“Bye, Bye, Bye”

Friday was our last day in London. Now, the 3 Girlz are apart, two of them (Claire and Em) touring around Europe and one of them (ME!) in GIBRALTAR!

We started out our last day finally visiting Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey: Best known as the venue for the Royal Wedding...

Then it was off to see Harry Potter…or so we thought. For some reason, the whole Harry Potter Tickets in a London Cinema thing just doesn’t work out for me. First, I booked the tickets (9 in total- a big investment for Claire who paid it all on her card) for the wrong time. We got noon (12:30) instead of midnight (0:00). Disappointed, but finally resigned to the noon showing, we made it all the way to the cinema only to realize that I had booked the tickets for Leicester City, a town outside of London, not Leicester Square, the area inside of London. Needless to say, I was stressed out beyond reason, and on edge from the frustration. But finally, we found a cinema that wasn’t too expensive and booked our tickets and reserved our seats for the second midnight showing. To kill the time, we went to Hyde Park and then set about packing up all our things. 😦

Harry vs Voldemort, Joycey vs Claire-demort

The movie was well worth the wait. I continuously cried throughout the entire thing, from sobbing to bawling to weeping and everything in between. At one point, I was shaking so badly, I asked Emily to hold my hand. I wasn’t only crying for Harry and Hermione and Ron and Fred and Lupin and Tonks, I was crying for the end of an era; the end of my childhood.

Emotionally drained and dreading the hectic travel schedule I would encounter the next day, we walked back to Lambeth at 3 in the morning, drenched from the (probably acid) rain and exhausted from our long day. On the way home, we said goodbye to all our London favorites and landmarks.

Goodbye to Oxford street which I had to push and maneuver my way around the mass transit of people everyday to and from school. Goodbye dirty, wet, vomit-y sidewalks that made my feet black and crusty. Goodbye big red busses that I’m pretty sure sped up to try to hit me as I ran across the road. Goodbye curls in my hair that stayed for about five seconds before the drab London rain straightened it again. Goodbye Trafalagar Square which I spent hours on my feet at waiting for first, the Harry Potter wristbands, and then the actual premiere. Goodbye Citadines Hotel which provided our accommodations for our very first night in this beautiful city and then subsequently provided a meeting place for us to meet our Study Abroad advisors. Goodbye Thames River and your wonderful boat cruises and gorgeous view of the city. Goodbye Golden Jubilee bridge that looks like sailboats that we walked across to get home with your weird homeless people. Goodbye view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament that made us really feel like we were in London. Goodbye South Bank and your crappy, creepy street performers. Goodbye London Eye, our very first tourist activity and landmark. Goodbye the Horse pub where we had our first round of drinks with our new London friends. Goodbye Bailey A, Lauren S, Lauren Z, and Emily J. Goodbye big church thing by the Lambeth North underground station that showed us that we were almost home. Goodbye “open late” with no given closing time food and wine place that provided alcoholic drinks, medicine, and snacks. Goodbye International House and my wonderful room and kitchen. Goodbye London. We love you. We miss you. We’ll be back soon! Cheers!

And now I say hello to Gibraltar and a Mr. Alfred Morro! 

SPAIN!

On Saturday, I drag myself out of bed and start to get ready to leave London.My bags are packed, final goodbyes are said, and I take one last moment to say farewell to London. With a slight drizzle coming down outside, I gather up all my arm muscles and make the half mile walk to the bus stop, the ride to Victoria station, the journey to Gatwick Airport via the Gatwick Express train, through the airport, and finally, onto the plane. I had a slight misunderstanding with the British time system AGAIN, accidentally thinking that my plane was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes, and then realizing it was only fifteen minutes late. After a hectic attempt to message my parents, sister, and Alfred, which turned out to be a fiasco in itself, I make it on board and to Gibraltar.