London to Ireland to Paris

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July 6-9: LONDON

Okay, so as everyone might have expected, the moving every three nights (from hostels none the less), has started to wear on Caitlin and I. That and the continuous, absolute non-stop walking has left our ankles swollen and angry with us. Even still, Caitlin and I have had some superior experiences in each major city. From Barcelona we headed to London. The weather was a bit dreary on the day we arrived, but the sky opened up for the rest of our time there. You would think arriving back into an English speaking country, we would not get lost…HA!...the street our hostel was on changed names 5 times before we arrived at the right leg of the street, and the yahoo-map we printed out had the arrow for our final destination in the wrong spot. We were excited to have some friendly passer-byers offer their help; they were very sympathetic of the London streets (keep in mind this won’t be our last time to get lost). It was late we when arrived, so we settled into the hostel and grabbed a bite at the neighborhood pub and hit the hay.

Next day we set off to see the sites and check out the Tate Modern Museum, which offered exciting exhibits. There was one that impressed me with videos, statistics and charts, etc. around city populations, design, growth, and more…even down to how each country disposes of their bathroom waste. You can check out some of the exhibit online: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/globalcities and watch the video at the bottom of the screen. I promise it’s not the bathroom video. There was also a large collection of Dali which was both disturbing and amazing. What a creative and strange guy. Many of you might remember his famous paintings with long-legged elephants, donkey carcasses or melting clocks in his paintings. That’s the guy.

We walked through Westminster Abby where the preliminary Tour De France was racing through. It was cool to see the numerous London police standing on-guard with their tall bowl shaped hats. We walked along the river past a skate park and ran into a bike ballet, which was quite interesting….

The Globe was closed because a play was in place. Go figure - the nerve! Hehe. We didn’t make it to the Tower of London because for one, our feet were killing us (I know - broken record…I should just get ankle braces), and for two, Caitlin had already been there and done that and the St. Paul’s Basilica on her previous trip. We were signed up for the Broadway show, Wicked, that evening so we decided to shop until the show. We arrived a bit late (because this is our second time to get lost), but the show was AWESOME! It was at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, and this show ended up being the highlight of our trip. Toss toss. Heheh…inside joke - it was in the play. You can check out a clip here if you’d like: http://londontheatredirect.com/asp/Wicked.htm.

The next day we headed to both the Camden and Portobello Markets (street tents and stores galore) and ended up in the Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Also, another highlight of the trip. We walked by the former palace of the Princess Diana and the Orangery with the most gorgeous garden I’d seen yet….fountains and gardens combined - oh my. We met up with Caitlin’s friend, Shu and she was able to give us the guided tour through the park. By the end of it, we were all walking funny and couldn’t wait to sit down for a taste of a Pot Pie. We all got the Shepherd’s pie which was lamb and vegetables. Soooooooo delicious. England was soooooo expensive as you might know. Two pounds is equal to 1 dollar in the states, so it was cheaper for me to buy a whole bottle of wine (which neither of the girls wanted any of), so I saved money and drank the whole bottle by myself. What a steal. Well, if $24 US dollars is a steal for the cheapest bottle of wine offered. It was either that or a $10+ US dollar GLASS of wine. Crazy I tell you.

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