Marissa Does London.

I had my first visitor last Tuesday and it was just what i needed. Seeing my bestie from home was a wonderful feeling and brought my happy face out after a week of rain in London. She arrived late, while I was in class, due to a person throwing themselves in front of her train... But she got to my flat in one piece and we were off getting dinner at Churchill Arms, starting off our week of amazing food. We had a drink at the bar after dinner and headed back to my flat to decide what to do for the rest of the night. Turns out my guest was exhausted and we decided to turn in early.
The next morning I had class, and Marissa came with as we watched 'An Education.' After that we made a quick lunch, picked up her friend Joe and were off. I took them on a walking tour all over London and along the way got to see the Churchill War Rooms. They were very interesting and were left intact from when WWII ended. Our tour ended at Westminster and we headed back to my flat to pick up Alex and Eric before heading over to Bayswater to get dinner at TukTuk; we had Thai two nights in a row, but Marissa didn't mind :) That night we went out with a lot of people from my program to a club, ironically called Club 49. We had crazy night out, but were up and ready to go at 9:30 on Thursday! I dropped Marissa off at the V&A and went to class, after which we met up, packed up and headed for the train to Eastbourne!

After a slight scare about not getting our tickets we were on the train and reading away. We were looking for a very relaxing weekend and I am pleased to say that is exactly what we got! We walked from the train station to our Bed and Breakfast, we took a few wrong turns due to our lack of directions, but got there and instantly fell in love with it. It was called the Victoria and Albert, and was decorated in the Victorian style. Our room was quaint and had a wonderfully comfortable bed. We needed a serious nap after the night before, so we settled in bed with our book and napped for a few hours. When we awoke we were starving so we set out in search of food. We ended up at this really nice Indian restaurant. The food was fantastic, a bit expensive, but SO worth it. Afterwards we headed back to the B&B for some more R&R.

We got up the next morning to have breakfast in the breakfast room :) The old man that owned the place with his wife cooked us our full English breakfast, of which we ate everything in sight, and then we ventured to the pier. This is where the story picks up. After touring the pier in the sun we boarded the bus that would take us to the famous white cliffs. The bus ride was only 12 minutes long, but as we drove it started to sprinkle...then rain...then pour. By the time we got off the bus it was windy, wet, and cold! But we were determined to see the White Cliffs, and see them we did. After struggling to maintain a firm hold on our umbrellas, we finally decided to put them away and use our scarfs as head wear. We pondered the cliffs for about 5 minutes, took some pictures to show that we'd been there and then ran towards the pub that was down the hill. There was a cute little museum that looked like a bunch of NHD projects thrown together in a room but it was interesting and something to keep us out of the rain. The bus only came every half hour, and we missed the first one, the fun adventured that had us laughing at the beginning was turning the corner towards no fun. As we stood in a little phone booth by the bus stop we came up with the wonderful plan of going back to our room and climbing into bed with our books again once more :) And that is just what we did. Getting up in time for dinner we went and ended up having high tea at a cute place by the pier. We then stopped and picked up some wine for the night and once again retreated to our wonderful room; where we proceeded to drink the wine and catch up on everything in each others lives.

Saturday brought sun that stayed, and we shopped! I introduced Marissa to Primark, and she got a cute new dress, while I picked up two new sweaters. After we were shopped out we grabbed coffee at a cafe and, what else, read our books outside in the beautiful sunshine! We got on an earlier train and headed back to London. We decided to make our own delicious dinner and picked up the ingredients for a Mediterranean pizza. It was super yummy and afterward we were ready to go see more sights! I took her all around central London; St. Pauls, Tate Modern, The National Theater, we walked for quite some time but ended the tour in Piccadilly Circus. We made our way back to the flat exhausted and ready for bed.

We got up early Sunday morning to go to Easter Service at the Brompton St Oratory, a very pretty Catholic church over by Harrod's. The service was kind of a downer as I'm used to singing, people being so cheery and bright colors filling my church on Easter, but I was glad I went and experienced something different. Following the service 12 girls went out to brunch at a fancy place about a block from the church and had a lovely time. Then Marissa and I came back to my flat, changed, and set out to the British Museum; after a terribly long bus ride, we arrived and saw the main attractions; which meant we could be on our way to Brick Lane. We wondered through the rows and rows good food and cute clothes, found Marissa a super cute new purse, and then met up with Andrea to have some authentic Indian food at a place called Aladdin. Stuffed, we made our way back to my flat for Marissa's final night in London. We were both wiped from the weeks events and turned in early due to the fact that we had to set our alarms for 4:15am so Marissa could catch a night bus to the airport. She made it home successfully and I am so happy we were able to share an experience like this together. No matter how we've each grown in different ways due to our respective colleges she'll always remain my best friend and this week together only reaffirmed that in my mind.