London, england

We had the most amazing time on our Amalfi coast adventure, but it was time to head back home to our boys. After an hour taxi ride from Ravello to Naples, we hopped on a 3-hour flight to London. Our layover was 24-hours which was nice to break up the flights. Plus it was an excuse to enjoy London for a day!
 
We grabbed one of those classic London taxis at the airport and headed to our hotel in the city. Along the way, our driver wasn’t paying attention and rammed into a car in front of him. For reals dude? He got out of the car to check if there was any damage to his car or the one he hit….while the meter was still running. Luckily there wasn’t and we continued on our merry way (with no car crash discount).
 
We arrived at our hotel called Ruby Lucy that is located in the bustling South Bank entertainment district and only a short walk to the main sites. The check-in desk was in their bar and they had a dispenser to get the room keys. That’s definitely a first!
 
We dropped our bags off and headed out to grab a light snack. We were both craving a Cornish pasty that is super popular in London. There happened to be a place in the Waterloo train station right next to our hotel to grab some pasties. (The ‘a’ in pasty is a short ‘a’ like in apple… as opposed to the pasties that strippers wear on their ta-tas. Trust me, they’ll correct you if you say it wrong, lol.) Anyway, they look similar to a calzone and are stuffed with various meats or veggies. I got a veggie one and Marshall got the chicken one. Awww yeah, that hit the spot!

​We continued walking toward Westminster Bridge. The bridge was packed with hundreds of tourists taking pictures with Big Ben and the London Eye in the background. There were also a dozen street performers doing acts ranging from the typical metal floating statue man to a game of ‘find the ball’ where you pay the guy $50 and if you pick the right cup that the ball is under, you double your money. It was a total scam and most of the guys standing around were clearly friends that were in on it. When a friend pretended to play, they would win to show tourists it’s possible to win. But when a tourist chose the right one, he would switch it up before he turned over the cup so that they would lose their money. I couldn’t believe how many people fell for their scheme!

We snapped a few pictures on the bridge and then headed into the Theatre District that is packed with lots of upscale shops and restaurants. There were even more street performers in this area and we thought it would be fun to find a place to sit and watch the performers for a while. We stumbled upon a bar in the center of a shopping square that had a great view of one of the street performers. They seem to rotate every 30 minutes so you get to see a variety of performers throughout the day. The first one we saw was a guy singing old school songs while strumming his guitar. The next guy did a couple tricks like balancing a bike on his chin. Not something you see every day!

We continued strolling around the area and stopped in a few shops as we went. We came across a huge courtyard that had a massive crowd around a street performer. The guy was unicycling around in his underwear and a cape while juggling, lol. The next performer was even better! He grabbed random people from the audience to go up and copy him doing silly things in front of everyone. There was a little boy trying to copy him doing various dance moves. The boy was getting them all wrong, but it was so cute and hilarious at the same time!

​By this point, we were getting hungry for dinner and were searching for somewhere lively to eat. We peeked into a little bar/ restaurant called Mrs. Riot and it was vibrant with lots of bright colors and had a hoppin’ vibe. As we were checking out the menu, the hostess told us there would be live music starting shortly. Sold! We sat at a table right in front of the little stage so we’d have the best view point. There was a big group of friends sitting at the table next to us. One of the guys had a major plumbers crack so I was getting a good laugh taking pictures of Marshall pretending to put a flower from his drink down the guy’s crack, lol.
 
There was a bachelorette party that sat down next to us and we’re having the time of their lives. The singer then started her performance and she was phenomenal! She sounded exactly like Adele, no joke. This bar was definitely the place to be! We were having such a great time and didn’t want to leave but knew we had to get up super early in the morning to head to the airport. Now we know the best places to go next time we have another layover in London!