Molly Smiles: Another Weekend in London

After visiting London four weeks ago, I just knew I'd have to go back! Casey had planned to visit our friends Lia and Melissa this weekend, so I decided to tag along. BEST DECISION EVER.
I left Friday evening, and flew over with Taylor and Meghan, and was able to meet up with the girls around 10pm. It was so great to see them!

On Saturday morning, Melissa and I headed out to explore the Portabello Market, while Casey and Lia headed to the Borough Market. We managed to walk through part of the Kensington Gardens, where the paths and grounds were flooded with people enjoying the warm sun. Everything is in bloom, just like the daffodils above.

Kensington Palace, home to Princess Diana years ago, is also located in the gardens.

Melissa and I walked through different neighborhoods along the way, stopping to take pictures of everything: bright-colored homes, floral trees and the beautiful architecture.

We met up with our friend Tim and walked through the Portobello Market, checking out the street vendor booths of odds and ends.

Walking around made us very hungry, especially with such great food on display. We stopped at El Camino for some food.

I had the Piccadello Tacos, yum!

Last semester, one of my advertising professors told us about a new McDonald's campaign in Piccadilly Circus. I hadn't been there, so we decided to check it out.

And I found the McDonald's e-billboard! An digital image (i.e. hat, puppet strings, birthday cakes and others) appear on the screen at different intervals, and if you're at the right angle, it makes for some great photos!

On our way to meet up with Casey and Lia, I spotted an ad for the McDonald's Creme Egg McFlurry. I just had to try one!

So I did, and it was delicious!

Next, I was on a mission to find the Freitag bag store. I found out last weekend, thanks to Mom, that there are two stores in London. After walking past the store twice, we finally found the bags!

I bought one for myself, and couldn't be happier with the colors.

After my purchase, it was off to Kings Cross station to see Platform 9 3/4. If you're unfamiliar with this, you may or may not be a Harry Potter fan. For those avid Harry Potter fans, this is definitely one of the tourist attractions not to be missed in London.

While the actual Platform 9 3/4 doesn't really exist (and it's actual not even between Platforms 9 and 10), it was fun for all of us to take a few photos pretending we were headed to Hogwarts.

We headed back to rest up, shower and eat dinner before a night out. Lia made excellent gnocchi and pumpkin ravoli, and we topped it off with bread and salad. Full and ready for some fun, we headed down to one of Lia and Melissa's favorite spots in London, B@1. I'd been to the bar when I was visiting before and was happy to make a return trip.

We had a few delicious cocktails, made some new friends and we home before midnight, to watch the Frozen Four championship game. We'd all drove down to Washington D.C. last year for the tournament to watch BU win the national championship, and thought it would be great to watch the final. Crowded around the computer, we watched (and some of us fell asleep, including me).

While Boston College defeated Wisconsin 5-0, we were more pleased with being able to watch the game together, and spend time reminiscing about last year's miraculous victory.

Casey and I were up early on Sunday morning to head to the airport to catch our 10am flight back to Dublin. On our way to the gate, we discovered a Ben & Jerry's vending machine. Since we do go to school in New England, Ben & Jerry's is at the top of the list when it comes to ice cream. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some, so crazy as it sounds we did eat ice cream at 9:30am. Little did we know, we met back up with Taylor and Meghan at the gate, and Meghan was eating some Ben & Jerry's as well.