London (The First Time) [March 19-22, 2009]

Before this trip I have been through London three times; however, each of those times I never got to see anything other than the underground so I was very excited to be going for an extended period of time this time! The coach ride there was not fun though. I was a little "sick" from the night before (our last night in Swansea!) and just wanted to sleep the whole time, but if you have ever taken a coach ride before you would know that that is nearly impossible. Katy and I eachc had our own row of seats, but it was still a very uncomfortable trip to London. On the way there though I got to see Windsor Castle, and it is HUGE! Wow. Even from the motorway it was big so I can't imagine how big it would look up close. I really want to go there before I leave. It is pretty close to Heathrow Airport so maybe I can go the day before I leave.

Finally we made it to London and all I wanted to do was find our hostel and get something in my stomach. We looked around for a good thirty minutes and couldn't find it, so we just decided to sit down and eat. We had pretty good food (I had a falafel wrap) for a pretty decent price at Cafe Meze. We even got to sit outside, like the classic European way, because it was so beautiful out and sunshiney! (In London!) After eating, we asked our waiter where the International Student House (our hostel) was and he just pointed across the street. We had been next to it the whole time we were looking! We felt pretty dumb after that, to say the least.

Once we got settled into the hostel, Katy and I decided to go see Westminster Abbey before Megan got in because we knew Megan had already been there the last time she came to London. So once again we traveled the via the tube system. We got off at WEstminster only to see the London Eye right in front of us. I guess that was my 1st true "London experience." We walked around the corner to find Big Ben, only I didn't know at the moment it was Big Ben. I guess I just didn't think about it, but I finally realized it a few minutes later. The Parliament building (which is attached to Big Ben) is absolutely breathtaking. It is one of the most ornate buildings I have ever seen. It even made Westminster Abbey (which is right across the street) look shabby compared to it, in my opinion. Even though I didn't think it was as great as Parliament, it was definitely very beautiful and intricate. However, unfortunately we got there too late and couldn't get in (last entry is at 3:30). Afterwards, we went back to the hostel, met Megan, and laid down for a bit. It felt so good to lay down.

After our little nap we got ready to go see Wicked! Of course, we were running late because that is just how we do things, I guess. So we were running through the underground trying to get to the show on time. We didn't though. We were about ten minutes late. (You really underestimate how long the tube really takes until you've riden it a few times.) The rest of Wicked was fantastic though. Despite the fact that Katy accidentally flashed her camera in the middle of it, lit the whole theatre up, and made everyone surrounding us turn around to glare! haha I was mortified, but I am sure Katy was even more emarrassed! Megan and I sort of just inched away from her and pretended we weren't with her! haha

After Wicked, we met up with Megan's friend, Andrew, and his friend, Tyler. We went to Piccadilly Circus to get something to eat. We found this really crowded and extremely loud pub called O'Brien's. I just got potato wedges and cheese because I wasn't that hungry. My stomach started hurting, so we just decided to go home. We walked to the tube stop only to find out it stops running at midnight and it was 12:13. So either we could drop 20 pounds on a cab ride back to the hostel or we could walk a couple miles. We are cheap so we decided to walk. Fortunately, the street we had to walk on was lined with beautiful buildings because we were staying in the "posh" part of London. Also, the guys walked us back which was very nice.

The next morning we decided to go on the Free Tour of London that started at 11. We woke up at 9:30ish and got there just a few minutes beforehand. We met our guides at Hyde Park Corner. We split up into groups, and we were put in Nicola's group. The first thing we saw was the Marble Arch. It used to be a humongous statue of the Duke of Wellington, but Queen Victoria didn't like anyone to have their backs to her at Buckingham Palace, so she replaced him with a statue of a gold angel. From there we walked down the street and saw "Constitution Hill." (more like a gradual incline) That was where King Henry VIII liked to take his morning walks with his dogs. Then on we went to Buckingham Palace. There were tons of people there and it wasn't even a changing of the guards day. It was just amazing to me to see just how many tourists there are in London at one time (and it wasn't even peak tourist season!). Anyway, Buckingham was beautiful of course, but we didn't spend much time there. From there we walked down a street towards Prince Charles and Camilla's house. This was where we got an up close experience with a Royal Guard. We didn't actually get to touch him, but it was the closest we could get. Then we went down Pall Mall, saw some of London's finest Gentlemen's Clubs (real ones not strip clubs) and also saw the statue of Florence Nightengale. I really like her for some reason. After Pall Mall, we went to some big square (I have forgotten the name) and the square was full of gravel. I thought it was a bit of an eyesore. We found out though that that would be the place where they hold the volleyball tournament in the 2012 olympics! From there, we went on to see Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament again. That is where our tour ended. When we finished we asked our tour guide where a good Mexican restaurant was and she told us there was a good one just across the bridge. We walked across the bridge and could not find it. We walked all the way to the London Eye and still could not find it. We searched for about an hour (as you can probably tell we miss Mexican food) and we were on the verge of giving up. Then we called Karl and asked him to look it up for us. He did and finally we found it. It was actually down the next bridge over, which our tour guide had neglected to tell us, but it was so good! We had been missing Mexican food for so long. We all also ordererd Margaritas! yum!

