London day one | Who needs sleep anyway??

It was 12:30am thursday morning when we

left Toms house and headed to London.

You may be thinking...

12:30am??? Really guys??

What on earth are you kids thinking??

One of the easiest and quickest ways to travel in the UK is by train,

but sadly it's not always the cheapest way...

£125 for two round trip train tickets

or...

£50 for two round trip bus tickets

We chose the bus!

£75 of savings is enough

for me to choose bus over train.

Especially when we travel on a budget.

So the bus service we used was Megabus.

They get glowing reviews from us just for the fact

that they were very on time and fairly comfy for bus travel.

Our bus was leaving at 2:30am

so we did what any sleepy couple would

do to pass the time...

We hit up BK.

And it was delicious!

We got on our Bus and settled in for the night.

We got into London at 8am and let me just say...

London...at rush hour...around a popular tube station...

is pretty freaking terrifying.

We were almost separated...then almost run over...

We were planning on getting the tube to where we were staying

but figured we'd let rush hour die down first so we headed out for some breakfast.

We just found a cute little cafe and got some yummy breakfast

before we braved the tube station again.

The Tube is amazing.

There really should be one in every city.

It reminded me of how much i loved the Metro in Paris.

We found where we were staying fairly easy.

I was not all that pleased with our choice.

They didn't have free wifi

The bed was very uncomfortable and there was only one pillow

AND on Saturday when we left breakfast wasn't until 8:00

which is unheard of in the Hotel breakfast world

so we missed out on our breakfast which left

us hungry and irritable...

But it was in an AMAZING location..

the only redeeming factor ;)

We were right next to Kensington Gardens | Hyde Park.

And right next to Notting Hill...

I couldn't have been happier with the location.

After we dropped off our bags we walked

through Kensington Gardens.

Saw Kensington Palace and oh yea

tried to find Kate and George mulling around

but we were unsuccessful...

We also tried to rent bikes...

This would be one of Tom's greatest

dissapointments on our trip...

He paid £4 to rent two bikes from

this long bike machine thing...

Mine worked so i had a bike...

his never worked...

the code never got him a bike :(

So we took turns riding the bike

through the gardens ;)

Then we turned it in at the end and were

 done with bikes for a while ;)

We navigated ourselves very successfully to

the Natural History Museum of London.

It was HUGE!

I mean it was Louvre huge...took us about 2 hours

to quickly walk through it...

But it was also pretty awesome.

Like really awesome, we both really enjoyed it!!

After that we walked over to the Victoria and Albert Museum

just so we could sit in the AMAZING Cafe!!

But also because the V&A is pretty gorgeous in itself!!

It's so gorgeous, it makes me so happy

just thinking about it!

We got a little snack and then went

to Lunch at a Boulangerie we found while

roaming through the streets.

We passed a Paul, which is a favorite of mine

from when I studied in Paris, but it looked a little busy.

So instead we went to this sandwich place around the corner.

It was a little too fancy for Toms liking but i thought it was cute.

Lots of light and natural wood and the smell of coffee and bread.

I was pretty happy with the choice.

After lunch we were exausted so we headed back for a little nap

and we had to get ready for our west end show.

Two good lookin kids right there ;)

So now it's about 5:30.

We get ready and leave around 6:45.

We're running a little late...

Our show starts at 8:00 and we still need dinner.

So we head over to where the show is......

or where we thought the show was.....

We were wrong...we were lost...we were running late.

Instead we were over by Billy Elliot when we needed to be by Stomp.

Billy Elliot is by Victoria Station.

Stomp is by Trafalgar Square.

If you know the London map then you know we were

quite a ways away from where we needed to be.

The options...tube...bus or a taxi cab.

Knowing we'd be late on a tube or bus

we opted for the cab and got to

Stomp about 10 minutes before it started.

The theater, was not what i expected it to be.

It was very very small, and very very cool!!!

It was so personal, it felt like you could just jump on stage with them.

I've seen stomp before but Tom hadn't.

It was even better than the first time I saw it.

Such a fun show.

Occasionally i'd look over at Tom

and if it was a quieter moment he'd be trying to fall asleep.

The same thing happened to me towards the end.

I was losing the stay awake battle.

But you can't blame us too much, we were real sleepy.

After the show we got some dinner since we missed

getting it before the show started.

We found ourselves at this fun, lively little italian place

with actual italians arguing in the kitchen..

It was really hilarious and really good.

So now we're full and sleepy,

headed to the tube expecting a smooth ride

back towards Kensington so we could go to sleep

but the tube was anything but smooth...

It was actually pretty nasty.

That's because we spotted this couple in a corner on our car

and they were going for it...not even caring who saw.

There was tugging, grinding, kissing, groping....

In public...on public transportation.

It was like a watching a terrible movie but

I couldn't look away because I was just so

in awe of what they were doing...in public.

Finally we got to our stop, but they got off too...

so then we watched them make out and fondle 

each other going up the escalator....

I...being the dorky person that I am just

started giggling uncontrollably out loud at their

Disgusting act of PDA.

I mean it was just too much...

They ended up walking to our next tube stop

and we watched them continue to eat each others faces off.

They missed both opportunities to get the tube there

so i'm thinking they just stopped caring about anything else going on.

It still makes me queasy thinking about it...

Day one in London was amazing!

Considering we were walking zombies who hadn't really slept

in about 24 hours, we did a good job seeing everything we wanted to see.

London is such a pretty city, i can't wait to go back!

I'll post Day two tomorrow.

Day two was a major sightseeing day,

AND it was Valentines day ;)

So check back tomorrow for more of Tomily in London!!

-Em