Hello friends!

A couple of weeks ago I went to London! It was amazing! I loved it SO much!

There is so much to get to, so let’s jump right in.

Off to see the world

Have you ever seen the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, “The Chipmunk Adventure”? It’s awesome. I grew up watching it. Anytime my aunt Sandi visited we watched it. It’s SO nostalgic and good. In the movie, the chipmunks and the Chipettes race around the world in hot air balloons.

Anyway, while boarding the plane in Prague I got a song from the movie stuck in my head. It’s called “We’re off to see the world,” and it is the montage song when they are up in the balloons, traveling everywhere. It lasted from Prague to the London Luton Airport.

I love the song! You can watch it by clicking here, and I am gonna paste in the lyrics below:

We’re Off to See the World

Flying through the airways
Making the right stops
Through a storybook of places
Making all our drops

See the cliffs of Dover
And over to the right
Are the snowy white-capped Alps
Majestic, standing bright

[Chorus]
Hey don’t ya know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find our dreams
Why are our hearts beating so fast
Why is there suddenly a brand new hope inside us that will surely last
Hey don’t you know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find things new
So we will follow every clue
Just think there’s suddenly
A chance to find it in all we dreamed in dreams come true

Just flew over Switzerland
Destination set
Heading out for Africa
A quest we won’t forget
Faced a threat in Rio
We could be in for more
And now we are descending
I can see Italy’s shore

[Chorus]
Hey don’t ya know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find our dreams
Why are our hearts beating so fast
Why is there suddenly a brand new hope inside us that will surely last
Hey don’t you know that we’re off to see the world
We’re off to find things new
So we will follow every clue
Just think there’s suddenly
A chance to find it in all we dreamed in dreams come true

On the plane, while that song was on repeat in my head, I wanted my family to be on the adventure with me. To come “see the world” with me. At the same time, I realized a desire in myself to see the world. I mentioned this in my blog post about Rome, but I haven’t really felt this before. This desire to be a world traveler has been awakened within me during this internship.

Hey! Don’t you know that I’m off to see the world? I’m off to find things new!

Landing in Luton

Although the flight itself was two hours, London is an hour behind Prague, so we landed an hour later than our departure time. After the flight, however, we spent 2 1/2 hours in the line at customs. It was INSANE! I have never seen a longer line in my life. It was packed. It reminded me of this Studio C video here. (Apparently, Studio C separated the two parts into two separate videos on the channel so you’ll have to watch part one, and part two for the full effect.) To not spoil it too much, especially if you’re about to go watch it, Mallory talks about how customs is crazy. “Getting overseas is a total nightmare. Airport security treats you like you’re some sort of terrorist.”

I wouldn’t say we were treated like that, but the line was very long and it was a bit nightmarish. At the end of the line (FINALLY) they had electronic scanners for your passports. As much as I tried it would not scan mine. After the fifth try or something like that, they put me in another line to talk to a human. That one only took twenty minutes and he glanced at it, asked me how long I’d be in the UK, stamped my passport, and said I was good to go. Whew.

We grabbed some snacks from a vending machine and waited for another ten minutes for Camila to come out of customs. (She is from Mexico, so they put her in a different line than us.) When we were all out we walked ten minutes outside the airport to a pick-up/drop-off area. (They were doing construction at the one closer.)

During this ten-minute walk my foot started hurting again. 🙁

Foot Update

If you read my last blog post you might recall that I injured my foot somehow and it was hurting all through Rome. During the week in between Rome and London my foot started doing a lot better, especially not being on the cobblestone streets, but the pain never completely went away. (This blog post is just going to focus on London, but in the NEXT blog post I will share more of what happened at Cumorah during the week between Rome and London.)

I was praying the whole ten-minute walk that my foot would be able to handle the next day in London. There was no way I was missing London and it was just one day, my foot would have to hold up. (It did!)

The Uber Ride

We made it to the pickup/drop-off spot and waited for a few minutes until our Uber arrived to take us to our Airbnb. It was so strange seeing the Uber. We all did a double take. I could hear everyone else say, “Huh?” at the same time I said, “Huh?” To our shock, our Uber driver was sitting on the WRONG side of the car!

