There's No Place Like London!

Is it weird for me to say that I may want to live here some day?

I have totally fallen in love with this city! It's hustle and bustle, the buildings, oh the buildings!, the history, the whole feeling of being in that place was exciting and wonderful! I will tell the tale of my first adventure to London.

So, we headed out of Grantham around six Thursday night. We took up three coaches (buses) and had a wonderful three hour trip. I sat next to Lauren, and we talked about theater (shes' a theater ed. major) food, our families....the entire trip! Oh! We also talked about our past vehicles we've had. Random? Yes. But a lot of fun!!

On the coach to London!!

Finally, around nine thirty we get into London and at our hotel. The Royal National. It's supposed to have the largest amount of rooms in London. I can't remember the exact amount, but there were a lot!! We had a bit of a hiccup at the front desk, becasue the attenants didn't know there was a group of 130 university kids coming and checking in at once. Anyways, we all finally got our keys, and after running up to drop my bag off, I went back down into the lobby to meet Andrea, Kenzie, and Lauren to go out. By going out, all I mean to say is that we met up with Laurens brother, Lee, to go to a pub and relax and hang out. Lindsey, a girl from Eau Claire came with us too! There, Andrea and I (who became halfsie-buddies for the weekend) split a pint of a local beer. I can't remember what the name of it was, but I can hartily say that beer is an accquired taste. At least for she and I. I tried a sip of Lindsey's beer which they said was a bit friuty, thinking it would taste better, but it actually tasted worse than the stuff I had! :( Sorry Dad! The pubs start to shut down at eleven, so we left at close and realized we were STARVING, so wandered back to our hotel, stopped at a quick place across the road from the hotel to grab some food, and went to eat it in the lobby. We ate, said goodnight to Lee, and headed up to our rooms. There, we chatted until about one thirty when we realized that we had to get up at like seven the next morning. So, we went to bed. Haha!

The next day, Kenzie and I went to the Tower of London! We took the tube, which is a LOT of fun! It's a good thing Kenzie has been through the tube experience before, because I'm not sure I would be able to to it alone! The tour of the Tower was good! We got to see the Bloody Tower, the Ravens, and generally walk through the White Tower, which is the actual castle. We had to meet up with Andrea and Lauren, so we couldn't stay for as long as I wanted, but for what we got to see, I loved!! It was really cool! I hope to go back and stay so I could see the crown jewels that are there. Fun fact! The governor, his family, and about a hundred other people still live at the Tower of London!

We met up with Andrea, Lauren, Lee, Alex(his friend) and two other girls at the National Gallery in Trafalger Square, which is BEAUTIFUL! Just sayin'. We spent an hour and a half in the gallery, and we saw VanGoughs, DaVinci, Monet, and a whole lot more!!! I loved it! Only, we only got to see about a quarter of the whole exhibit. Again, I wnat to go back so I can spend more time there!

Yay! High Tea in a Crypt!

After the gallery, we all went to St. Martin's cathedral and had high tea in the Crypt! It was so much fun, and it was great food too! We spent a lot of time there, just hanging out and chatting. I didn't realize that we were actually sitting on the tombs of people until about half way through the meal, after which I felt slightly uncomfortable. When we were getting up to leave, I was trying to read some of the inscriptions on the floor of who I sat by, and one was a little girl who died when she was only five or six months old. I felt really bad.  :(  I would go there again too, just make sure that I wasn't going to sit on anyone!

Katie, Lauren, Lee, Alex, Andrea, and I in The Globe

That night, we're talking about Friday night, we all got a chance to go to Shakespeare's Globe! We had heard from Lee that we could either buy cheap "groundling" tickets (where you stand in front of the stage, I knew about that) or we could wait to see if people didn't show up, so we could take their places. There was a group of eight of us. First, we were waiting in the wrong line and started to get hungry so Lee and Alex went to get us some food. Then, the doors opened, we realized we were in the wrong line, went to the front of the theater and waited and waited for tickets and food. Finally! Lee and Alex came back with sandwhich supplies where, while we waited some more for tickets, we had dinner in line! All of a sudden, Lee walks a way from us, goes up to a guy and brings him over to our place. He had, for five pounds, six standing tickets and two sitting which is EXACTLY what we needed!!! What are the odds!?! So, we got to go and see A Comedy of Errors that night. It was FANTASTIC!! It's about mistaken identity between two sets of twins. It's so funny! At the end, they had life sized photo cutouts of the two characters and were wheeling them all around the stage!!!! SO FUNNY!! It was the highlight of my weekend. We went to a pub after, and Andrea and I split a pear cider. Yummy!!

After the play

The next day, we all went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill, where I got a scarf and a gift or two. Then Andrea, Kenzie and I headed out to Westminster Abby, which Andrea went inside while Kenzie and I gazed at Big Ben!! Yeah! Big Ben!! He's big. We also had some ice cream. The three of us then went to Buckingham Palace which we toured. It made Harlaxton look cheap! It was beautiful! I can't believe that we actually went into the house that the Queen of England lives in!!

We almost had tea at Buckingham Palace!!

So cool! That night, Kenzie and I went to see Les Miserables on stage. I was blown away. It's a beautiful story that is executed wonderfully!! I cried.

Whew. We are now onto Sunday, I'll wrap this up quick.

We left London in the morning, and headed out to see Hampton Court, which is where Henry VIII lived!!THAT place made Buckingham Palace look tiny! It's actually two palaces that are put together. First for Henry VIII then for William II and his wife. We had four hours from when we got there to when our busses left, I partook in the optional free audio tour guide, finished the whole thing, and still never made it out to the gardens that are on the property!!! It was AWESOME!

We then all piled onto the bus, and went home, and here ends my story of my first trip to London. My camera unfortunately died after four pictures....so, I don't have a lot to show you. The pictures here are basically all that I have. But, the girls were nice and said that I could take some of their photos...so yeah!! Sorry to all of you who probably found this extremely mundane, but I wanted to get all the details out before I forgot them.

Anyways, I need to go back to reading Robinson Crusoe for my Literature class, so I'll leave you all be.

Cheers!