My Heart Has Been Stolen

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Now of course this is the second time for me to write this as the trusty interweb had a brain explosion. So i'll see if I can recreate the goodness...

We arrived in London two days ago and since then I have been on a total high. I love this place so much! It is amazing. It is cold and raining outside and the traffic is horrendous and all I want to do is go out there and watch it all and run around like a crazy person seeing everything I possibly can.

As a planner of course it is a dream (and a nightmare at the same time). The tubes work (and then sometimes they don't) the buses work (until they get stuck in traffic) and mostly, the place is so full of history that it is just amazing. AMAZING.

We paid through the nose yesterday for a hop on hop off bus, which was a great idea as we saw all the sights. I haven't seen the front of Buckingham Palace yet, I feel I may be underwhelmed. Big Ben is certainly a little smaller than I anticipated. However, I need to remember when it was built, and then it really is a wonder.

We also did a river cruise, which was freezing, but also heaps of fun. Great way to see the city. We are staying at Staceys house in Clapham Common which is south London in a classic red brick townhouse down a little alley. Red double decker buses drive past all the time and i'm having a total moment over the coolness of this all.

It is cold, but much better than the muggy hell that was Singapore. Its nice to go outside and not slip over in a puddle of your own sweat. Everything is ridiculously expensive for a kiwi who is not on the pound, but i'm just closing my eyes and not thinking of the conversion.

We caught up with the Kiwi peeps last night for dinner in Chinatown, which was great, but i'm dying for a roast. We've been along Oxford Street and i've already memorised all the locations of the shops that i'm going to check out later in the trip. And we've even sort of figured out the tube.

We went to St Pauls Cathedral yesterday for lunch with Stacey and who should I run into but (for Non NSCC people, we used to work with him) Paul Wilkinson. Really shows what a small world it is eh!

We're off to France on the start of our Contiki on Monday, i'll hopefully update this before then.

London town - you have my heart.

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Photos

Its a little smaller than I thought...
A great work of photography by Kathy, getting us and Ben in the photo

Just to ensure you knew I wasn't lying...
Paul and I in St Paul's Square (the Cathedral was going to be too big to fit in the photo)

Classic London
From the river cruise

Comments

[Rebecca]

Wow Ali, I am ultra extremely jelous. Sounds like you are having a blast. How amazing is it that you ran into Paul?! such a small world. Glad youre having a wonderful time, make sure to keep us updated, so that this can break up my work day :-) Live it up. Becca xxx

[Kirsty]

awwwww
Aw buddy, sounds awesome and I'm SO jealous! I can't wait to come and catch up over there (only 4 weeks tommorrow!), but you're making me want to go for real, not just a 3 week trip with 1 day in London! Oh well, counting down - 23 months to go. Big hug, love the blogs, very interesting and totally Ali :)

[Kimberley]

I'm not stalking you i promise
Hey Ali, its kimberley here - kirst gave me your blog site and i'm lovin it!hehe its the 2nd blog site i've been introduced to in 2days (and before i was a total blog virgin) and what a great idea! very jealous - isnt it weird how we could one day be in lil ol' akl, and then next, be in the crazy city of london? awesome!! i will be following your trip closely, so keep up the crazy funny blog entries and pics! have a great time, see you when you get back (and say hi to justin timberlake if you see him. i know hes not english, but hes more likely there then here haha) xxkimberley (hiphop)