For Hugh.

So... I know that like it's going to be incredibly hard to beat that Harry Potter post.
But stay with me, guys.
We can do this.
We can make it to the end of my European trip (which actually ended a while ago).
I promise there's some really good posts coming.

So we're at July 13. 

This day was basically a "catch up on shopping and enjoy your last day in london" day. 

So like all tourists do whilst in London, we went to Portobello Road to search for the blue door made famous by "Notting Hill"

Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh... they painted that door. 

But a few of us girls might have said "whoopsi-daisies" a couple of times in honor of Hugh. 

Even though the door was virtually impossible to find, we did have a fabulous time scanning the street vendors for various antique items which included: polaroid cameras, books, vinyl records, jewelry, etc. 

I just. I couldn't get enough of this place. 

aren't they cute? Shelby and Chelsea

When I thought I had about had it (the heat is so hard to deal with over there.... especially when there is no relief) I found a vendor that had the coolest old books I had ever even seen. 

He had records out the wazoo!

He had some old magazines! 

He had some insanely cool cool cool things! 

I mean.. Kasee found me the album of my dreams (Frank Sinatra singing Cole Porter) as well as her own (Frank Sinatra singing his own songs).
I found the coolest book on the Fall of the Roman Empire for my cousin.
I found an awesome newspaper from the WWII.
I found another record I was basically crying over (The Beatles 20 Greatest Hits).
Guys.
Look how nice this guy is. I can't even take it. He was so cool and had the coolest stuff I had ever seen.
Plus, I saw a cat that day.
And I was wearing the Def Leppard tee my cousin bought me for the trip.
It was a fabulous day and I loved every second of it.
But packing was a nightmare and I had a couple breakdowns. As did some other girlies in my group.
It was something else.
I think I was mostly crying because I knew I would be leaving my most favorite place in the whole entire world. How about I just move back over there?
Would any of you be mad?
I totally wouldn't even be mad.

So here's why we cue the crazy.
I pulled an all-nighter and I was about to stay up for another 20 hours.
It's fine.
We left our flat at like.... 4 in the morning to head over to Heathrow.
Yeah, we were on our way to
ROME 
ITALY
ROME
ITALY
ROME
ITALY
ROME
ITALY
ROME 
ITALY
I know.
It's crazy.
So we took a little bus over to the airport which was actually like... a relief because as much as I love the tube, it is absolutely impossible to get your dang luggage on and off the train and through all those people.
And I was wired the whole time.
SOOOO SAD but SOOOO excited.
So we printed our tickets and got in line to check our monster bags.
I was certain that my bag was under 51 pounds or 23 kilos.
I got rid of some heavy stuff and packed all of the heavy stuff I still had in my mini little carry on.
Yeah.... I think the woman that was working was out to get me.
Ok I want you guys to keep in mind that my friend Jessica had already checked her bag and it weighed in at roughly 25.8 kilos. Ok. Keep this information in mind. Thanks.
So, as I was saying, I get up to the desk, put my bag on the little scale and held my breath as I waited for the little numbers to show up.
23.8 kilos.
I was home free!
Yeah..... think again, Sam.
She looked me up and down and said "Your bag is too heavy. That's going to be 40 quid."
I looked at her, stunned, on the verge of tears.
She then stood up, looked over the desk at my carry on and said "That is too big, you're going to need to check that. That's going to be 40 quid. You owe me 80 quid."
Again, I just looked at her, stunned and this time I was crying.
If you guys know about the conversion rate between the dollar and the pound you know that 80 quid is roughly $120.
Not happening.
That's when my second wind came.
"Nope. Not paying you that. I will move stuff from my carry on into my checked bag."
She was stunned and let me do my thing.
I took extra long just to spite her because the line behind me was insanely long.
Plus I wanted her to have just as bad a day as I would have.
But then I got on my plane to Rome and all was well.

This is already too long.
I'll end here.. just keeping you wanting to hear more about my adventures in Rome.

XOXO
Sam