The driver’s seat was on the right side, not the left. It was so weird. I mean, obviously… “Mack,” I reminded myself, “we’re in England!” but I forgot that fact at the moment, and seeing it in person was so strange. Then he proceeded to drive on the wrong side of the road too! I was all sorts of turned around. It was so weird. Cars were going in the wrong direction.

(Okay, we just had a lesson at Cumorah about not being “ethnocentric,” which refers to a belief that one’s own culture is superior to others. I don’t think I was being ethnocentric in this moment, but I was definitely surprised, and not used to England’s cultural norms.)

Our Airbnb was an hour away from the airport, and by the time we finally got there, I was so tired. We were going to get up early the next day to make the most of our short London trip, so I went right to bed. (No top sheet provided this time either, just the duvet…)

Lovely London

We got up early the next morning. We were going to walk to the Tower Bridge to start our day and then see a few more things on our way to the London Eye.

Walking around London was BEAUTIFUL. I adored it and want to go back. (We will get to that later!) It is my favorite city I’ve been to in Europe so far.

One thing that was nice was how clean London was. Rome and Prague are dirty. Amazing cities still, but dirty. Half of the city reeks of cigarettes and the ground and buildings are dirty. There’s litter everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I do love those cities, but there is a dirtiness I wasn’t expecting in some European towns.

London felt clean. The air, the buildings, the ground felt cleaner. It was rather nice to walk around the city.

There were street sweepers everywhere. People sweeping or power washing the roads. I felt like London cared more about the cleanliness and feel of the town, and it showed.

It reminded me of the Martin Luther King Jr. quote about street sweepers. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”

Speaking the same language

Let me tell you how comforting it was to be able to understand what people were saying. I didn’t realize how hard it’s been for me being in the Czech Republic and not understanding people. It was so nice to be able to get on a double-decker bus and talk to the driver and she could reply. I could go to a store and know exactly what I was buying and how much it cost. I could have a conversation with the store owner without needing hand gestures and looks of confusion. I could read the signs and maps! It was amazing!

I realized that I take the ability to communicate for granted a lot. It was so refreshing to be able to talk in English. This internship has given me a deeper empathy for people learning languages and immigrants. It can be so hard to communicate in a foreign place! I was grateful over the weekend that everything was in English.

London Bridge is falling down

London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady! Technically we passed by the London Bridge but didn’t go see it. It is really just a bridge. Not that cool. It’s just a bridge (a nursery rhyme legend, but not much else).

The real star of the show is Tower Bridge, and it is super cool! I read two articles, (one saying it took 432 workers to build the tower bridge, one saying 848 workers,) and a grueling eight years to construct the bridge. Those iconic towers aren’t just for show, they house the bascules – the mighty central sections that raise up like a giant seesaw. This design allows even the tallest ships to pass through the Thames smoothly.

There is a lot of history with the Tower Bridge. When I return to London someday I want to see if there are any historical tours of the bridge to go on. We just walked on it, but I want to learn the history part also.

It was so tall! The railings were taller than me, (Not a huge feat, I know, but still,) Fun to take pictures by! And it looked beautiful!

We stopped for breakfast after this at a cafe. There was a sign that said, “Toasties and Bagels.” I got a waffle filled with Nutella and strawberries, and a mango and ginger smoothie. It was delicious. After that, we headed to the London Eye.

On the way to the London Eye, we passed by St. Paul’s Cathedral and took pictures in the iconic red telephone booth. I LOVE all the pops of red in London- with the double-decker buses, the telephone booths, the signs saying “underground” for the Tube. I LOVED it. London is seriously so beautiful. I have to come back.

EYE-conic London Eye

One of the main highlights of the London trip was the London Eye. It is the world’s biggest Ferris wheel and it was awesome. It is right by the Thames River and gives you a view of the river and London below.

I have never been on a Ferris wheel and was actually kind of nervous. I’m not super big into heights or rollercoasters. But, it goes so slowly and is less ferris-wheel-like than other Ferris wheels.

The view was BEAUTIFUL! You can see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and other buildings in London below. It was a GORGEOUS view! I absolutely LOVED it! It was wonderful. They had a recording playing during the London Eye sharing some London history. And, a cool gift shop after you were done with the ride.

