Final Days In London Part 1/2

My sister and I navigated our way from the train station to our last hostel, The Generator. I highly recommend this hostel to anyone. It's clean, it's pretty awesome looking, and the people that work there are really friendly. We dragged our suitcases through the door and up the stairs to our room. I had a smile on my face the entire time because I was back in the land of everything I love.
Annie and I were pretty exhausted from travel and we were both fighting off being sick so we decided that we would stay around the city. We went to dinner at a local pub, as you do :) and followed it up by meeting Antonio for drinks. After about 2 hours of catch-up, drinks and a lot of laughter, we said good bye and walked back to our room in the pouring rain. I didn't mind it thought because it was British rain.

The next day I knew I had to get the rest of my luggage from my cousin's flat. She had been storing it for me while I was galavanting around Europe, which was REALLY nice of her :) But my sister and I also wanted to go to see Hampton Court Palace, which back in 2012 we tried to see but we got to the ticket window 3 minutes after the ticket window closed. Second time a go then? Yes.....we also didn't get the luggage that day, we got it the next day.

We took the train from Waterloo station and on we went to Hampton Court. The sky was a bit stormy looking but a little bit of threatening rain never hurt anyone and we would be inside most of the time. We arrived at the palace excited to get our tickets. WHICH WE DID.

After taking about a zillion selfies outside (mostly mimicking our previous Hampton Court photos) we headed inside the gates excited to just stand inside the courtyard. We split up, each listening to their own audio guides and then linked back up to decide where to start the tour. I think we went into every room except one. I found Hampton Court really fun, they have characters walking around different parts of the Palace dressed as Henry VIII or King George, and many other well known people. King George at one point was behind me trying to get past me but I was far too lost in the beauty of the chandelier in the living room area to notice someone clearing their throat. Annie had to tell me to move, to which King George then struck up a conversation with me and her and asked where we were from, to which we replied "The States." He retorted with "Ah! The Americas!..." He went on for a bit being very sarcastic about how wonderful the King is and how much the Americans love him...bla blah blah. He finally went on his merry way (thank goodness because I couldn't handle the amount of sarcasm), his shadow person (whatever they are called) said to me and Annie, "King George never says that much, you must have made quite an impression." And with a creepy smile he carried on. I felt very awkward, a character man just flirtedish with us....help.

We went out to the gardens after being inside for a long while, we even got to check out the maze which was AWESOME! I love mazes. I beat Annie to the center and then we couldn't figure out how to get out, so we used the handicap and stroller exit. Bye Hampton Court.

Oh no. The trains had been cancelled because of a lightening strike on the rails. Cool. We needed to get back to London by 6 to meet Antonio for dinner and then head with him over to where his gig was. It was currently about 3 in the afternoon, which was slightly nerve racking but I wasn't too worried, Annie on the other hand could not settle down. I reminded her that it was London, and obviously we could get back. We ended up getting a free taxi (after an hour of waiting for a train) courtesy of the train station to take us to a different station where we could catch the train back into the city. The cab we shared with another family made a little car sick because the driver was crazy but the little baby that the family had was making eye contact with me and talking to me and I loved every minute of it. Totally worth the car sickness.

Said goodbye to our little friend and caught the train back to London.

We changed our clothing and turned around to meet Antonio at the Italian restaurant where two years ago we stumbled upon after a night at the theater. It had now become our spot. Even though we have only been there twice, but it's delicious and tiny and a little piece of Italy just sitting there in London.

After dinner (to which I started to feel a bit feverish) we walked to the venue with two guitars in hand, I was not carrying a guitar because I'm pretty.

Joke. I just didn't carry one because Annie and Antonio had it under control.

We got to the venue and after some confusion, were allowed inside. Antonio did two sets and did a fabulous job! Oh hey, if you are not aware of Antonio Lulic's music click here, and here so you can hear his sounds. And here. Oh, also he has an album coming out in the fall. Just fyi. Buy it. 

After the show we headed upstairs for drinks, the place was an ice bar, which was perfect for my feverish head, at one point I just hugged the marble wall and let my head cool off on it. Nice.

The three of us headed to the tube station all while Antonio gave us some historical information while we walked there, he's should be a tour guide. That man knows a lot of facts about London.

Annie and I crashed early that night. I am so glad I did, I needed some serious sleep.