London Calling

I left for London on Friday morning to embark on an almost three hour ride on a coach. On the way there, we stopped at a huge truck stop to eat lunch and then it was back on the coach where we remained to a tour around the city. When the tour ended, we were free to do whatever we wanted. Katherine, Jennifer and I went up to our room to unpack, and then decided to find our way to Leicester Square to buy tickets to see Wicked! It took us about thirty minutes just to walk there because of the numerous stops to ask people how to get where we were going. We bought tickets for Friday night. We knew it would take almost an hour to find our way to the theatre, so had to basically run back to the hotel to get ready for the musical. It was amazing! I would go see it again if I had the chance. Afterwards, we went to an Italian restaurant and they had some pretty great food.

The next morning we got up early to see the sights. Our first (intended) stop was Buckingham Palace, but we didn’t know how we were going to get there. We didn’t want to take a cab because we knew it would cost too much, so we bought a bus pass and jumped on a bus. Later, we found out that the bus we got on was not the bus we wanted. However, we didn’t realize this until we were sitting on the bus for almost an hour when it started to go to the suburbs of London. So we got off and jumped on a bus that took us back into town.

Our first stop was in front of the British Museum. We decided to get a hotdog from a vendor and eat it on the steps of the museum. We also fed the pigeons while we there, but got in trouble so we had to stop. The day was getting long so we finally broke down and decided to take a cab and walk the rest of the way. The cab ended up being £10 ($17) so it wasn’t that bad between the three of us.

Finally, we arrived at Buckingham Palace. We walked down to the London Eye, which we were going to go up in, but there was a super long line. Down by the Eye are a lot of street performers - some of them were good and others were not. Then, we took a quick walk across the bridge to see Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey.
By dinner time, we were all tired. We headed to the hotel to take a nap and then we went out to eat Indian food. It was my first time experiencing Indian food and I didn’t really like what I had. A lot of the students were going out to some clubs down by Leicester Square, but we were all really tired so we decided to stay in.

On Sunday, we stopped at Hampton Court where King Henry VIII and also William and Mary lived. It was in London but it took us an hour just to get there! We spent some time roaming through the castle and grounds. Then it was back to the manor, which was nice because I was ready to relax!

When Monday’s classes rolled around, I was so tired and glad when I had a chance to take a nap before my last class. Tuesday, I started volleyball practice. I’m excited to play a sport; I miss it. Today, I have a briefing for a trip to Lincoln this Friday, which is required for my British Studies class. I also plan on watching a soccer game at a local pub with some friends; but who knows I have an all floor meeting and there was a fire drill at seven this morning…it was rough.