Hollywood

When the weekend came, it was time for even more excitement—my sorority sister Molly, who is studying in Seville and I traveled to Paris with—came to visit me in London!

Tom, Alex & I stayed up late on Wednesday night to wait for Molly's arrival extremely late (or early, if you like to see it that way). After blowing up Jess's air mattress and getting far too little sleep, it was time to go to my Austen class early the next morning. Thanks to me being a kind and generous friend, Molly treated me to a large mocha the next morning from the coffee cart, which was definitely a necessity.

Off to Hogwarts!

After getting out of class, we scoped out the quintessential London sights—Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and the Thames. Then we headed over to Oxford street to do some shopping for the afternoon at my favorite London stores. Exhausted from our early start, we headed back up towards Hampstead, making a quick stop at King's Cross Station to take some pictures with Platform 9 3/4, a must for any London visitor/Harry Potter fan.

Stopping at Sainsbury's for some groceries, we came back and took a nap before making burritos for dinner! That night, Mel, Molly, and I headed to Piccadilly Circus to give Molly a glimpse of "London's Time Square" at night.

Up early again to go to class, we headed to Gregg's after to grab some cheap sausage rolls (yum!) and went over to Waterloo to catch a train to Hampton Court, famous as Henry VIII's palace. The palace, about thirty minutes outside of London, was a pretty interesting look into the life of the Tudors, one of the royal families most featured on television and film.



We saw Henry VIII's apartments, kitchens, grounds, as well as apartments and galleries from later royal families.

 At the end of the day, we even tried out the hedge maze in the gardens of Hampton Court (a little unnerving, but we finally managed to find the center and our way out!).

This hat is HUGE in pers

Back to London, we met Mel at Waterloo and headed to the V&A Museum to check out their latest traveling exhibit, the Hollywood Costumes display. This was definitely one of my favorites out of all the museums and exhibits I've been to in the past few months. We saw the iconic costumes from Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marie Antoinette (a favorite), Titanic, Wizard of Oz, Sherlock Holmes, and another of my personal favorites, Cecilia's green dress from Joe Wright's Atonement.

After the V&A, Molly and I went to meet my roommate from last year, Ali, who was in town from her study abroad program in Scotland. After a night of pub food & hard cider, it was back to bed for Rachel, who at this point could no longer keep her eyes open.