Harry Potter Tour & London

 First day in London was great because we 
started off with the Harry Potter Tour! I am not a Harry Potter Fanatic... But this was incredible to see! I can't believe how much work and time went into making the props and sets for the movies. It made me really excited to watch them again. We also tried butterbeer ice cream and it was delicious! Anyways the tour was really awesome and I am glad we did it! 
After that we went back to the apartment because Haley ripped her pants in the bum during lunch so we went back for her to change. We then ate at the chopshop for a good cheap Asian meal. Then we wanted to do something local or find live music to listen too so we chilled outside the Kings Cross station and I started messaging people in the ysa ward to see if they knew of anything going on, and Kylee and Haley we're going through tinder to see if any locals our age knew of a fun place to go too. After about an hour of that and no luck we decided to go to a place called WaterRats that we looked up earlier that was supposed to have live music. Once getting there the guy carded Kylee cause she didn't look older than 21... Ha sure enough there were 3 bands we got to listen too and the first one was okay, the 2nd one was good, and he headliner was actually pretty good! So it was fun to listen and meet a few locals our age. 

We called it a night after that so we could have some energy for our busy day! Before our trip we purchased a ticket for the London Hop On Hop Off bus tour that hits all the top sites of London. So we headed off on that and first saw buckingham palace, and picadilly circus, and then walked to a bus stop to catch a bus to church. As I was looking up the address I saw that it said the YSA ward had its first meeting at 1:00pm and Sacrament meeting at 4:00pm. So we decided to go see some more sites before we head to church. 
We first stop to eat lunch and once we were done eating the St. Patrick's Day parade started right outside the restaurant. So we stayed and watched that until it was over and there were tons of fun groups and floats. A lot of Irish dancing, music, bag pipes, and green orange and white! After the parade we went and snapped some pictures with Big Ben and then hunted down a bus to take us to Hyde Park. Once getting there we had a nice 25 minute walk through the park to get to the church building. There were so many rollerbladers dancing and doing tricks. When we were about 5 minutes away Haley said wait... They said their first meeting was at 1:00? That means sacrament should be at 3:00 not 4? And we all thought about that and said well we're almost there might as well see if the website was right. Sure enough when we got there at 3:55 asked the senior missionary if sacrament started at 4:00 and he said no it was at 1:00. We were sooo sad to hear that and showed him what lds.org had on it and he apologized and said that was wrong. ;( super bummed we couldn't go to sacrament but at least we tried. Then we caught a bus back and went to see tower bridge and tower hill and there was a tour guide explaining information along the way and when driving over the Tower Bridge I turned the GoPro on and started singing London Bridges Falling down, falling down... And the tour guide looked at me with a confused look and said this is the Tower Bridge. I got SO embarrassed and broke out in laughter and he was pretty entertained by my blondness too. We then ate dinner, got gelato, and headed back to the apartment and called it a night and of course did some face swap. Overall a good day and it was cool to see the popular attractions again! 

Well I am currently on the plane to head back to LAX and I think we flew over Iceland or Greenland and it was amazing! So much mountain and snow! I wanted to jump out of the plane and snowboard on it!! Well this morning we packed up, took a long brunch and then Kylee and I had to say our goodbyes to Haley at the train station! It was sad to be separated but I am glad Haley came on this trip and we got to catch up on life and make new memories together since we have been separated for a few years! I'm glad Kylee and I were able to make a ton of new memories together that we can laugh and reminisce about when we're bored shooting weddings & trying to pass the time. Some last remarks about the trip; we noticed that the waitresses in Ireland never would give us an opinion on what was good to eat at their restaurant. They would always look at us like, "oooo I don't know it's a personal choice, or everything is good" and they were horrible at describing food that we didn't know. We usually had to help narrow it down to a category of food for them to recognize then they could describe it. It was hilarious. Favorite one was Haley was looking at a sandwich that had "pineapple and rocket" on it. She asked what Rocket was and the lady said a "hare" we all looked at each other confused and asked what is a "hare"? She said you know a hare and then stumbled to think of what it was close too. Then we said is it a meat, cheese, vegetable, she said no it's like a pepper. So I said it's a type of spice? And she said, "no it's a hare like a basil pepper" And Kylee then said so like a herb? She got excited and said yess that's what you call it! So yeah almost every meal in Ireland was like that, us playing the guessing game of what the Irish food was. Another funny thing I forgot to write about was... Before the trip I ordered 6 Europe to USA outlet converters for us so we would have 2 each. Well our first night there I realized that the outlet was not the same holes that our converters had. So I looked online if the U.K. had different outlets then the rest of Europe. Sure enough they do! I was so mad when finding that out and don't know why the U.K. Is special. Kylee bought one real one when we picked Haley up at he airport so we could get by until we found some for cheaper elsewhere. The next day when we were shopping Kylee pointed out that there were more converters to buy under the cash register that were 2 for 11 euros. I got excited and grabbed the first 2 that I saw and purchased them. Later that night when we got home I pulled them out and realized that I bought 2 more Europe to USA converters!! Gah I was so upset but busted out laughing cause I couldn't believe I bought them. I assumed all the converters under the register were for U.K. to USA but I was wrong again. So we had 8 converters that we couldn't use the whole trip and managed to get by with sharing the 1 Kylee bought. If I ever go to Europe I am set with converters now. My favorite city we visited was Edinburgh, it seriously was so magnificent! Favorite activity was the Gaelic Games, and then favorite scenic view was the drive up to Giants Causeway and Causeway itself! London was so crowded and huge I don't think I would want to come back to this city. If I get the chance to visit to England again, I for sure want to go to the towns my Nanna and Papa grew up in and see their homes, where they went to school, danced, and golfed. Anyways it was an amazing trip and I am so glad I got to experience the UK and make awesome memories with my friends, but I have never been so excited to go home. Being away from Lucas was hard and only being able to talk once a day was rough but my love for him is even stronger now and I am sure glad we don't have to do long distance!