London and Amsterdam

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After Greenland, I flew home to KBH to relax for a few days and recover from my sickness which I'm pretty sure was the swine flu. It is EVERYWHERE now in Denmark. On Monday afternoon I flew to London to meet a bunch of friends from SCU. Even before I got on the plane to London I fell in love with the accent of those also waiting to board the flight. When I arrived at Gatwick airport in London I had to take a shuttle bus into the city which took about an hour or so where I met up with Laura Beck. I bought a three day tube pass, and experienced my first ride (as an adult) on the London tube. When we got back to Laura's flat (of which is shared with lots of other SCU students) a friend told us that he was going to see Avenue Q that night, so Laura and I hurried and bought tickets online. Later we walked around Hyde Park which is directly across the street from the flat, and as it got dark the park guards? locked all the gates, while we were inside, so we had to jump the fence. Before dinner, my friend Lauren Totah came over to the flat along with a few other girls from SCU, and we all went out to get crapes for dinner. Right after Laura and I dashed off to see Avenue Q which I absolutely loved. I've waited so long to see it, and it was even better than I was expecting. After the play we went back to South Kensington where we found a cozy little pub that the girls go to every so often and I tried Fruli, which basically tasted like strawberry flavoring with a bit of beer.

The next day, Tuesday, I was shown around the city, and saw most of the major sights: Big Ben, The London Eye, The Globe, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace. We ate dinner at the flat, and I had my first taste of peanut butter in 3 months, so delicious. That night we went out to another little pub nearby for a drink and to catch up more. All my friends had internships the next morning, so they needed to get their sleep. That night I was on facebook and Eric was on and told me he had a break from school for a few weeks, and asked if he could come to KBH, or if I could travel with him somewhere. So I was up till about 1am trying to figure out how we could work it all out. Long story short, he didn't want to pay the money for the flights (I wouldn't either), and didn't come. So that was a lot of stress for nothing!

Wednesday morning I slept in while my friends all went off to their internships for the day. My shuttle bus to the airport didn't leave till late afternoon, so I had a day to relax and wander around London a bit on my own. My flight to Amsterdam was delayed an hour or so, but I took a hotel shuttle to some random hotel, and arrived there at night time and my friend from SCU, Lily, picked me up. *I spent many days in Amsterdam, so it all kind of runs together now, so these events may or may not be in correct order* Lily does not have class Thursdays or Fridays, so it was a great time for me to be there. She took me all over the small city of Amsterdam. We saw lots of canals, tulips, souvenir stores, coffeshops, prostitutes, etc. Lily took me to the Heineken experience as my birthday present. We had a great time. Our friend Alex, also from SCU, arrived from Cork, Ireland with a group of her new friends, and it was so great to get to see her and for the three of us to be together. We quickly walked through and experienced the red light district, because Lily isn't too fond of it. But I thought it was incredibly interesting, such a different culture than in America, or really, any other country. I flew back to KBH on Sunday night, just in time for my 8:30am class on Monday morning. It was a great two week break from school, but I was defiantly really thankful to be back to real life in KBH.

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Photos

London
Laura and Dana

London
Big Ben

London
The London Eye and the London fog..

London
Typical phonebooth

London
Buckingham Palace

Amsterdam
I AMsterdam

Amsterdam
Heineken Experience

Amsterdam
Lily and Alex