London

London

Alright, first of all... London. A-MAZ-ING. I could definitely picture myself living there as a young professional. Practically all the people I saw on the streets were I'd say later 20s to mid 30s and in suits. Loved all the people I talked too-- so friendly and funny to boot!

We arrived Sunday afternoon so once we got settled at the Lime Tree B & B-- the most darling place I've ever seen, and highly recommended if you're ever in London-- myself and a few others headed to London's Hillsong church for the evening service. It was so refreshing to be in a church service after having gone an entire month without one. The message seemed made just for me too. I love it when that happens. After that, we hoped on the tube for Piccadilly Circus, just to see the place and then went back to the B & B.

I awoke the next day at like 5 am!! It gets SO bright SO INCREDIBLY early in London!! I'm guessing it must be the tilt of the Earth toward the Sun in the northern hemisphere since it is summer, but anyway... that day we went on a short tour which included Buckingham, of course, the "Queen Mother's" residence-- in quotes because the Queen Mother died several years back so random royal family members come and go through the house. As we were standing outside the gates taking pictures with the guards, a horse drawn carriage drives by and a gloved hand pokes through the curtained window and waved at us!! We were so excited; someone royal waved at little ol' us! After the tour we picked up our London Passes-- http://www.londonpass.com (With the pass you get access to a bazillion attractions, free goodies and free access to the tube. The Pass more than payed for itself and I highly recommend that too.)-- some of us went to get tickets to Spamalot for the next evening after which Savannah and I parted with the smaller group to make our own adventure around London. First we went to the infamous British museum; I HAD to see the mummies!! And I sure did! There were so many mummies and other cool stuff there too! I probably could have spend my entire day just in that one museum and been completely happy. (Yes, I am THAT nerdy. *sheepish grin*) Then we went to the London Library which had an extraordinary display of important literary works-- Guttenburg Bible, 1st collection of Shakespeare's plays, original drafts of many great composers like Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven among others, the Magna Carta, Jane Austen's diary, and so much more I can't even tell you. Loved that too. Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and climbed 530 steps to the top to get some great shots of sprawling London. Lots of people were thinking of paying the $30 to take a trip on the London Eye to get these shots; we got our shots free plus a lot of leg work. Wonderful pics from there and a great building. That's pretty much the end of day 1. We wanted to get the Tower of London in too, but by the time we got there they recommended coming back the next day to get to see everything. That evening we went to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall-- a classical music performance. Apparently these go on every day during the summer and some of the greatest musicians in the world stop in and play. I must say I heard some amazing music that evening and all for about $12. :-D

London Day 2: We-- Savannah and I again-- rose and left early in hopes of starting our day of sightseeing early, but we failed to look at the time that our first stop-- Kensington Palace opened-- 10 am. So we got to have a 2 hour long stroll through Hyde Park on accident, which really was truly enjoyable. My legs by this point in the trip were about ready to give out, especially after climbing those stairs the day before, so I wasn't sure how long I could last that day. Once Kensington was opened, I really wasn't impressed. The whole place was cleaned out except for an exhibition on Princess Diana's dresses-- which would have been fascinating except there were like 5 dresses and then a tour of what the house probably looked like when future Queen Victoria was living there. That part of the tour was interesting, except the explanations on the little headsets were entirely too long and most of the furniture had been removed. After that bit of disappointment, we headed over to Trafalgar Square-- really a beautiful spot despite all the construction. (There was some sort of construction going on at just about every famous spot we had visited in Europe. We were getting pretty tired of seeing a life size photo hanging of the buildings we wanted to see draped over scaffolding.) After poking around there for a bit, we ate lunch, where I spend my last bit of money. We learned that "rocket" is a term used for the little strips of green lettuce like stuff usually seen as a decoration on a fancy plate... the British actually eat the stuff on their sandwiches. Then we traipsed back to the Tower of London. Wow. I'd love to see that again. So much history and mostly of one of my favorite time periods of Great Britain-- the reign of the Tudors-- and of course the crown jewels which sparkled so much my eyes were seriously about as big as saucers. After the Tower of London we had some delicious and cheap Italian food on the river Thames just before boarding an hour long river cruise which pointed out so many famous things on the river I can't begin to relate them all. Once we docked, we scooted over to see Spamalot. Terrific! Wonderfully funny and a great way to end a wonderful London experience.

The trouble came the next day at the airport. The plane was horribly overbooked; we arrived 3 hours before the flight was to take off and originally 3 of the group had seats; the rest were on stand by. Then they found some more tickets and since I wasn't crying, I got put on the waiting list... 4 left at the stand by counter. Then about 30 minutes before the flight is set to leave, they find one more seat and it's for me! The other 3 got left behind. I really wouldn't have minded too much staying; they were compensated $800!! The flight was really long but I did finally get to see the latest Spiderman movie and eat some curry. (I had been hankering for some curry.) Slept some and got really thirsty. The crew had run low on drinks and so was making very few trips down the aisle with the refreshment cart. At one point I got up to use the facilities and while I was waiting, a man just made himself and home in the kitchen area and found himself a coke. Haha.

When I arrived home Greg picked me up in a suit and tie claiming to be the "White Stallion Escort Service" with house shoes in hand. Cracked me up!

Well, that was my trip. I'm now settled into my new apartment much closer to my campus and will soon be living with 3 other girls. One has gone to Cancun until next Wednesday with her family and the others have gone home for who knows how long. We will see how that turns out; will be another adventure all in itself. 

So here's to adventures at home and abroad!