London!!!!!!

*Sorry for no pictures- and I do have fabulous pictures- but internet capabilities are limited and I'll try to post them at a later date*

I have so many exclamation points behind London because I absolutely loved it!!!!! We were flying out of Heathrow to Freetown so we decided to treat ourselves to a few days in London. I also think Gearoid was sucking up to me for leaving the comforts of the Netherlands for the almost guaranteed discomforts of West Africa. Whatever his motives, we had a wonderful time. I literally walked around the entire time with an ear splitting grin humming and singing Adele songs to myself. Everything I had seen in the movies about London were true (ok not really but it seemed so familiar to me from all of the movies I’ve seen). Also, people were speaking English. With sexy accents. I literally could have sat in a coffee shop all day and listened to people speak. Each time I leave the Netherlands for an English speaking country I forget how much I miss hearing, reading, and speaking my mother tongue. Yes, I can do all of that in the Netherlands as well but English always comes second to Dutch. I like to read a sign and be 100% confident I know the meaning of it. It takes me at least 3 bike rides going pass a Dutch sign to get the full meaning.

Our first night we made our way to the Eye, parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and more Londony places. The streets were so busy and alive. It was refreshing to be in a big city again that doesn’t close at 5 PM every night except for on Thursday when life continues until 8PM (sorry for the snarkiness but that’s life in Nijmegen).

Friday morning I had a meeting with the head office of the program I’ll be volunteering with in Salone but afterwards we made our way to the Tower of London (where Anne Boleyn’s head was cut off!), Tower Bridge, the less impressive London Bridge, and Shakespeare’s globe theater. We then knackered (British lingoJ) ourselves out finishing some last minute shopping for Africa.

Saturday morning in London was not so charming. Many people had been out enjoying Friday night and the evidence of it was everywhere. Luckily, we had saved Hyde Park for our last day and we traded vomit spotted sidewalks to green grass and swan filled ponds. Hyde Park led to Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace where the young royal newlyweds live. We then went to visit the Queen and her guards at Buckingham Palace. Walking back to the hotel for a rest before setting out again, we came upon cheap theater tickets and Gearoid sucked up- I mean treated me once again by purchasing Wicked tickets!!!!! For those of you who don’t know, I have been trying to see Wicked for years. It seems to only appear in cities that I have recently moved from. It’s playing in the Netherlands now but in Dutch. I couldn’t catch a break. Our last night in London, we saw Wicked and it was amazingly fabulous.

After a fantastic last night in London, it was really hard to believe that the next night we would be sleeping under mosquito nets in one of the world’s poorest countries. Somehow though, that is our reality.