I've been back in the U.S. for a few weeks now. My 10-month adventure in France officially ended on May 29th, when I took a flight out of Paris to London, made a quick dash through Heathrow for my connection, and then hopped on a PA-bound plane (along with the Nigerian National Soccer Team, by the way. Their match coordinator was in the seat next to me).
Since it has been so long, I'll briefly sum up my last week in the next few posts, the first being about my last-minute trip to London with Laetitia. Originally, I was going to pop over to England to visit my grandparents in the North for a few days, but my granddad was scheduled to have surgery just days before I could come, and I didn't want to be in the way if any complications arose. So I arranged to meet up with one of my cousins in London, and I invited Laetita--who had never been to England--to come along.
So what did we see and do there?
* 221B Baker Street (I've been obsessed with the BBC show Sherlock recently, so I really just wanted to visit the famous address).
* Tower of London (Laetitia really loved our hilarious Yeoman Warder tour guide even though she didn't understand everything he was saying).
* Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment (of course).
* The Harry Potter Studio Tour, which is just outside of London. This was a true highlight for me, being one of the things I've always wanted to do, ever since the studio opened. I absolutely loved it, as well, and I would go back in a heartbeat. The attention to detail was amazing to see, and the butterbeer was super sugary and delicious! The funniest part was seeing Laetitia try the butterbeer and her surprise that it was 1. not at all alcoholic and 2. so sweet! The four hours we spent at the studio were pure magic for me.
* Cream tea at the British Museum (warm butter scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves, along with classic English Breakfast!) along with seeing the Rosetta Stone.
* Wandering through Harrods, which is always a favorite for me, as the old department store is so exquisitely decorated.
* Seeing The Mousetrap, a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie that has been continuously performed in London since 1952 (the longest-running play of all time). My parents actually went to see The Mousetrap years ago. I, on the other hand, had never heard of it until Laetitia brought it up.
* Going out to lunch in a pub, and dinner at an Indian restaurant, two eateries that Laetitia had really wanted to experience.
I really loved this trip to London, as last-minute as it was. For me, the strangest part was that I spoke French the entire time, even though I was in a country that spoke English. I was in such a French mindset that, when other people spoke to me in English, I would automatically respond in French, much to their (and my) confusion! And honestly, the French were everywhere! There were groups of French schoolchildren at the Tower of London, there were French couples in every pub, the hostel we stayed at was run by a Frenchman, and the people sitting next to us in the Indian restaurant were French people on a buisiness trip!
I asked Laetitia why there were so many French people wherever I went (I found them in Ireland, in Morocco, in Italy...) She told me, "Well, you know how we are nicknamed, "The Frogs," right? It's because we hop from country to country all the time!"
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