London 2013!

Hey guys,

Sorry for not posting much lately, as some of you may be aware, we have been in London last week.
It would be months worth of boasting gone to waste if I don't write a post about the trip, so here we go!

We had a really good time, the only major let down for me would be the bus. we were staying in a Premiere Inn (I know, how classy) 40 minutes out of London every morning, and our promised 'first class' bus did not quite go as planned. Yes, they turned up - I'll give them a point for that - but for some un-clearly explained reason they had ditched us by the seconds service station, a few hours into England (if that!). We landed ourselves an overheated, clammy coach that didn't make my days the most comfortable to sit through.

Another let down (I know, I'm sorry, we'll get to the exciting parts soon) was our hotel. So the first night, we arrived and had an hour to get ready for dinner. I took this opportunity to have a shower whilst the others explored. Our bedroom was literally ice cold when we arrived, the heating wouldn't work, so the only way the room heated up was hair-dryer-power! I think a few people had a little bother with the heat of their rooms, but nobody else complained...
The rooms were pretty cramped (three beds to a room) but it was London, so I sort of expected that. We had a bit of bother with our toilet not flushing-which the teachers seemed to find hilarious, I can assure you, it was not funny! :O

Okay, enough moaning from me, on to the good part of the trip, which is just about everything else!

When we arrived we missed our trip to the Science Museum, which nobody was particularly gutted about, instead we were let loose to have lunch (McDonald's for Cayley and I!) before heading to the BBC studios for a guided tour.
The BBC tour was not much of what I expected, I'd prepared myself for bumping into many celebrities and radio DJ's, so I was in for a slight shock. We were searched and our bags were put through metal detectors before we were allowed in, I guess in case we were carrying bombs and what not, we the stood in a viewing area above the news team who you see in the background when watching the news! A lot of the tour was history and stuff, which if I'm honest was pretty boring, unless you like that kind of stuff, but I'm not saying some of the historical facts weren't interesting.
Access was granted to the celeb dressing rooms, but our guide didn't know much about One Direction undressing in those rooms *insert sad face*
Some of us (I say us, not me) were allowed to read the news (it wasn't televised of course) and weather in front of a green screen, which was pretty cool watching them.

On Tuesday, we had a very busy day planned, full of music and food (Mmmm...my two favourite things :P).
We started, however at the V&A (Victoria and Albert museum) which consisted of being kicked out of a glass lift for sitting down in it, and having the bottom of my jeans soaked for running through a huge pond. We didn't look around the museum, to be honest I kind of wish I'd taken more time to look at the 'textiles' section, but I enjoyed myself anyway - the gift shop was big and it was nice and warm in the gardens.

We then visited Harrods, Cayley ventured off to Topshop across the road whilst I took a wander around Harrods for an hour. To me it was like a bigger version of Frasers in Glasgow, maybe triple the price tags and throw a few cute accents into the equation. For obvious reasons (cough, no money, cough) I didn't buy anything out of there, but it was cool to look around and see what all the drama was about. I had forgotten about the animals up on the top floor, so didn't have the chance to see them, but if I ever go in again I'll make sure to have a look :)

Next, to the O2 Arena, for the British Musical Experience. If you haven't heard of this, the only way I can really explain it is 'a hands on, interactive tour of the centuries through British Pop and Music Culture' -wow, that's a bit of a mouthful! I actually decided to pay attention to this one and didn't spend my time in the dance booth. Instead, I had a look into all the different era's and sort of learnt a little. By the 80's I began to recognise some singers so I found it more interesting. As well as a dance booth (where you learn moves that i guess took effect on British music) there was a recording studio-type-room. You were given passes at the beginning which recorded things that you wanted recorded I guess. In this room were guitars and drums, you just played about and recorded you jam. I think there was a proper recording studio for singing, but you'd have to pay me a living member of One Direction to make me go in there (and afterwards you might have to face a few broken glasses and shattered windows) plus the queue was long.

We then had a meal in Piazza, which didn't seem to go down well with everyone, but what can I say, I like pizza :)

Off to the west End where we saw Wicked the musical! I really enjoyed myself. Wicked is the witches from the wizard Of Oz's story, and I think I understand the movie better after seeing that. The actors/actresses were great, and I know what I'll be dressing up as for halloween this year...!
I can't write this without mentioning our very pretty young boy, Harry Styles. No, I'm joking, we didn't really meet Harry, just a lookalike who resembled Harry Styles and Sterling Knight. No joke, this boy was fangirled over for half an hour, even though we'd only caught a glimpse of him...

That day was exhausting, and this time round we didn't attempt to meet up at midnight or get ourselves kicked out the hotel.

Next morning, we missed our drive around London and squeezed in the Science Centre trip that we missed on the first day. Boy oh boy, was this quite some trip, many science-y things to do and see.
Did we do any of those science-y things? No. Did we stalk hot boys instead? Yes.
And to that boy that was with his Dad, on behalf of all of us, we are sorry for humiliating you in front of a family member... :S (That was a story that I'd really like to tell but this post is long already, so I'll keep it for a rainy day)

Next we were let loose in Covent Gardens to do some 'shopping' but we'd decided to skip the shopping and instead made our way to Dancers Inc. and Pineapple Dance Studios. I didn't mind missing out on the shoping, because it's not many days you get to walk in to a shop practically themed around your Idol (Danielle Peazer). In Pineapple we were asked if we came from Ireland, which sorta made my day, unfortunately it was Louis Spence's day off, and if we'd been a day earlier we'd have met him, gutted!

After covent gardens we made our way home, and here's where I'd like to leave you all some tips;

• Eating KFC at 9pm whilst on a 13 hour bus journey isn't a good idea.
• Pretending to be homeless outside service stations earns you no money and a freezing butt.
• Playing 'Take me out' with bus spotlights can distract the driver, and make him angry...

I'd love to live in London one day, in one of the gorgeous £2million flats, working in the city centre, I don't know, that's my dream :)

If I was to go back any time soon I'd either go back with a few friends, or with my Mum. I'd spend the weekend shopping, and maybe go see a musical. Right now, I'd like to see a musical of Matilda (Roald Dahl) or maybe even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I've uploaded some of my pictures from the trip, click here to see them (or click 'photos!' at the top of the page) and I'll be sure to get Cayley to upload a few soon too. Please be prepared for some bad photography skills, and be warned none of these have been photoshopped yet, and most were taken through a bus window)

Emma x