Day 13- Icelandic footballers, Primark, something VERY British, and Scandinavian handball!

Our last full day in London! Sad. The fact that we're at this point tells me that the trip has been epic, but has also gone by in the blink of an eye! Let's get right to it.

We originally planned to leave the hostel by about 10 AM to fit in some shopping at Primark before lunch. Well, 10 AM on Gina & Amy time really means anywhere from 11:30 AM to noon. We headed straight to Oxford Street for lunch with Claire & Tom, two of Amy's friends from her time studying abroad at the University of Sheffield. We ate at a little Italian bistro and I had a good time socializing while Amy had a good time catching up.

After lunch, we headed over to Primark so I could get my first taste of London clothes shopping. Primark is like the REALLY BIG, British version of Forever 21. Cheap, cute clothes are EVERYWHERE, only where Forever 21 is two floors, Primark is three (I think, but its freestanding. Something XXI is not.). I originally decided to be a good girl and not get anything, but then I remembered my unhealthy obsession with black cardigans. I laid my eyes on a long, drapy one (exactly how I like them) for only £10. Once I found the right size, I jumped in line with Amy to purchase it. We were on a tight schedule since we had a "special date" at 3 PM, and by that time it was nearing close to 2:30. While in line, we each grabbed a pair of Union Jack sunglasses and headed towards Hyde Park for our "date."

Amy has had this date planned for months now, but wouldn't tell me what it was. My only clue as to what we were doing came in the morning when she told Tom that we were doing something "very British." As we were walking on the way there, I finally asked Amy if we were going to a tea party. Her response: "Close. We're having AFTERNOON TEA!"

We walked onto a street somewhere around Sloane Square and into a seemingly tiny hotel called "The Capitol." The hotel looked small on the outside, but was super fancy on the inside. We changed into classier clothes (come on- you can't have traditional English tea in a soccer jersey and shorts) and were led into a quaint, cozy little room.

We were given a menu of teas to choose from (we both chose English Breakfast tea). The tea was fantastic, but the best part was the food. 

The desserts were Olympics-themed! Even then, with all that food, our waiter then came back to inform us that our "warm scones" were on their way. So much and so good!

We had a really enjoyable afternoon drinking tea and watching the equestrian events being broadcast live on BBC at that time. I tried to eat all of the desserts, but after the finger sandwiches and the scones, I had no room left. Our waiter boxed up the remaining desserts for us, and from there we changed back into our normal clothes and headed out to Hyde Park to buy one last pin.

The Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Hyde Park offers a special souvenir where you can take your picture with an actual Olympic torch and get it made into a pin. Amy and I each did one, and they both turned out absolutely amazing. Once we were done trading pins, we dashed over to Olympic Park to catch our last event of the trip, handball. 

Notice how I said "dashed" and "Olympic Park" in the same sentence? Yeah, if you've been following this blog at all, you know that there is no such thing as "dashing over" to Olympic Park given the sheer amount of people. Imagine how stressful it was trying to exit Stratford, walk a bajillion miles to the Park itself and then have to walk a bajillion more to reach the basketball arena, all the while trying to move as quickly as possible through the ridiculously large amount of people. Yea, not my favorite event experience. 

We did make sure to have some fun before making the trek to the basketball arena, however. 

Handball turned out to be awesome. The fastest-paced of all of the events we've seen, the session was a one-match quarterfinal between Sweden and Denmark. Amy and I of course rooted for Denmark for Sebastian. The game was pretty evenly matched; Sweden would score one, Denmark would repeat, cut, copy and paste. Finally, towards the end, however, Sweden began to run away with it and eventually went on to win the match.

We were thrilled to get out of handball by about 8:30 since we had to pack everything in preparation for Paris this morning. We got back to the hostel about 9, and even though I had every intention of packing and calling it an early night, I was still somehow awake at 2 AM. 

This is all I've got for now. I'm gonna go with the sympathy close on tonight's entry. I had a really bad bout of homesickness today. Leave me some comments and make me feel better! I miss you guys, and can't wait to be home on Sunday! Catch y'all later!