My first night in London was alone. Or rather, I wasn't meeting up with anyone - unfortunately I shared my hostel room with 5 loud and naked boys from outside of Barcelona. It's funny looking back on it, but I was really angry at the time. I went out to a pub, where I had my first fish and chips of the trip, had an interesting strawberry beer, and got asked out by the bartender (which I politely declined). I got back to my hostel room and read until I fell asleep. This was around 10:30. At 1 am the light in the room goes on, followed by loud talking and a gasp when the boys realized I was in there. They drunkenly/loudly whispered and dropped things until about 3am, and then woke up at 8. I was so angry. Lesson learned: it's better to pay more for a smaller room, or even a single-sex room.
That day I met my friend Ariel (from St. Louis - she's studying at the American University in London) and together we explored Westminster Abbey. We also got a picnic lunch and tried to see the speakers at Speakers' corner in Hyde Park, but they weren't there. Apparently they only speak on Sunday. It was okay, though, because it was sunny; we sat on the chairs in the park and let our pale selves enjoy the British sun. After that we parted ways, I delt with putting minutes on my cell phone, and checked in to my next hostel. The second hostel was in Piccadilly Square, and though it was incredibly well located, the facilities weren't very nice. We had excellent roommates, though, which made it much better. After checking in I wandered and waited for Maxine to arrive. Maxine is my friend from Bowdoin, and she is studying in Ireland.
Seeing Max was amazing. When you see someone after you haven't seen them in a while, especially when you haven't been home in a while, it's like having a little bit of home embodied in a person. We put her stuff into the hostel, made our beds, met our roommates - Morgane and Aline, two French students that we quickly became friends with - and went to grab a bite to eat. And then we slept very well in anticipation of the day ahead.
My third full day in England was a whirlwind. We saw the changing of the guard with Ariel, took a double-decker bus tour, ate fish and chips, toured the Tower of London, took the riverboat tour back toward the London Eye, rode a carousel on the banks of the Thames, rode the London Eye with our new French friends, ate sushi, and bummed around Soho at night. Oy. It was incredible, though, and there wasn't really anything else that I think we could or should have fit into the day! Funny anecdote about the Tower: we had spent the whole morning in the sun and were a little dehydrated, but wanted to have some local beer with our fish and chips....which resulted in both of us getting a little tipsy after only one drink...which resulted in a very interesting beginning to our tour of the Tower. It all ended up okay, though, after a little water and a little rest on the riverboat. There was also a very interesting exhibit going on at the Tower of Henry VIII's armour. It was cool to see how large he was, both in height and width! There were no camreas allowed, though, so I can't give you visual evidence of how cool it was.
Finally after a long day, the four of us (me, Maxine, Aline, and Morgane) returned to our hostel to pack and sleep. Max and I were up at 6:30 to catch our plane from London Heathrow to Dublin the next morning, ready for our next adventure.
My hostel room near Hyde park - the one with the loud boys. Too bad that they ruined the experience, because it was truly a lovely hostel. It was next door to the Bulgarian embassy! Definintely a nice part of town.
Where Ariel and I sat in Hyde park. It had gotten cloudy, which is why we left, but prior to this picture it was sunny and wonderful.
Maxine in London!
The changing of the guard. We didn't have a very good view, but we saw enough. Also, note how small the guard on the very left is compared to the one on the very right.
Max and me on our bus tour
Westminster Abbey from the bus
The Tower of London
More of the Tower
Taxis in London.
Tower Bridge (not London Bridge)
The Tower from the riverboat
London Bridge
The Globe. I take it back when I said I didn't want to see anything else - I wish I had seen the inside of the Globe. This was taken from the river.
River Tour
The Eye and the Museum of Art (I think)
Big Ben and a cool statue
Max with cotton candy in front of our carousel.
The London Eye at sunset
Max and me on the London Eye
From left: Aline, Morgane, Max, me. On the London Eye.
The pods on the ferris wheel.
Thanks for warning me, I was about to bring my nuclear weapons inside...Sign outside of our resteraunt.
I'm sorry this is so dark. It's a picture of the Texas Embassy, from when Texas was the Lone Star Republic. It's now a museum and resteraunt, which we saw from the inside of a bus. I thought it was hilarious.
The obligatory photo inside of a red phone booth
Big Ben and the houses of parliment at night. I took this photo! Doesn't it look like a postcard?
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