Pip Pip Cheerio...I'm in London!

When my place of work said they'd take away our three-day weekend in October in favor of a full week off in Thanksgiving, I thought they were mad. How could we, teachers and students, go without some extra time off from Labor Day until Turkey Day? The answer is, it doesn't matter, because I'm traipsing around in London and heading to Paris tomorrow.

I've been to London before...twice, actually. Once to celebrate my first birthday (good times I have no recollection of I'm sure) and another time when my family was en route from uprooting ourselves from Saudi Arabia to move back to Texas. That was in December. It did not bode well for us desert folk.

Aside from the usual flight delay mayhem, panic over being "wait-listed" when we were supposed to be confirmed, and a few unhelpful Delta employees, our travel experience was actually quite smooth. The flight crew was one of the best I've ever experienced. The moment we got off our flight, I expected to see Paddington Bear and Harry Potter paraphernalia hemorrhaging out of the city. This has not be the case so far.

After some quick freshening up at Chateau de Uzma's Auntie, we took to the tube (after topping off our Oyster Cards...I feel so British right now) to checkout the gateway to all that is wonderful and magical, Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. My first thoughts: London is kind of like fancier America and these stations are DART stations on acid. After 45 minutes of standing in line, we were able to take our picture with the infamous Potter props. I loved that the photographers running the tourist spot were just as into it as the dozens and dozens of nerds in line.

So many nerds.

But here's the cutest one.

We continued our nerdfest by heading to Baker Street to see Sherlock's "home". My hopes for a Benedict Cumberbatch sighting were dashed.

We then headed out to Soho to meet up a former student studying abroad at Oxford and then walk around Carnaby Street, with all of its shops and restaurants. It was really pretty, seeing as how everything has been done up for Christmas already. Just eerily quiet. I feel like such places back home blare carols from loudspeakers on the street. Random notes: London is way more cosmopolitan than I remember it to be. Like way more.