fortunately) it didn’t break...I turned it over and saw the price tag and I was absolutely floored...it cost around 235 POUNDS, which puts the value at over 400 DOLLARS. For a BARRETTE. How outrageous!? I quickly put it back, and we hiked it on out of there...haha. What a funny experience though. After our visit to Harrods, we hopped on the tube to the Westminster area where we walked around and tried to find the Prime Minister’s house for Anna (it was one of the places that she really wanted to see before we left). We found it, but unfortunately, his street was tightly secured. I told her we could try to go see if it was open to the public, but she decided she didn’t need to see it that bad. At least we saw his street though! While we were in the area, we were near the river and had a great view of the London Eye, so we stopped and snapped a few pictures. We wanted to ride on it, however, it would have cost around $30 and so we decided it wasn’t quite worth it. Someday, when I go back though, I’ll be sure to catch a ride! :) After that, we snapped a few more pictures of Big Ben and then hopped back on the tube to go to the infamous Tower Bridge. We walked halfway across to see the view, but it was pretty cold and windy and we were getting hungry, so we didn’t stay long. We got our pictures yet again, and then hopped back on the tube to visit the British Museum. On our way over there, I found a 5 pound note on the train! It didn’t belong to the girl across from me, so Anna and I decided that I should keep it and that we should go back to the restaurant that we went to the night before for dinner and use it as a tip (because we stupidly forgot to tip our waitress the previous night)! It was a good idea! Anyway, once we got to our stop, we decided to eat at an asian restaurant before heading into the museum. At the restaurant, I ordered some fabulous Pad Thai!...it was delicious. After finally satisfying our ravenous hunger, we made our way over to the museum across the street. Admission was free, which was nice. We went to see the ancient Egyptian exhibit which was pretty cool to see, especially since I had just been to Egypt. I saw a lot more mummies there than I did in Egypt too! Go figure. haha. Following the ancient Egyptian exhibit, we saw a Japanese exhibit and a ceramics exhibit. Finally, we saw the Rosetta Stone! It was pretty exciting to see (and also hard to get a decent picture because of all of the glare on the glass). After we saw the Rosetta Stone, we made our way back to Oxford Street where we did a little more shopping. We split up into two’s, and Alicia and I basically just focused on getting gifts for people. The two stores that I had wanted to visit were closed by the time we made our way over to them, so that was a bummer. But, I got my gift shopping done! After shopping, we all met back up for dinner. We went back to the little Italian cafe where we ate at the night before. I only got bread and a slice of apple pie with ice cream (along with some tea of course) because I wasn’t feeling the best. After dinner, it was pretty relaxed. I went with Lisa to McDonald’s one last time, and then I came back and tried to pack the majority of my things, followed by a nice shower and a peaceful slumber in my bed. :)
January 25th: This may have been our last morning in London, but this did not deter me from going shopping once more before I left! I had really done much shopping shopping, and I was determined to do so. The night before, my friend Lisa and I made an elaborate shopping plan that made me feel as though I were part of the amazing race. It was precisely scheduled out, and there was no room for error, or there could be problems... We decided to have breakfast at 7:30 am. (Yes, 7:30...it was in the name of shopping, what can I say?!). So, I got up at 7:00, got together with Lisa and ate my last traditional English breakfast, and then we left the hotel at 8:00 on the dot. We made our way to the metro station where we bought our train passes, and then hopped on and made our way to Oxford Street. We got there right as the first store on our list was opening, Primark. Now, we had a couple of other stores that we had planned on going into that morning as well, however, we fell so in love with Primark that we ended up spending our entire alloted time there! The prices there were so great, it was unbelievable! I definitely got some shopping done. :) We left the store, hopped on the metro, and got back with just enough time to finish packing and then head out to the airport with everyone. After we got to Heathrow (which wasn’t nearly as crazy as I was expecting), got through security, and had lunch, we got into small groups and had one last discussion. Not too soon after, we boarded the plane and departed around 3:00. It was nice because there was basically NO ONE on the plane, sooo...I got THREE seats to myself! Plus, it was the first flight I had ever been on that had a television screen on the back of every seat. So, I ended up watching a movie, listening to music, and working on a paper for the majority of the ride home. It was pretty uneventful, but very nice. I LOVED having three seats to myself! We landed early in Minneapolis, a little after 5:00. My dad picked me up and took me home where I spent the night unpacking and being with my family. I spent the following day sleeping in and writing the 5-7 page paper that was due at midnight that night! (No worries, I got it done, just in time!) It wasn’t the most exciting ending to my journey (who wants to hear about me having to write a paper? Actually, who actually wants to write a paper and have that be the conclusion of their experience of a lifetime? Lame.) Either way, that’s how it went.
I may not have had the most exciting ending to my time abroad, but my adventures were indescribable. I had the time of my life, and became more addicted to traveling than I was before! All I know is that I can’t sit put my whole life--I will always definitely have a place I call home, but I want to explore as much of the world as I possibly can. This experience is definitely just the beginning of a lifetime of travel--I’m already dreaming of being in far-away places again. :)
Seeing as how I’m not going anywhere in the foreseeable future, this is going to be the last post that I write for this blog. I’d like to take this as my opportunity to say thank-you to anyone who followed me on my journey, and for all of your kind wishes, encouragement, and support. I appreciate it more than you know! If (or more accurately, when) I travel abroad again, I will start a new blog if you so-care to follow it. Until then, I hope that all goes well in your lives. I’ll be focusing on finishing up my schooling at Bethel this semester, and then who knows where the wind will blow me!
Signing off,
Stephanie
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