home sweet home

After two months of world traveling, I am finally back home in good old Quakertown, Pennsylvania USA.
On Friday morning, my friend Mary Beth and I left Nottingham at 6:30, caught a 7:30 train to St. Pancras station, and arrived at our hotel around 10 with three huge suitcases, two duffel bags, one laptop bag and two purses in tow. Considering our luggage, it wasn't too difficult getting everything on and off the trains and up and down stairs. But it was no piece of cake either.
After checking into the hotel, we then explored London. First, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard and a parade of calvary. Then we went to London Tower and London Tower Bridge.
We also visited Fleet Street in an effort to find where Sweeney Todd made his gruesome living. No such luck. Off to Kensington Palace, which acts sort of like a Central Park in NYC. We sat for a little while by the huge lake in the middle of the park.
Our penultimate stop was at Notting Hill Gate, the site of a sprawling street market, as well as the set for the movie Notting Hill. We got to see the bookshop and house that was used in the movie. Finally, we headed to Madame Tousard's wax museum. The lifelike figures were amazing! They were set up randomly in rooms, so in the crowd I sometimes bumped into what looked like real life celebrities. It was kind of freaky.
The next morning, we headed out at about 9:30 a.m. even though my friend's flight was at 2. Because of our ginormous load of luggage, we wanted to make sure we left enough time to navigate onto the tube and find our concourses. Needless to say, we arrived at 11 and I spent way too many hours sitting in Heathrow Airport.
I boarded my 8-hour flight at 4:30 p.m. I thought I would be able to sleep, but no, it alluded me. So I watched a couple of movies, one of which was Slumdog Millionaire. It is so good; go see it if you haven't!
I arrived in Philly around 9:30. Because of traffic, Dad picked me up at about 11 and I got home an hour later. Everyone was waiting up for me and greeted me with hugs and kisses. I handed out souvenirs and then stayed up talking until 3 a.m. with my mom and sisters. I missed them so much!
The next morning I woke up at 7 because of my jetlag. It's still like that- going to bed late and waking up early. I took Lauren back to the airport with Dad at 12 and then worked at Kohl's the rest of the day. Gotta earn back all that money I spent!