London

So on October 16th I left for fall break to go to London.  My travel companions for the week were three other girls on my study abroad trip in Ireland.  We flew into London-Gatwick and had to take the metro system to get to where we were going to stay.  We stayed with the aunt of another girl that is on our Ireland trip.  We made it to her house around 6pm and were welcomed in.  We had left our cottages at 6:30 that morning and were absolutely exhausted.  We met her aunt, got a tour of the house, and then chatted and ate some cheese and grapes.  Their family was absolutely amazing during our stay there--the nicest people ever!  Every morning we were able to help ourselves to breakfast and then were free to explore the city.  Also, they had a cocker spaniel!  It definitely made me miss mine at home.  

Anyway, Saturday morning we got up pretty early and began our adventure around London.  We became masters of the tube, getting the hang of it easily.  We started off by taking the tube to Leicester Square.  Basically on Saturday we just roamed around aimlessly through the city, and it was really fun!  There was so much to see and we just wanted a basic introduction of it the first day.  So we started off walking towards the river.  Along the way we stopped at the Portrait Museum and then the National Gallery of London.  Both were amazing to see and I'm glad that we went through them.  We definitely got 'art-ed' out though.  The Gallery was in Trafalgar Square which is a really cool place.  It just has a couple huge fountains and some sculptures and statues.  You can also see Big Ben from there.  So then we continued on our path to the river.  There was actually a demonstration about Sri Lanka going on that day.  There were hundreds of people walking the street along the river with posters and a bullhorn.  It was cool to see.  Then we crossed a bridge and walked along the other side of the river.  There were a ton of street performers there and that was a lot of fun.  We actually got to see a break-dancing show there which of course included Michael Jackson.  (We saw another one in Paris and they played Michael Jackson too.)  This was where in the London Eye is also...which is huge.  So when we were done wandering around the city center we took the tube to Camden Town.  On the weekends there is a huge market atmosphere in Camden.  You can take the tube there, but since it is so crazy busy you have to get back on the tube at a different station.  So we wandered around there and the girls bought some clothes and some fruit.  The businesses there also have crazy signs and outsides of their buildings.  One of those things where you just have to see it.  We also stopped in Cyber Dog which is a crazy place!!  Basically a rave in store form.  After we had thoroughly exhausted our energy we headed back to Jackie's aunt's house.  (It was a little bit of an adventure trying to find a tube station to get back to..haha)  

Sunday morning we got up early again, ate breakfast, and departed on some more adventures through London.  We decided to do a "hop-on hop-off" bus tour of the city.  You could go to any site/monument that you wanted, get off and check it out, and then catch another bus and enjoy your journey.  For our first time in London, I thought this was a really good idea.  We got to see all the main attractions that we wanted and had easy transportation between them.  The tour also included a boat tour--which we did at night and was gorgeous.  Another thing it included was a walking tour of Jack the Ripper.  Of the many things that we saw on the bus tour here are some that I can remember:  Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, the aquarium, London Eye, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, (Oliver Cromwell statue...boo!), Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and Piccadilly Circus.  Some of these we just saw from the bus and some we actually stopped at and looked around.  We roamed around Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral.  The rest we didn't have time to explore more of.  At Buckingham Palace we missed the changing of the guards but it was still really cool to see it...obviously.  At St. Paul's Cathedral I lit a candle for my grandpa.  Later we went to the Tower of London (just saw the outside) and from there we went on the Jack the Ripper tour.  This walking tour led us through the streets of East London.  Included was some places that some of the bodies were found, the building that the women had lived, and event he pub that the women would go to pick up tricks.  It was a really interesting tour and I'm really happy that we got to do it.  We also walked by a huge market that was going on in.  Basically as a side effect we got to see more of the culture of London.  When we made it back to the Tower after the walking tour we boarded the boat and got our tour.  We got to see buildings and the London Eye lit up at night--gorgeous.  Again, after this long day we just headed back and crashed.  

Monday we did some more random exploring throughout the city.  We began the day by checking out the famous Harrods department store.  We got a donut from there and headed to check out Hyde Park.  We walked around Hyde Park for 4 hours I believe...  The park is gorgeous and there is a ton to do and see.  There was a lake in the middle of it that definitely gave the Minnesota feel.  On our adventure through the park we saw the Peter Pan statue, Princess Diana's Memorial, Kensington Palace, Prince Albert's Memorial, a bunch of random other statues, etc.  Then we got sick of walking and decided to find our way out of the park and get some lunch.  I got some McDonalds...country #2.  :)  After lunch we got a better look at the Marble Arch where apparently people were hanged back in the day.  Then we went down some boulevard with a bunch of stores and just took in the people and the culture.  On that one street we passed by 4 H&M's...it was a little ridiculous.  After all of this walking we went back to the aunt's house and had an amazing family dinner with our hosts.  It definitely made us feel at home, and that was a nice thing to have.  Hopefully it will help us to continue in Ireland without getting terribly homesick.  I am SO appreciative of their hospitality and wish that there was someway that we could repay them.  Anyway, we tried to go to bed early that night (like we hadn't the whole time..) because we had a 5:30am train to catch the next morning.

We got up at 4am and began our new adventure to Paris.  Our cab driver was interesting to say the least.  After hearing that we were Americans he ranted on about how George W. Bush wasn't that bad and he did the right thing for the war in Iraq.  We just nodded along and waited until we arrived at the train station.  We met a lot of interesting people in London.  It was really interesting to hear their views on Ireland...subtly of course.  Someone was trying to show us a place on the map, they opened up and it was backwards and they said "Oh, just like the Irish."  Another time we were talking with a local and had explained that we were studying abroad in Ireland and they asked if we had been "banished" there.  I wish we could have sat down with some people though and asked more questions about it.  But I guess it wasn't really a planned excursion for us..haha.  Anyway, that's about all for London.  Next stop:  Paris.