It's Jolly (and Chilly) Holiday in London

Sorry for the late update. My access to internet here is limited and I have a lot to say about London and not enough time.

The experience of traveling and planning a trip with two new friends was an adventure with in itself. Our plan arrived in London around midnight and then we had to take a bus into the city. We were dropped off on an almost vacant Liverpool Street and left to haul down a taxi on the dreary (and rainy) London streets. When we finally were able to hail a cab we piled in and gave the driver the address of our hostel. It took me a minute to get over the surprise of seeing the driver in what I believed to be the “passenger” seat. Then I realized, “Oh yeah! We're in London!”

We drove over the London Bridge (no, it did not fall down) to our hostel. In the morning I woke up wondering if Harry Potter lived on a street like this as I looked out my window. The hostel served breakfast, so we sat down to eat and met a fellow traveler from Munich, Germany. Nice boy. Anyway…our next mission was to figure out the London Underground, aka the Tube, and take it to Westminster. Now let me tell you, the tube is quite the maze, but once you figure it out it is your best tool for getting around the city. It is probably the most efficient and cleanest subway systems I've used (not that I ride the subway often, but I have used New York's and Lisbon's).

As we ascended from the underground at our stop, Big Ben rose above us in all his glory. Attached to Big Ben is the Houses of Parliament and across the street Westminster Abby. We purchased tour bus tickets and road on top of the double decker bus to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. To witness this ceremony we stood for about an hour and a half in the cold and honestly I have no idea when the guard actually changed, but I did get to hear the royal band play a John Williams medley. Apparently Indian Jones and Star Wars suites the British Royalty.

Afterwards we had lunch in Hyde Park and then took the rest of the tour on the bus to get a better feel for the city. Our tour guide, Alan, was lots of fun and had a very sarcastic “British” sense of humor. He gave us nicknames (my was Little Red Ridinghood because of my red hat) and enjoyed bantering with us during our ride. (“See that down there? In America you call that the sidewalk right? Well, we call that the pavement.”) We caught glimpses of St. Paul's Cathedral and got to see a “Waterloo Sunset” as we crossed the Waterloo Bridge (the song playing too to add to the effect). We got off at the Tower of London and then hopped on a boat where we got to see the city from the Thames. That night we got a bird's eye view of the city from the London Eye.

The next morning we started out early and visited the Tower of London. We took a tour conducted by a Yeoman Warder (aka “Beefeater”) and heard the bloody history of the tower. We saw the site where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded (as well as many others) and saw “Liz's Bling” (aka the Crown Jewels). After our tour we ate at a Wagamama's which is a Japanese noodle bar where you can get real Ramon (a college kid's dream and it's cheap too!). Then we browsed around the National Gallery where we got to see Van Gogh's famous painting, “Sunflowers”.
That night we took a guided ghost tour of London on which we walked down Fleet Street and saw the Old Curiosity Shop. The tour also included some pub crawling (which I guess is important in Britain) and we ended at a pub where we sat down and ate some fish and chips. Yum!

The next morning we went to church at Westminster Abby (beautiful!) and peeked into St. Paul's Cathedral as well. Afterwards we had real British tea and scones (my favorite food of the trip) and took the tube to Portabello Market. Needless to say when we got on the bus that afternoon we were exhausted, but also very proud of how much we had crammed into two and a half days. I really love London because it's a city that's a little rough around the edges but has plenty sophistication and history to balance it out.

This weekend, Granada.

Thanks for reading! Cherrio mates! I fancy you all mucho.

P.S. Pictures should of been sent out. Contact me if you need the link.