Okay hold on. I'm gonna vomit. I'm really nervous about writing this. I've started over about 8 times already.
...
Alright, I'm ready... So when jbox or whoever it was sent me a direct message on Twitter asking me to participate, I was kind of hesitant to say yes. The jersey had already been to London and I haven't posted/commented on anything on here in ages so I just thought it'd be weird if I came out of nowhere and was like, "Yah sure, I'll do it," and everyone would be like, "Who the heck is this freelunch?" Jbox convinced me that it was okay though and that it wasn't against the rules. I eventually overcame my insecurities and decided to meet up with him at Fashion Valley so he can give the jersey to me before I left for London. Needless to say, it was sufficiently awkward... Well, sort of. Just when we parted ways. I gave him a thumbs up and he kind of just walked away.
Oh yeah, fun little anecdote: I decided to read london_balling's post for reference because I didn't want to take the jersey to places he'd already been. Well as I read on, I found out that the jersey, london_balling, SixPak and myself were at Wembley at the same time. I went to that match between England and Belgium and quite possibly walked by those two at some point. Kinda crazy right?
Anyway, since london_balling pretty much covered all the tourist basics in London, I was kind of scrambling to think of places of where to take it. I honestly thought I had taken a lot of pictures, but it looks like I should've taken more. So do forgive me as this may not be as exciting as everyone else's :)
During this trip, my family and I made the trek to Anfield to watch Liverpool v. Fulham. Liverpool is maybe 200+ miles from London (do correct me if I'm wrong), but with the rain, we knew the drive up there would take up to 5 hours at least.
As happy and excited as I looked in this picture, I was so sleepy and clearly needed to brush my hair. Whatevs, at least my eyebrows were on point.
My family and I made it just in time for kickoff. The Kop was as glorious as I had imagined.
Celebrations after Liverpool scored their first goal of the night.
So with all the excitement, I almost forgot to take a picture with the jersey. I managed to take a couple of pictures with it after the match... however... I kind of broke the rules since I wasn't wearing it. I had all my Liverpool gear underneath my coat and I was freeeeezing and didn't want to expose myself to the cold, so I didn't actually put it on. But still, the jersey made it to Anfield! It still hasn't hit me that the jersey and I were actually there and I am still in awe whenever I look at these pictures.
If the guy in the hoodie standing behind me in that last picture ever sees this: hi, my name is Nicole, I'm 26, single and obviously a fan Liverpool.
Like I said before, london_balling went to a lot of the tourist spots in London already so I wasn't sure where I could take it. I don't think he went to Covent Garden so I thought I'd go there and take a picture by the Jack Daniels Christmas Tree (By the way, apologies for the crappy photos. I don't have a proper camera).
Decided to hit up Trafalgar Square, although it's been there already...
That's the Admiralty Arch behind me, at the end of The Mall. If you walk down through there and keep going, you'll hit Buckingham Palace. By the way, to anyone who's been there, has anyone actually ever found the nose? Later that day, my friend and I decided to go on the London Eye, or the Millenium Wheel or whatever else people call it. I've already been on twice, but only in the day time. My friend had never been on it and I'd never been at night so we thought it was a good time go.
Oblig Big Ben photo.
My friend, who is a Chelsea fan, bought tickets for a tour of Stamford Bridge. I didn't take a lot of pictures mainly because I played photographer that day (was glad to do it). Plus, I'm not a fan (obvi). It was still cool to be there though.
Here's the one photo I did take. They have this wall that has a seat you can pull out and you can sit and take a picture with the team. I thought I'd cover up the guy sitting next to me because well, I didn't think he was that important ;)
So since I was in England, I thought I'd stop by Hogwarts and say hello to Harry and the gang. This was my second visit to the Warner Bros. Studios and I thought it'd be perfect to take the jersey there. If you've never been, it's the lot where they filmed the Harry Potter movies. You can tour the sets and see all the cool stuff that were in the movies. My favorite is the Great Hall. For any Potterheads out there, I hope you enjoy the next set of pictures :)
I got called into Dumbledore's office for some official Hogwarts business...
Me at Potion's class with Professor Snape:
I visited the Burrow and got sleazy with Ron Weasley.
I went over to No. 4 Privet Drive for a visit, but unfortunately, no one was home.
I don't know what was happening here...
The Wooden Bridge. Apparently, this was only piece of the bridge that was actually built. The rest was CGI.
Went shopping on Diagon Alley.
The last part of the tour is this giant model of the Hogwarts castle. According to the tour guide, all exterior shots of the castle in the films were actually of this model. They just added all the other bits afterward. It's beautiful. You come out of it appreciating the hard work that a lot of people do for these movies and just how talented they really are.
Anyway, that was pretty much the end of this trip since the jersey and I headed back home to San Diego the very next morning. I tried really hard to look for One Direction so I can get them to sign it. Jbox said he really wanted Harry Styles' autograph, but seeing as he was too busy pretending to be Taylor Swift's boyfriend and going away on vacations with her for the most of December, there was just no way I could get it for him. So to make up for it, I got two patches for the jersey.
Thank you Gaslamp Ball for letting me participate in the Sisterhood! It is a great honor to be a part of it and to share it with you lovely people :)
Nx