London Visitor and Cinque Terre

Hi again! Last week, my friend Whitley came to London to visit. On Thursday, Whitley, my friend Jennifer, and I all went to Cinque Terre Italy for a long weekend. I'll start first with Whitley's trip here!

On my birthday (last Monday), we walked around in the freezing cold and saw some of the major sites of London...Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. That night, we went to an old pub that actually serves Thai food called the Churchill Arms in Kensington. Winston Churchill used to address England from this pub during the war over radio. How cool is that?

On Tuesday, we went found shelter from the cold in the department store, Harrod's. I had never been before but had always heard it was a "must do" experience in London. I can definitely understand why. It's a huge store with everything you could possibly imagine! The best part was the "Millionaires Gallery" where they have all these signed pictures and movie posters from people like Muhammed Ali and Al Pacino. The gorgeous (and very expensive) clothes weren't too bad to look at either! That night we went to a pub called The Fox and Anchor for dinner so Whitley could experience a real British dinner.

On Wednesday, we went to the top of a new building in London called "The Shard". If you don't know what it is, definitely google it. It's the tallest building in Western Europe and it's really cool looking. Much like Rockefeller Center or the Empire State, they allow people to go to the top so you can see the entire city. It was an amazing view! Later that day, we went to Covent Garden to see Mamma Mia! I loved it!

So now for Cinque Terre...I really didn't know anything about this part of Italy when my friend Jennifer asked me to go with her a few months ago. I just said that I would tag along. Well after I did a little research, I realized that it is incredibly gorgeous. It is made up of 5 villages that are all either a short train ride or a 5 hour walk down a coastal path. Sadly, the coastal path was closed because we had some serious rain on our trip but Jen and I still made it to the villages. The food was amazing and in spite of the rain, the weather wasn't that bad! On Sunday and Monday, we had lots of sunshine and I even got a little tan on my face (which is unbelievably exciting for me since I haven't seen warm sun in about 6 months!)

Enjoy the pictures! Lots of love! K