The gift shop had a mini London Eye replica that had potatoes as the pod part to ride in, and it held potato chips. Or as the sign called it, “Potato crisps.” (I’m not sure if that sentence made any sense, so I’ll just paste in the picture. )

Buckingham Palace and Big Ben

We wanted to make this an affordable trip, so some things we weren’t going to spend our money on. We walked by Big Ben and Buckingham Palace but we didn’t actually go in. They were super cool though, and I’d love to go back.

There is a children’s book series called, “Katie Kazoo, Switcheroo.” I loved them in Elementary school. It’s a story about a third grader named Katie who wished on a star that she could be anyone but herself. Her wish backfired and now at random times she switches places with someone in the story for a little while. For example, in one of the books Katie goes to the dentist, and right when the dentist is about to pull a tooth out of a kid’s mouth the magic switch happens and she becomes the dentist. Katie has to pull the tooth! Katie has to figure out how to live in this life she just switched into. Of course, there are funny escapades as Katie has to face tasks she hasn’t done before (like pulling out teeth,) but it’s also educational and teaches kids about the different lives Katie switches into.

I honestly don’t remember too much about the series (there are at least 40 books I believe,) but there is this one book I do remember a lot. Katie and her family go to England on a family vacation! And, as they enter Buckingham Palace Katie switches with one of the guards of it. If you don’t know, the guards are supposed to be professional and stoic, and they are not allowed to laugh. (Something I think I learned as a kid from reading this book.)

Anyway, the switch happens and Katie is now supposed to be calm and collected as this palace guard. But a tourist comes up and tells a funny joke and Katie laughs at it! Oh no!

Do I even remember what happens next? No.,, (Maybe I should start reading these to my youngest siblings. I think they’re at a good age for it. Also for Junie B. Jones! Yay!) But, that scene has stuck with me, and I fondly remembered it as we passed by Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey

I watched the movie Amazing Grace a week before the London trip. It is an amazing movie and I highly recommend it. It’s about William Wilberforce, a politician who played a big role in ending slavery in England. I’ve seen “Amazing Grace” a few times. It is SO good!

I watched it before this trip and was amazed at the end when it said, “William Wilberforce is buried at Westminster Abbey in London.” I was so excited. “Wait- London!? I’m going to London!”

In further research, I found out that Westminister Abbey is a burial place for many famous people, like Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, and others. Many kings and queens and other notable people. The list went on and on. I REALLY wanted to see it.

Westminster Abbey does cost money, and we didnt have a ton of time, and try I hard as I might to convince my group to go, it was not in the cards. But, that is okay. It’s right by Buckingham Palace, so we passed by both of them and I saw the outside of Westminster Abbey. AND, while we were passing by it a person was playing the song “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes and it was wonderful.

I have to come back to London.

I have to go see Westminster Abbey.

(You can stay tuned for that future blog post because eventually, I am going to go!)

Nandos: A peri-peri good time

By this time we were feeling hungry, so we decided to stop at Nandos. Click here for more info, It was SO GOOD! Nandos is a South African restaurant, but they are all over England (according to Google there are 78 locations in London alone.)

It isn’t traditionally “British” food, but everyone in Britain loves it. I got butterfly chicken with peri peri spice and the mild garlic herb sauce. They had a range of sauces from mild lemon to super spicy. The garlic herb one was one step above mild, but not quite to medium. I’m a bit of a wimp. It came with two sides, I got mac & cheese and rainbow coleslaw. YUM.

It was delicious! (I just checked- there are some Nandos restaurants in the United States! Yay!) It was so good. And so filling.

The British Museum

After lunch we walked passed some more sites, got cute London sweatshirts at a souvenir shop, and walked to the British museum.

(About this time my foot started to hurt really badagain. It survived the morning fine. London doesn’t even have too many cobbkestone streets. Not like Prague or Rome. For more context on what I am talking about, check out my Rome blog here. Anyway, I told myself to suck it up and we were okay. It’s a really good thing we went to that souvenir shop because they gave us big London flag bags for our souvenirs, so I had something to look for when I enevitably fell behind camila and Paige, hobbling along.)

