deathly hungover! It was a weekend of firsts for me. I touched down between holidays for only a few days to make Ben some more food and was off to London. Rachel, who we crashed with when the ash cloud gave us a bit of trouble, said to come back anytime, so I did. I kept myself busy on the Thursday walking through Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, was diverted through St James’s park due to a parade, up past Westminster and Big Ben, 
stopping in Jubilee Gardens for a snack and then ducking into a café for some lunch as it poured buckets of rain. Once it stopped I figured museums would be my best bet for keeping dry and being entertained. All museums are free so I wandered through a Watercolour and Print Museum before heading to Tate Modern. 
I had always wanted to go to the Tate where there is a wonderful collection of surrealists, postmodernist, contemporary artists and of course Dalí. It was great doing it on my own. I could sit when I wanted to, go as fast or as slow as I wanted to and see what I wanted to see. With a break again in the rain I made it across the millennium bridge, past Saint Pauls and was at the top of The Mall when the sky opened up and started pouring. I kept myself busy in a bookstore flipping through “1000 Buildings to see Before you Die” and figured out I had seen 110 so far. Not bad. When it was about time to meet Rachel at Victoria Station after she got off work, I had to make a mad dash past Buckingham Palace while getting drenched. Luckily that night it was a quiet dinner out and to bed after a few bottles of wine to warm me back up.The next morning I
trekked through the Natural History Museum. I was pressed for time since I had to meet Niamh for lunch, so I flew through, at least seeing all of the exhibits. I love Natural History museums and this was the best one. I would love to see it again someday. 
The animatronic T Rex that growled, roared and sniffed at you was scary and cool all at the same time. I love dinos! After my lunch I walked up to Harrods, so see the infamous shopping centre. It is pretty cool, but I could never afford to shop there for real. I think I had more fun walking through the children’s 
section than seeing all the fabulous designer stuff I will never buy. As I walked out, the sun peeked out so I took a stroll through Hyde Park, seeing the Diana Memorial and up past Kensington Palace. I am all about walking, but I knew that I was not going to make it in time to meet with Rachel to see Wicked so I finally figured out how to take the Underground all on my own. It was easy and soon became a master traveller of the tube. I meet Rachel for Wicked which I had been wanting to see for years, so I got to see a show in the West End. It was very good, and after the show, we picked up some wine and headed to her house for our girlie chats since it was officially the weekend! Saturday we walked through Wimbledon where she lives as I wanted to see where the play tennis.
It is a great little village, that is known for its horse trails as well. When we walked up to the crosswalk, there was an extra high button that someone on horseback would be able to hit and cross with the little horse signal. I got a kick out of that. We were to meet up with some of her friends for a dinner and in true Irish style (even though we were in England, they were all Irish) we ended up at the birthday boys house for a sing song. In front of my own friends I have always refused to sing since I know for a fact I have a terrible singing voice. I have made fun of it recorded when I did not know it was my own, so I know it is bad. But when Rachel snuck out for a sneaky cigarette, it was my time to sing. I not only sung an Irish traditional song in English, “Spanish Lady”, I even sung an Irish song in Irish, “Beidh Aonach Amárach”. Yep, busted out my Irish! http://www.irishpage.com/songs/aonach.htm Karen would have been so proud. The guitarist for the evening was from Co. Clare so he was well impressed that an American could sing a Culchie Irish song. As the sun began to rise, we decided it was time to head home since in the morning we were bound for the zoo. With working part time, I catch shows during the day. One of them is a children’s show about the zoo in Scotland and in London. I feel like I know all the keepers and the animals, so I had to see them for myself. It was a good sized zoo in Regents Park that is small, but considering it is nearly in City Centre, I was well impressed. The sun finally decided to shine on the day we needed it.
All the animals were out and about which was great to see. The Penguin exhibit was the newest addition as the old penguin exhibit was designed by a famous architect, but it was cramped for the animals and was giving them knee problems walking up the steep ramps. 
One of the other cool exhibits was these little monkeys were playing in the bushes and you could be right next to them. Although there were keepers there, if we wanted to reach out and touch them we could. I love monkeys! I should just say I love all animals, I cannot think of one I don't really like, except for maybe spiders. After hours of walking we were starving, so we meet up with her boyfriend for some Mexican food, that they promised me was good. And it was, even the Margaritas were excellent! I have been missing Mexican food big time. We wandered Camden Town that has a real student/young person feel to it, as we hit up different pubs with live music, finally settling in a strange American pub for shots to end the night, as well as my trip with. Although I was not hungover getting on a plane to London, I was coming home…
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