Advertisement
Published: June 30th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Hello UK!
I always love seeing the UK out of the plane window. It feels like home! London to Athens!!!
Today is actually the 3rd day of my adventure. I just bought a book at the internet cafe in London to write in!
I love being back in England, though it does feel a bit different being here with a fellow Canadian. It's so good to feel the air, to smell it. It's like a certain laundry smell mixed with some men's cologne that just curls my toes. It is different being here in May, rather than December. It's a 7 hour time difference instead of 6, for starters. I miss Leamington, too. Will have to get there some other time.
So, Karen and I left Saskatoon on the May long weekend- the 19th at 4pm. We flew to Calgary and only had about an hours wait. We met some girls who were also going on a Contiki tour, but a different one than us. Then our flight to Calgary was about 8 1/2 hours. The food was actually pretty good! Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn & beans, a bun, and a crumbly blueberry dessert for supper. Then yogurt, apple slices, orange juice, coffee, and a muffin. The movie I watched was National Treasure 2. I
Tourists!
Karen and I at Trafalgar Square. slept a tiny bit- I don't usually. We finally got here about 10:30am UK time (3:20am SK time).
We found our way to the underground tube (its easy, just follow the signs) which went directly to our hotel on the Picadilly Line. It was 4pounds each and was about a 45 minute ride. Our hotel (the Royal National Hotel) was close by. We tried to check in, ut had to wait until 2:00pm, and it was 1:00 then. So, we went to the Contiki meeting place called The Basement. It's basically around the corner at the back of the hotel. We had to sit there for an hour until we could check in. By that time I was getting pretty damn tired! There weren't many people down there. Met a couple girls going on tours- one on ours from LA.
We checked in down in the basement and got our sleeping bags. Our room was ok. Two tiny single beds (that like to roll away from the wall if you move too fast lol), but we were just happy to have beds! Karen wanted to call home, but that turned out to be an ordeal itself. The contiki
Big Ben!
Ya gotta visit Ben whilst in London. phone cards didn't seem to be working.
Finally, about 2:30 in the afternoon we layed down to sleep. It was really noisy outside but, we were so tired. I think we got up again around 6:30, trying to get it in our heads that it was already Tuesday night! We walked around trying to find supper and ended up in Subway. How Canadian of us! I think we just wanted something familiar and easy. We took our subs to a nearby park, amongst several birds. Then we found an internet cafe (1 pound for 20 minutes). I felt more settled after I was able to email people. We didn't do too much afterwards. Found some CSI on tv- 2 episodes worth! Then Law and Order came on.
By midnight I fell asleep. Woke up about 2:30am wide awake, but finally slept on and off until 8:30. Showered. The room was a bit odd - the toilet was in one small room with a sliding door and across the hallway was the sink and shower. I went downstairs to see if we had the same room tonight, but we didn't. What a pain! So, we had to check
Not Quite Royalty
Smilin' infront of Buckingham Palace. out, check our bags with the hotel, and then it was time for an adventure!
We grabbed something to drink from a nearby grocery store and went to sit in the park again. After we hopped on the tube and went to Leiester Square because I've been there a couple of times before and figured it would be a good starting point. I wasn't sure which road to take at first and so I ended up going the wrong way. Good thing I had a map from the last time I was there! When we finally got where I was looking for, it was the Haagan Das store that originally clued me in that I was close! lol It looks different now in the Square- its all a green park with benches and a big statue, where before it was like a carnival scene. We sat there for a bit too, and I tried takin it all in.
Next we were off to Trafalgar Square, which was super close (and beautiful). I took a lot of pics, even tho I did last time too. We also walked by Big Ben and the Parliament buildings, and over to where
Our Hotel
The Royal National. the London Eye is. I think that thats my favourite part of London. I also feel so at peace there, by the River Thames. I always feel so grateful that I got to come here when I'm lookin at the water and Big Ben in the distance.
We ate at McDonalds because it was the only place I knew was around, and we decided to set off to see Buckingham Palace. I'd never been there before and it was close enough and so easy to find! We sat in St James Park for a while. That was nice too. The trees are huge!
Buckingham Palace was't too spectacular (sorry Britains!) The gold and black gates were massive tho, and the Queen Victoria memorial was cool. There is also a big gate going into Green Park called the Canada gate. Cool! Then we walked through Picadilly trying to find somewhere to shop but it was all too fancy for us! So, we ended up just catching the tube back. Lots of walking today! Probably prep for the rest of the tour. I had wanted to find a pair of running shoes because I had left my walking shoes and brought crocs instead- big mistake! They give me blisters and my feet were killing me by the time we got to London.
We came back to our new room and met our room/tour mate Zoe from Toronto. She's really nice. We had pizza for supper and our pre-tour meeting was at 7:00. Mostly girls so far! We only seen about 2 or 3 guys. We got signed in and then made our way back to the internet cafe. It was great to get emails back! 😊 Stopped to get food at the grocery store and now we're just hanging out at the hotel.
Karen is rearranging her suitcase and day bag to make sure they aren't overweight hehe. We are only allowed 44lbs.
Off to Paris tomorrow! Wow! How awesome is that? Super exciting! Can't wait to take photos!
We have to meet at 6am and leave at 6:45am! Early rising.
Here's to an awesome tour!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0348s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb