London Calling

Today was a big day full of surprises in London. When we finally got our act together and left the hotel, we went to the London Eye to buy combo tickets to that and the London Dungeon (I’ll explain that later). After buying the tickets, we went to check out the Harry Potter 7 premiere! I looked it up online and learned that people could start getting wristbands for it starting at 10am. We showed up around then, and not surprisingly the line was crazy long. We got a spot in line, and then I decided to get some information from a security guard. He said some people had been camping out for seven days (they weren’t allowed to have tents- dedicated fans right there), and that around 7,000 wristbands would be given out. He said we didn’t have a good chance to get in given where we were in line. There was a big TV screen, so we decided to leave and plan on getting as close as possible without the wristband, so we can see the screen. As long as I can see that, I will be happy. Hope it works out. I know it is a long shot, but it is worth a try. I am not willing to spend my little time here camping out.

We went back to the London Eye to find our other friend, and luckily we found her waiting in line already, so we jumped in line. Apparently, we cut a big portion of the line without  knowing, and while someone was telling us this another guy came up to us offering us to go to the Fast Track Lane and another rotation on the wheel for free. We thought it was a scam, but he assured us it wasn’t, so we went with him and became VIP’s! We wore these green ID necklaces, and we got to use the Fast Track lane, which barely anyone was in. We eventually found our other friend, and she got to join our VIP epicness. We then got to skip people in the Fast Track lane and loaded up on the eye. We then learned we got to do whatever on the first rotation around and then we would participate in a survey the second rotation. I am so glad I paid for the London Eye. It offered an amazing view of the city! It was awesome I got to ride another time too. I definitely got my money’s worth! The capsule we were in had Ipads with information on the skyline you saw, and that’s what we were interviewed about the next rotation around. They are thinking about adding these Ipads on all the capsules.

We then had lunch nearby at a really good restaurant called The Slug and the Lettuce. I had cottage pie, which was similar to shepherd’s pie, and it was only £5.95, which I thought was a good deal. We then took a bus to the London Dungeon. Now I wasn’t very excited about this from the beginning, but I tagged along because everyone else wanted to go. I should have listened to my instincts! The London Dungeon was this horror haunted house ride experience thing. We waited outside for probably an hour and a half to get in, and once we were inside, we had to wait even more. It basically was this corny try to scare you thing where you walked around inside these chambers and you have to wait every time to hear the actors and the story. It had three rides, which were so LAME and stupid. I think we were inside doing everything for like two hours. It was wayyy too long, drawn out, and boring. The last ride was scary because it was a drop down thing, which I don’t like those rides at all. Luckily it wasn’t very tall, but it scared me enough. The ride took a picture of all of us going down, and it is absolutely hilarious. I can’t wait for Hannah to those pictures up on facebook.

I treated myself to a Magnum ice cream bar after the aweful experience, and then we split up. I wanted to go to Platform 9 and ¾, and Hannah wanted to go to Harrod’s. We went to take the metro, and it was freaking 4 pounds. Way too expensive. The Paris metro cost under two euro, so we were pissed. We decided to try a bus instead, but that didn’t work, so we had to resort to use the metro. We just took the metro back to our stop and saw the Westminister Abbey. We randomly ran into our other people, and went to eat dinner at the same restaurant as lunch because it was so good and right by our hotel. It also had 2-4-1 drinks, which we wanted to take advantage of. However, that deal was only on weekends unfortunately. I still had a good meal anyway. We then went back to the hotel and went to the steam room to relax. I am now in bed resting. Excited to have one more day and head home the next!