London Baby!!!!
The excitement started early this past week.... I knew that come Friday I would be headed to London, England, I could hardly concentrate on my school work (having just gotten back from Prague and Berlin and looking forward to leaving for London) and was greatly anticipating being able to understand people and not struggle to make out a foreign language.


The week went by faster than I expected and soon I found myself packing for London. Laurie came over on Thursday night so that she wouldn't have to bike all the way from Stadshagen to the train station in the snow at 5am (the bike ride takes about 20 min normally and with the snow about an hour) We had to get up at 4:45 in order to make the train ... we ended up leaving a little late from my house and bookin' it to the train station (10-15min bike ride) but we made it on time and so did our traveling companion Nicole!

We got on the train and were soooo ready to go to London. We made our transfer in Amersfort and got to Amsterdam airport (about an 1½ hour ride) in plenty of time ... in fact we were early... There was NO WAY we were going to miss our flight. We check in and wait to find out what gate we are to go to....we wait ...and wait ... we go pass the passport check... then wait .....and wait some more.... finally its about a half hour before the departure time.... but then bad news "delayed until 10:44"..... 'jammer!!!!'..... o well it is only and hour and we will still have lots of time in London.....10:15 rolls around and we wait to see what gate our flight will leave from..... "delayed until 11:45"....... this is starting to piss me off!!... we are thinking "good thing we had booked the early flight and have plenty of time" .... 11:35......"delayed until 12:20" ... this WOULD happen to me! ..... finally at 12 we get to go through security and head to our gate!!! We are finally going to be on our way to London!!!

The flight takes off about 1-ish... and we get to London about 40 min later but with the time change it is about 1 o'clock there too. So we are a few hours behind where we would like to have been but what can you do?? We flew into London Stansted Airport which is a bit of a drive from central London so we had to get on a bus for a 55 min ride to Liverpool Street Tube station.. there we bought an all day pass on the Tube and made our way via underground train to our hostel. We had made it!!!! By this time it is getting later and later... we get to the hostel and check in, drop our stuff off, and head out to the city!!

We decided that we wanted to go to a show that night so we headed out to find cheap tickets. We went to Leicester Square and found some cheap tickets to a Musical "Fame" for 8:30 that night... By this time it is getting towards 4 -4:30 ish and kinda getting darker but we want to get the most out of the day so we head to Westminsterer to see the abbey and Big Ben. We timed it perfectly!!! When we got there the lighting was awesome against Big Ben and the Abbey (hands-down the best Abbey I've seen) . The weather on Friday was beautiful. Sunny and clear with bright blue skies!!

We then decided that we could head to Buckingham palace. We got there ...tried to take pictures but it was getting dark and the cameras didn't work that well so we gave up and decided to come back again the next day.

By this time we were getting pretty hungry... so we got some cheap but good pizza and ate it quickly before we headed to the show. We ate outside and were just looking around when out of nowhere I see... well lets just say I almosted choked I was laughing so hard.... what first caught my attention was these hairy legs... as my eyes moved up I notice that these legs were wearing a dress .... and it was the ugliest dress I have ever seen... my eyes continued in their upward inspection and it is then that I notice that this is not a woman but it is a man... he is wearing this getup and to top it off he has a hat with fake braided hair on top of his head... I look over to see if Laurie or Nicole had seen this character and I turned just in time to see Laurie's reaction..... Priceless!!

The show was pretty good. We liked it but decided that the performers were chosen mainly for their dancing and singing abilities and not so much for their acting abilities ... It was fun though.
The show ended at 11 and we (being very very very tired after such a long day ... remember we got up at 4:45 and now it was 12 Netherlands time) slowly made our way back to the nearest Tube station...thinking that we were very smart to pick a hostel that was directly across the street from a tube station...

We get on the train.... which was packed because we were in the theatre district and shows had just got out ... but we braved the crowds ... thinking how good it would feel to take a shower and go to bed.... We don't have that far to go... so we have been on the train for a while and I notice that our station (Great Portland Street) is the next station on the map... so I turn to Laurie to make sure that she knows that our station is next.... not 5 seconds after I finish telling her this anannouncementt comes over the speakers "the next station is closed .... this train will not be stopping at the next station... this train will not be stopping at Great Portland Street station" ... WHAT???? oh well I guess we will just have to walk from Bakers Street... so we get off at Bakers Street and make our way outside. Once outside we notice a sign that says "Regent Park" and because our Hostel is by regent park we follow the sign.... it isn't until we have walked for about 15min that we realize that this is not the right direction.... So we turn around and start walking back to Bakers Street...

That late at night I have a hard time functioning properly... I get extremely tired (especially after such aneventfull day) and crossing the street is sometimes hard ... it is even harder when the cars are coming from the wrong direction... so I am doing pretty good until I try to cross one street ... I look both directions ...trying to be very careful... no cars.. so I make my way out in the street and when I reach the middle of the street I notice this car flying in my direction.... it is getting pretty close so I quickly jump back a few steps and watch as it flies by..... It is at this time that I decide that I really need more sleep.

Well we finally make it back to our hostel and get some sleep. The next morning we get up about 9 and get ready and headed out to see the rest of the sights.

We first headed to Hyde Park. I love it!! It was a gorgeous day ... it was warm and sunny (way different from what Zwolle had been this week) we saw the Marble arch and then walked around the park a bit. We were about to leave the park when I turned to my friends and said "it would make my day if I saw someone riding their horse here, but I don't think I will get to see that" two mins later what do I see coming towards me but two people on horses!! My day was made!!

We them made our way to the Wellington Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the Mall, St. James's park, and up to Trafalgar Square (we had Cadbury McFlurries here... we had to because we were in England) We then took the tube to Tower hill and went to The tower... this place is really cool I strongly suggest that if anyone is going to London they have to go in the tower. Here again we saw a man in a skirt... it was 'really attractive' especially with the ugly tatoo that was plastered on his legs...people are sooo weird sometimes. We saw lots of weapons and such but also the crown jewels and other very impressive things... we were almost done when we saw that the chapel was roped off ... we kinda had wanted to go in but we couldn't ...it is then that we saw a woman in a wedding dress beinescorteded through the courtyard of the tower to the chapel. I think it would be a bit weird to get married in the Tower but memorable.

We then made our way over to the Tower Bridge and walked over it and back again. I think it is one of the prettiest bridges that I have ever seen.

We then made our way over to St. Paul's Cathedral and saw that real quick. Pretty soon our bodies were crying out for food so we went to a nice cheaper restaurant and had a good meal. Then made our way to the last attraction on our list ....Tate Modern.. an art museum. We were very excited to find out that this was open until 10pm so we had saved it for something to do at night. We got there at 8 and didn't even get to everything but had to leave at 10. We were all very very tired so we made our way back to the tube station (following the helpful orange street lights that point the way) and made our way to Baker Street (knowing that our station closed at 10) This time we made sure that we went the right way.

We had to leave our hostel at 6:45 this morning and we were very sad to go ..... but at least our flights were not delayed ... We made it back to Zwolle and now I have to think about homework and reading Calvin's intstitutes....

I'm sorry that I have gone on sooo long ... I really didn't mean to write so much but I guess thats how it goes and if you don't like it well you probably gave up reading after the second paragraph and thats your loss.