After Las Iguanas and our chimichangas, we decided to go to Notting Hill. Of course I searched for Hugh Grant the entire time we were there, and even though I didn't spot him, we had a great time. The Portabello Market is so cool and Portabello Street had the cutest little shops on it! I could have spent a ton of money there, but I have, fortunately, learned how to restrain myself. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to eat some Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches.

That night we decided to hear some British comedy, so we went to a show in Leicester Square. The first guy, Inkey, was fantastic. He was so funny and kept us laughing the whole time. We sat in the front row, so, of course, he picked on us. We had gone to the show with Rachel and her boyfriend, Kyle. Kyle was wearing this plaid type shirt, and Inkey asked if he worked in math. Kyle is an engineer so Inkey happened to be right. Inkey said he could tell because Kyle was wearing graph paper on his shirt! Ahhh it was so funny. Also, he asked me my name, and I guess he didn't hear me correctly or something, but he kept me "Wi-wah" all night and saying how beautiful I was, and I was single only because of my personality. It was funny if you were there. I'm not a comedian so I can't be as funny as him, but that show was definitely a highlight of my trip.

After the show, we said goodbye to Rachel and Kyle, and went back to the hostel. Megan and I made a plan of what to do the next day, since it was our last in London, and we wanted to fit in a lot of things.

According to our plan, if we wanted to fit everything in, we would have to wake up pretty early the next morning and that is exactly what we did. First, we went to Kensington Palace. It was pretty, but not really what I was expecting. Maybe that's because we didn't go inside. After the palace we walked to Harrod's (London's huge, expensive department store). It was so luxorious and cool. We looked at everything from Duck Foie Gras to Roberto Cavalli purses to De Beers engagement rings (which, by the way, were HUGE!) I really enjoyed Harrod's, but we had to be on our way to see the changing of the guards. We got there at 11:00. It didn't start until 11:30, and still there was a massive crowd already lined up against the gates. We found a decent place to watch, and soon were wondering, "What's all the fuss about?" Sure, they play music, but I've heard music before. They marched funny, but that is not worth putting yourself in the middle of a massive crowd just to see funny marching. So, we left early and headed down to East London to see the Tower Bridge. It was cool and I took pictures, but that's about all there is to say about that.

When we were finished looking at the famous Bridge, we went off on our adventure of the day! Our task-to find where they are building the Olympic Park! On the way there, we got to see a part of London that most tourists probably never see! It was an aove ground train so we got to see it all up close and personal. Finally we got there, and the first thing we saw was London's equivalent of the Bird's Nest. It looks sort of like a mosaic of pastel squares. The rest of the park was under a lot of construction and blocked by walls that had stuff about the olympics on them. It was very cool to see all of that, but got a little boring in the end. Therefore, we decided to go back and take a nap in the hostel.

Later, we got ready to go out for Katy's 21st birthday! We planned to eat and then do a pub crawl. Walking to the pub crawl beginning, we noticed a sign that said Mexican food! We HAD to eat there because it is so hard to find in Europe! (even though we ate at one the day before! haha) Our waiter was actually Mexican which made me very happy! We ordered fajitas to share and Katy got a birthday cake and song. Then we went on to the pub crawl. I have to say that the pub crawl was not as great as I thought it would be. It was way too touristy and our "free drinks" were crap. It was basically like just drinking juice instead of real liquor drinks. Even though the drinks were bad, we did meet some pretty cool people. At the second bar, we met Londoners who were celebrating their friend's birthday. They were a bit older, but we still had fun with them. One of them, Brett, said American girls had the coolest accents (a lie I think). Later he told me I was gorgeous and he wanted to kiss me. He went in for one, and I had to quickly turn my head, but ended up getting kissed on the corner of my mouth by a 30 year old Londoner. I must admit though that he was pretty cute. After that excitement, the rest was downhill and we ended up going home at 12:00 in order to catch the tube before it was too late.

The next morning, we woke up at 6:30 in order to catch an 8:00 bus that got into Birmingham at 10:50. We then took a cab from the bus station to the airport in order to catch our 12:20 flight from Birmingham to Prague that got in at 5:38. The whole time getting to the airport we were nervous, because we didn't have much time to get there, but luckily everything worked out just fine and we were off to Prague with Karl and Wendy in tow to officially start our European adventure!