Visiting London

Two weeks ago I was able to spend the weekend in London with my dear friend Natalia. Ryan and I came to know Natalia through her brother and his wife, our good friends Eric and Ashley Durso, whom we met through Master's. Natalia and I really connected because her husband, Lavar, and two little boys are living a similar lifestyle as us. They also met at Master's and are now living in France while Lavar plays basketball. 

Natalia decided to take a little break and bought a flight to the UK so we could spend a fun, relaxing girl weekend together in London! She flew into Gatwick Airport, I drove down to meet her, we booked a hotel for a couple nights and took the train into London the next morning!

The Victoria train Station

 

 

The first place we took the bus to was Camdentown. This had tons of market shops.

We spent some time in Trafalgar Square.

 
 

  

 

After that we walked to Big Ben and then to Westminster Abbey.

 

  

 

  

From there we walked to Buckingham Palace:)

 

 

 

After that we had dinner at the Shakespeare Pub. I had the Big Ben Burger:) It was pretty delicious!

We also spent some time in Oxford on our way back to Leicester. We felt so intelligent walking around amongst all the Oxford students and were amazed by the architecture down each street. 

 

  

 

 

  

 

Natalia and I had such a great time. Although she said she needed a break from the boys and speaking French, this trip may have been more beneficial for me:) She was able to share with both Ryan and I great advice about many different things including different things we should expect in the future since her and Lavar have done this a few more years than we have.  They've seen a few more challenges with the language barrier and also taking care of their two children but it was very encouraging to hear how they've been taking everything in stride. We constantly talked about our lifestyles in the different countries and how we love traveling and being submersed in all the different cultures. We hope to make this a yearly tradition and maybe someday we could end up on the same league or the even the same team!!