London, baby!

London Weekend!
Almost a week since my last post… I apologize for my absence. Thursday was uneventful – I babysat and packed for London. Not much to report there.

Would you like to hear all about London? I thought so.

In the words of Joey Tribianni “London, Baby!” (Friends reference… if you didn’t know that, we are no longer friends)

Friday, July 16th. LONDON! LONDON! LONDON!
London broke my shoe after only walking around for an hour. It was a flat. And the uneven ground caught the heel and ripped it right off. Of course, the only other pair of shoes I brought were heels. ☺

Things I know already:
1. I love London.
2. It is absolutely beautiful here.
3. I want to move here.
4. The underground is so convenient.
5. I love the woman who says, “Please, Mind the Gap!”

Anyway, let's start at the beginning. I was able to get on the bus that the students were taking (as this was a group trip for the BSU kiddies) so that was wonderful! The ride felt super long – I think the bus driver was traveling very slowly. I was instantly in love with London when we arrived. It is beautiful and busy. At times it felt a little too busy for my liking, but I enjoyed it overall.

The first thing Leo and I did was spend two hours walking – had to pick up our London passes (including our travel passes) on the opposite side of the city from where we were staying. It was a fun experience – we got to see a lot of London right away.

*Side not on the London pass – so NOT worth it. We got our money’s worth out of the travel passes, but the London pass was so stupid.

After our walk we were hungry so we had dinner at a cute little diner not far from our hostel. It was good. We were more excited for the ICE BAR! Yes, an ice bar. A bar completely made of ice. We had to book tickets online ahead of time because they have limited space and it fills up fast. So, after dinner we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus to find the Ice Bar. We have lots of pictures – it was so cool. Ha! We were given big ponchos with hoods and gloves to wear… and our glasses were made of ice!

After the ice bar we took the tube to Trafalgar Square – walked around, saw the sights. Then… it was time to go to the theatre. We saw a true classic while in London – Legally Blonde the Musical! Seriously. That is what we saw. And it was fabulous! ☺

The theatre was really cool – it was big and beautiful! And you can drink bear in the actual theatre while you watch the performances! And then at intermission they serve you little ice cream cups! Legally Blond, Beer and Ice Cream – just the “Welcome to London!” that I was looking for! ☺ Even Leo enjoyed the show… though he has trouble admitting it.

By the time the show was over we were pooped. We briefly took in the nightlife as we walked to the underground and then it was off to dreamland! It was a wonderful first day in London. So far, London is my favorite place that we’ve been! So much to do and to see. So easy to get around. Love it.

Saturday, July 17th.
London day 2 – woke up nice and early so that we could eat breakfast in our hostel. It wasn’t that bad… the English like baked beans with their breakfast. And now I like it too! This morning was the only thing that the BSU group had to do together (the whole weekend was on their own terms) when they did the London Eye – the giant ferris wheel on the Thames River.

I went with because I was going to buy my own ticket – hell no! They were 30 pounds! (Roughly 45 dollars! For a ferris wheel!) However, London was smiling on me. Ryan had an extra ticket and I was able to ride the London Eye without paying a dime! ☺

The view was amazing and we were able to get some good photos – I will hopefully be borrowing Ryan’s card reader again and uploading more photos this weekend. Get excited!

Next up: we took a river cruise on the Thames. So cool! We saw all of the fabulous bridges, including London Bridge – which actually has fallen down… three times! – and we got off the boat by the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is a historic castle located on the Thames – it was originally a grand palace that served as a residence, but then became used as a place of imprisonment and death. Henry VIII tortured prisoners there and it is also where he beheaded his wives. Cool, huh? The Tower of London also houses the Crown Jewels. We weren’t able to see the jewels because the line was hours long – we plan to come back to London so we’ll see them at some point.

After the tower we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus to do some shopping. Here, we saw the busiest Starbucks I’ve ever laid eyes on. There were three registers and nine people working. And there was a constant line out the door! Insane. Piccadilly Circus is an insane place in itself. I think that everyone in London was there.

We spent a few hours shopping – it was a helluva experience. I swear, everyone in England spends the majority of their time shopping. ☺ I had the most terrifying shipping experience of my life this afternoon. We went into a store called Primark. The shoppers were literally crazed and furious and rude and loud and pushy and ohmygod scary. On the upside, Leo and I both found some crazy-good deals! (One of my good deals was a new bag… I guess this means I have to donate another to goodwill!)

So, after shopping we went to Hyde Park and looked at the Marble Arch. Fun stuff. Hyde Park is big. Then I found a store that was selling 15 postcards for 95 pence… another deal! ☺ The rest of the night was pretty chill. We went back by the hostel, met up with Natalie and drank delicious cappuccino. Here’s where it got interesting. Dinner.

We invited Natalie along and she planned to order dessert. She had already eaten so it was a logical thing to do. We get the restaurant and order drinks (I had some delicious champagne drink) and then it’s time to order food. Leo and I order and then Natalie orders her tiramisu… the waitress gets all weird and tells her that if she’s going to order a cocktail then she has to order a main meal. WTF? So, Natalie decides to order one of the pizzas. Bad news – pizzas only come in one size and it is LARGE! Natalie ended up with a gigantic pizza that she didn’t even want and couldn’t eat any tiramisu.

It gets better. This restaurant offered a deal where you get 50% off of your bill when you use your London pass. When it comes time to ask for our bill we tell the waitress that we also have our London passes – mind you, we haven’t gotten a bill yet nor has she printed one. She gets really angry and rude and says, “You should have told me that before because I have to tell someone, sorry!” Then storms off. Um, why does it matter if we tell you beforehand? Who does she have to tell? The cooks so they give us ½ as much? The people that bring the food so they spit in it? She was all in a tizzy. She came back to the table and I was not going to let her get away with this… I said (very nicely, I might add) “So, we’re still going to get our discount tonight, right? Because we have the London pass and nowhere on your restaurant’s description does it say you have to notify in advance.” She replied with “Oh, yes. I’ll give it to you just this once.” As if she was doing us a big favor by freaking out and making a scene. Ugh. What a night.

After that we needed to have fun. Leo and I went out with some of the students to get drinks – fun. Went back to the hostel to go to bed. Where we were woken up multiple times by people screaming insanely outside and by little kids across the way from us shining their desk lamps into our room in Morse code. Leo went and stood at the window and stared at them like a scary bodyguard and they eventually stopped. ☺

Sunday, July18th.
Our last day in London. Sad. One weekend is not an adequate amount of time to soak up all of the amazingness that is London. We started the day early with breakfast and checked out of our rooms. Leo and I got coffee asap and booked it to the Tate Modern (art museum) for some early gallery perusing. There was some really cool stuff there – Leo bought a neat book!

After the museum we walked the Millennium Bridge across the Thames (also called the “wobbly bridge”) to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was beautiful. We took photos. After St. Paul’s we took the tube across the city to see Buckingham Palace. SO BEAUTIFUL! The queen’s got a pretty nice crib. The bummer was that we had just missed the changing of the guard. It was still a sight to see! They have police right inside the gates to the palace who are armed and there are also police along the building – carrying the biggest guns I’ve seen in person. It would be stressful to protect the queen.

After Buckingham Palace we walked over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben/Parliament. They were pretty impressive as well! There were some war people camping out on the green by Westminster protesting – all calling for the end of the war in Iraq.

Next – we took the tube to Trafalgar Square again for lunch. Another event in and of itself. We ended the afternoon with some souvenir shopping and then it was time to meet the bus to come back to Worcester. I had one last delicious cappuccino before climbing onto that large bus for the long drive home.