London Loves Christmas

One thing that I have learned is that London really does Christmas big, and I absolutely love it. The Christmas festivals, lights and decorations are all so spectacular and I've never seen any place else have such Christmas spirit.

The three of us bought tickets to the Magic Ice Kingdom in Winter Wonderland (Hyde Park) on Friday and I was so excited because it looked really cool (pun intended.) As expected, Winter Wonderland was nuts - SO many people! It was probably one of the most amazing places I've seen, I like to think of it as Disney World but for Christmas. It was free to go into, but you could pay for certain events, such as the skating rink (which was hilarious to watch as no one seemed to know how to skate,) ice bar, circus performance and the ice kingdom.

The Magic Ice Kingdom was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but it was absolutely freezing, we felt like we were in Canada because it was so cold. There was an ice slide you could go down and chairs made of ice that you could get a picture taken on. Unfortunately they were both too cold so we didn't stay very long.

Entrance to Winter Wonderland 

There was German things everywhere 

This was the most amazing idea ever! A Carousel Bar where you stand on a revolving bar - there was also karaoke. 

Inside the Ice Kingdom

After we went and walked around Oxford Street/Regent Street again to see the Christmas lights.

Selfridges and Co.

Typical Saturday

For me, a typical Saturday in London includes going to one of the many museums, then wandering around and ending with getting a drink at a pub. This weekend was no exception. We went to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England which has to be the strangest museum I've ever been to. This museum was full of surgical instruments and dissected body parts in glass jars that was collected for centuries by surgeon John Hunter. It wasn't quite my kind of thing but Katy and Kylie enjoyed it.

We weren't allowed to take photos in the museum but I snuck one

We had to wear fancy badges

Hunterian Museum

After touring the museum we decided to just walk around and "get lost" in London. We made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral where we saw a wedding take place. I had heard of something called SantaCon which was happening all day Saturday. People dress up in Santa costumes and have a sort of parade where they basically go around London drinking and spreading Christmas cheer. We didn't participate because I only found out about it the day it was happening, but luckily as we were walking around St. Pauls, the parade had a pit stop in front of the Cathedral.

Next we went on Oxford street where I met up with Katelynne, a friend from school who is also living in London. I tagged along for a mini pub crawl in central London with her and her teaching friends which was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I met Lauren at Tower Bridge and we did some Christmas shopping. I love how I can just hop on the tube and see such historic sites - definitely something I will not grow tired of.

Oxford

Two weekends ago I got the chance to go Oxford for the day with my friend Lauren, her sister Heather and her friend. It was nice as Heather's friend had a car as he was from the London area so he drove us there. Just like Bath and the other parts of England I've visited, Oxford was equally as beautiful. I really would encourage anyone who is coming to the London to take a day trip to a nearby city (such as Bath, Oxford, etc.) as it really shows what I believe to be the true English countryside. We were a bit disappointed as we thought the Oxford Christmas market was open but unfortunately it wasn't opening for another two weekends. Regardless, we had a wonderful day exploring Oxford.

Radcliffe Camera - Library for Oxford University.
Later on we saw a protest around this area over the ruling of Darren Wilson from the Michael Brown shooting.

We found this cute (tiny) store which sold beautiful leather bound notebooks, calligraphy sets and books with really cool covers.

Oxford Castle 

We paid £1.00 to go up a hill beside the castle and had a great view of Oxford just before sunset

Cat on the way up the hill

Lauren and I are huge Harry Potter fans, and we knew that quite a bit of Harry Potter was actually filmed around Oxford so were excited to try and see some of those spots. We tried to go to Dining Hall at Christ Church College which was the inspiration for the Hogwarts Dining Hall but sadly it was closed.

Instead we went to New College (another one of the schools in Oxford) just as the sun was setting and got a few pictures before it was dark. After it was dark we snuck in the courtyard and snapped some pictures and just took it all in. Lauren and I were in our glory because we were exact spot where HP was filmed (in the Goblet of Fire.) It was a really cool moment and we just sat on the pillars in complete bliss. It was really neat because we were the only ones around yet we could hear a choir practicing inside the school behind us. I have felt really exhausted, stressed and burnt out lately from teaching and everything else but experiences like this make it all completely worth it. I am really felt so lucky that I can have this opportunity.

New College

A bit of a blurry picture I took on my phone of the gorgeous building 

IN THE COURTYARD WHERE HARRY POTTER WAS FILMED!

Taking it all in

After we were done sneaking around the college we walked to Oxford's oldest pub and had a pint, then we were walking back to the car and came across snow! Someone had a fake snow machine (it was actually just bubbles) and was doing it out their window. A great end to a great day!

War Museum/Clapham

As I have previously mentioned, there are many free things to do in London, which is nice because it really is an expensive city to live in. We decided to go to the Imperial War Museum to check out the Holocaust Exhibition. Katy and I are both history majors so we were both really excited to check out this museum. One thing I noticed while at the museum was that the majority of people there were male, which didn't really surprise me. The museum covers conflicts (mainly in Britain and the commonwealth) from WWI to the present.

I thought this was so weird and had to take a picture. It's a "Squander Bug Air Rifle Target." This was designed during WWII to make people think twice about spending money on things that they didn't need. It was made to look like Hitler and inspire dislike and disapproval which made it ideal for use as an air rifle target.  

After touring the museum I met up with Lauren who is a friend from home and some of her friends. She moved to London a few weeks before me and lives in Clapham (South West.) The Southbank Christmas Market was on so we went there and wandered around. Around the market are wooden chalets selling festive food, drink and gifts. We went for a drink and then went back to Lauren's to go out in Clapham.

Christmas Tree maze with the London Eye in the background

We went to the "Cider House" which only sells Rekorderlig Cider

We took quite a few photos, I had trouble keeping my eyes open