carolyn explains it all: King of the Castle

After our restful Friday night, we have had quite the weekend! Saturday we woke up early to go the Trooping the Color and to be tourists! Trooping the Color is the city's celebration of the Queen's 'official birthday' and there is a huge parade out of Buckingham Palace into a private venue. We were lucky enough to get really good spots over a group of young kids so we could see! First, around 400+ soldiers marched by, some with guns, some on horses, some playing instruments and even some playing instruments while on horses! It was quite the spectacle, especially with the soldiers in their full red coat and tall back hat outfits. Finally after much waiting we saw the royal family! My favorites of course were Prince William and The Queen! We were literally no more than 20 feet from them, it was so amazing. They love the queen so much here, I think it is kind of cute because in America no one has that kind of affinity for our government officials, but everyone here was waving flags and cheering "God Save the Queen!"

The guards

Her majesty...

We were all so stressed about where to go for the world cup, but luckily Molly's friend recommended a good pub that was walking distance from where we live! So we went to The Gloucester Arms, apparently a pub that Robert Pattinson himself frequents...

We were told to get there at 6:30 (the match showing at 7:30) but we did one more and got there at 5:30! And I'm glad we did because we barely got a table! By 7:30 a group of 7 or so students in the EUSA program met up with us and the pub was packed! There was hardly any room to breathe. It was especially fun to belt out the Star Spangled Banner and have everyone boo us! I'm not used to watching football, or soccer, games so the game seemed long and even longer because I didn't really know who I wanted to win! The odds for the US were 40 to 1, so I didn't have much hope- but I knew either way I would have a fun night. Turns out, we tied and I had a fun night anyways! We made some other friends from America at the pub and had lots of different beers and drinks! The group of us drank beers like Foster's, Beck's, Stella, and Strongbow. It is hard to keep track because they serve beer in pints here, so one "drink" is really like one and a half drinks!

Gloucester Arms

Molly and I

After the game we came back to our flat with everyone and planned Sunday! We decided to take a long day trip to Hever Castle. We took our first train about 45 minutes outside of the city. We knew we were in for an adventure when the only Taxi stand in the small town of Hever was closed. We finally realized the castle was 4 miles from the train station. After much searching we rounded up a taxi and a group of 8 of us made it to the castle! The castle stands on 600 acres and although the castle is small, the area is huge and it is so beautiful. Anne Boleyn and King Henry lived in this castle for some amount of time. We toured the castle and the rose garden, labyrinth (Harry Potter style) and the beautiful lake. I'm glad we got up and did something today because I have a feeling this summer is going to go by so fast!

The Train Station