The British Museum is cool. We had to go through security in order to go in and they looked inside our souvenir bag for any food (I’m guessing…)

The British Museum is filled with things from other countries. They had a Rome and Greece floor, an Egypt floor, Mexico, North America, etc. Objects from everywhere, and lots of history. Things that Britian took in conquering a country, or dug in an Archaeological dig, or was gifted. It is a HUGE museum. It is where the Rosetta Stone is held, which I didn’t know!

The director of Academics here at Cumorah, Iain, is from Manchester, and we were asking him where we should go on our trip. He mentioned the Bristish Museum as a must. He said, “What is the most British thing in England that is actually not Britsih? The British Museum!”

One different thing in London was that the museums are all free, whereas the churches cost money.

Honestly, my first opinion of the Bristish museum was not very high. We started in the Rome room, and it was kind of a let down after going to the real thing. All the Rome marble statues in the British Museum were missing heads or body parts. Or they were just pieces… After Rome made an amzing city the Bristish Muesum must have gotten the left overs. It sadly wasn’t that cool.

After the first floor though, exhibitions started to get cooler. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the Rome floor would be cool for people who hadn’t just been to Rome the week before.) After a few rooms though my foot was killing me. I sat down and waited for Paige to finish looking.

So… I would personally not say the British Museum is a must. However, my foot hurt, I didn’t see everything, and we were pressed for time so I didn’t read any deatils about the exhbits…. So, take my experience with a BIG grain of salt because mine wasn’t the best. And, I probably would go again if I had the chance. I would just do things a bit differently. And, not start in Rome. 🙂

National Gallery

After that we went to the National Gallery, which was this big art museum. I loved it. It had pieces by Van Gogh and Monet, and a lot of British artists who I have never heard of, but who had cool paintings.

It had the original “sunflowers” painting by Van Gogh (which I love). Well, I thought but I just Googled it to make sure I am telling you all the truth, and apparently he made 11 “Sunflowers” paintings. The one in the National Gallery is the main Sunflowers painting that at least I always think of when I think of the sunflower painting. It’s yellow and he signed “Vincent” on the vase.

I also really liked the painting “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey.” Kind of a bleak subject, but the painting was interesting. I liked it.

The national gallery was really fun. And in some of the rooms they had couches which was a nice break for my foot. We couldn’t stay too long in the gift shop because they were closing, but it was fun.

M&M World

The whole day in London I kept seeing these signs for M&M world. Let me tell you, I LOVE M&M world. I LOVE m&ms in general, but M&M world is a happy place for me. We went a lot when my grandparents lived in Las Vegas, and it is one of those core memories. I love that place.

So, all day I kept being reminded about M&M world and wanting to go there. The signs would say “Visit us a Leicester Square.” Well, after leaving the National Gallery we realized that M&M world was a six minute walk away. I convinced Camila and Paige that they had to see it. Neither of them had been before, and because we still had a tiny bit of time to kill we went there!

The line was out the door, but it moved fast, and it was just like I remembered, plus some London-y add ons. (They had all the m&ms walking on Abbey Road, some dressed up like guards at Buckingham palace, and more.

(Across the street was a lego store, and some other fun things.)

I was right at home. Did I buy too many m&m themes souvenirs? Probably. But, it was worth it! I love that place. (Quick miracle here: They let me on the place back to Prague, and didn’t make me pay extra- even though my backpack was WAY over the size limit with all the souvenirs packed in. But, the flight attendants took pity and let me on anyway.)

There is a giant wall filled with different colors and flavors of m&ms. You can grab a bag or a cup and fill it. We grabbed a small cup and filled it with salted caramel m&ms, crispy m&ms, and mini m&ms for Wicked.

Laurel also met us here. She had gone off to do her own thing after the Tower Bridge.

Double Decker Dream Hands

I couldn’t think of any puns for this heading about double decker buses. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments! But, here is a funny video that popped into my head when I started writing this section. (Not to brag, but my family are all pros at the Double Dream Hands dance.)

Anyways…

We rode a double decker bus! It was awesome! That was an iconic thing we had to do on everybody’s list. We finally got to do it! We rode the double decker bus from M&M World to West End.

