London, England

The weekend trip began on Thursday, February 8th at the Florence Airport. My flight left at 1:50pm and landed in London Gatwick at 3:10pm, London time. I made it to the hotel via taxi and waited for my roommates to arrive. We ordered room service and went to sleep to prepare for our very busy following day.

Friday, February 9th, our day started by going to a nearby coffee shop called The Black Penny which had the best coffee and offered a variety of breakfast options. I ordered the "Red Eggs" which was scrambled eggs, harissa, spicy beef sausages, rocket, and sourdough toast. It was absolutely delicious. After breakfast we took the tube to Buckingham Palace and it was surreal to see the palace in real life with the guards in the front. We then walked through the gardens and around the Soho area. At 3:30pm, we had reservations for afternoon tea at the Wallace Collection. This was absolutely the highlight of the trip for us. It was a preset menu of sandwiches, scones, and desert but each person got to pick which tea they wanted. Within the same building was a museum with loads of artifacts and art. Later that evening, we went out to a bar and had a super fun night dancing with people we've never met before.

The following day, Saturday February 10th, our morning started slow. We headed out for the day around 11:30am, taking the bus to University of Greenwich, where we walked around the campus as the sound of bagpipes surrounded us. Then, we took an Uber Boat under the Tower Bridge and walked across the London Bridge. We had lunch at the Borough Market where I got the famous London Fish & Chips. We also got chocolate covered strawberries in a cup and a deconstructed pie from Humble Crumble. After, we visited Tate Modern, a contemporary art museum and went to dinner at a place called Dishoom. Dishoom is a young and hip restaurant that serves classic Indian cuisine. The restaurants ambiance was great and the food was absolutely delicious. We headed to bed early to prepare the early wake up call the next morning. London was even better than I could’ve imagined!