Dana and Julie Go Abroad: Life in London

Leaving Austria wasn't easy but we knew we had a new adventure ahead of us! On July 15th, we flew into London to start the last leg of our journey. After standing in line for customs for longer than expected we found our way to the "fake country" of London to stay with a friend Dana met on a hitch (hitch hiking) in Zambia. Dana had kept in contact with this friend and she was gracious enough to host us for a few days. In the mornings of our stay we helped our host clean and organize. In the afternoon we ventured out into the city to check out the sights!

As always, our favorite part of London was the parks. We visited many parks including Kensington, Green Park and St. James. Hanging out in parks is truly one of our favorite things to do, especially in cities! Such fun!

Our host is part of a Toastmasters club, the friendliest club in London to be exact, and we had the chance to attend a meeting with her! If you are like me, you might not know what Toastmasters is. Toastmasters is an international organization which focuses on public speaking. We heard some very interesting and informational speeches, and a few funny ones! Then we got to participate as well! We both signed up to do a one minute improvisational speech. We were told an introduction to a story and then had to finish it or answer the question asked. Dana's impromptu speech was a very riveting, action filled demonstration for her part of the topic narration. I shared about forgetting my words while talking to others or giving speeches. It was a very fun evening and we really enjoyed learning more! To get home, we got to ride in the Mini Cooper of our host's friend from Czech Republic!

Our hosts near Vienna told us about a friend of theirs who is the owner and chef at a restaurant in London; so we decided to check it out! We want everyone to know that if they are ever in London, they MUST go to Pitt Cue Co. We had the most wonderful experience enjoying conversation with our table mates and being treated to a Pickle Back - shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice. The barbeque pork was the absolute best we have ever had. So yummy!

Across the street from the restaurant was a store full of Redwing Boots from Redwing, Minnesota!

One day we visited a few of the London Museums, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. The architecture in the Natural History museum was our favorite part there. We wished we had made more time for the Science Museum, maybe next time!

As soon as I learned we were going to London, I planned to visit King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4. We queued up for a half hour to get our photo heading into the station for Hogwarts Express!

We loved walking across the Putney Bridge and checking out the Thames River. Tidal rivers are such neat concepts to us! We loved seeing how high or low the river was during different times from day to day.