West End is like the Broadway of London. It has all the shows and theaters and shops and is cool. We had bought tickets to WICKED and I was SO excited. I’ve never seen wicked or listened to the music. I mean I had heard Defying Gravity once or twice, and I was familiar with the “Popular” song, but that was about it. Did not know much about it.

We rode on the top of the bus. It was really cool. I loved it. One weird thing was that you couldn’t use the same card twice in a row to pay. Becuase I don’t have a card that can tap I was going to just use Paige’s card after she was done, but it wouldn’t work and the lady asked for a new card. Thankfully camila had two cards that tapped, but it was weird.

(Now that I am writing this, I wonder how that works for big families riding the bus. Hopefully there is a way to buy multiple tickets at once, or maybe you have to buy a pass in that case. I’m not sure, but it wouldn’t let us use the same card twice. Weird.)

Wicked!!!

Oh my goodness! I have been waiting to write this section. Wicked was one of my FAVORITE parts of the trip! I absolutley loved it! I have a couple friends who are OBSESSED with Wicked, but I never understood why, but NOW I DO! I am obsessed too. I’m actually listening to the soundtrack as I type this blog, and “The Wizard and I” just started playing. Seriously OBSESSED.

There is a Wicked movie (Trailer link here) coming out in November and I am so stoked. I came home and was looking at Broadway prices because I want to see it again. (Or another play on Broadway too. I just want to travel and see more!)

I love plays. More than any other entertainment event I think. (Even more that going to the movie theater.) I was so happy to be there. The story is amazing. The music is amazing. Elphaba is a likeable character. We were sitting pretty far in the back, but it was still wonderful.

What is this feeling? Does it have a name? Adoration for this amazing musical. I want to read the book now.

One weird thing, I asked if they had a playbill and they guy at the counter said, “That’s only an American thing.”

I am totally obsessed with Wicked now and probably will nerd out about it forever. Sorry close friends and family, haha. It was so good.

My next London trip will DEFINITELY have a West End play again! So so good!

London Review

I loved London so much. It was my favorite city I’ve been in so far during this internship. I loved it.

London? As in London England??

I’ve already mentioned a lot of the media I was thinking about during the trip, (like the Chipmunk Adventure, or Katie Kazoo Switcheroo) but seriously ALL DAY I had a song playing in my head or was I thinking of some London Related quote or movie scene.

I sang “Amazing Grace” to myself for half the day it felt like. The song “Jamacian Inspector” from Psych the Musical also frequented my thoughts. (Psych the musical is in season 7 and is so good! Shawn and Gus have to find a playwritght who escaped from the insane asylum. The town is putting on his play about Jack the Ripper. I could go on, it’s good. Go watch it! One of the best songs in it is Gus as the inspector. “Jamaican Inspector Man. Straight from Kingston to Londontown. We all gon’ party like it’s 1888.”)

I thought about She’s the Man, Notting Hill, Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and more. So many London related things, and my mind thought about them all while walking around all day. It was delightful.

My next London Trip

Without a question, I HAVE to go back to London. I absolutely LOVED it.

In my next London trip I NEED to see Westminster Abbey. That is the most important thing. I would love to do a whole Pride and Predjudice England tour, and there was some of that in London, that my group didn’t do. (There was a River Thames Cruise and Tea Party that looked really fun.)

I was not with the right group for any Harry Potter stuff, but I would LOVE to do some Harry Potter stuff also on my next trip. We passed by so many Harry Potter shops, a theater showing the cursed child (that one I am good to skip,) and a Harry Potter Escape Room. Laurel went to King’s Cross station where they have a little homage to platform 9 3/4 and you can buy Butterbeer. I want to do that too, eventually.

I also want to go to Abbey Road. It is a big tourist attraction and there were so many Beatles themes souvenirs everywhere,, but Abbey Road was nowhere near where we were.

I also saw ads for a Jack the Ripper tour of London, which might be a bit creepy, but also sounded fun. I liked having a tour guide on the Prague trip to help us know about the history parts.

There was SO much to do in London. It can’t all be done in a day. (I doubt you could do it all in a month either!) I’m going to come back! (Obviously get Nandos and Ride the London Eye again as well!)

Moral of the blog post: London is amazing and I need to go back. 🙂