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Published: November 28th 2005
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Originally the plan was to hit up London alone. About a week before departure, I overheard another student, Jen, say she had plans to go at the same time. Come to find out, we were scheduled to be on the same flight and same bus and thought it’d be fun to meet up out there. The following week another student, Phoebe, added herself to the list of London-goers (only three of us).
We took RyanAir from Valladolid in Spain to Stansted in London. Flights were cheap at only 30euros. Great deal! The bus from the airport into the city was 10pounds, which equals out to $20. And though it was expensive, it was well worth it. We had the best bus driver! He told us about the city, gave us some clues on what to look out for, told us about counterfeit money…. A wealth of knowledge. This being our first impression of London people was a great one. Immediately we decided that we loved London.
Our hostel was in the Piccadilly Circus; I believe the name was Piccadilly Backpackers. The people there were extremely courteous and very cool. Right by our hostel was the Piccadilly Theatre. We chose to see
Valladolid aeropuerto
Jen and me in the Valladolid airport. Still very happy about getting a stamp! the musical “Guys and Dolls” in which Ewan McGregor starred. It was an amazing production! The entrance was 15 pounds for standing seats, which became incredibly tiring after an hour or so but was definitely well worth the pain.
We visited China Town. There must be about 20 Chinese restaurants on every street. We found on that was priced fairly and ate there a couple of days. Their wonton soup was so good. They give you about 5 wontons in the soup and it’s freshly made. That with some steamed rice… Excellent! Great for the cold days.
Weather, by the way, was beautiful. We must have lucked out because every day was sunny. It was about 2degrees Celsius, but still really nice. At night, the grounds would freeze up in some areas and you could, more or less, glide across the ground.
Christmas decorations had been hung. The store window displays defeated the ones I have seen back home. There were huge light displays that created an archway from one side of streets to the next. Kaleidoscopes were projected up into the trees and twirled to an impact of dizziness and delight. I felt compelled to the source, which happened
The bus stops here...
Us and our bus driver Joe. The best bus driver ever! to be a very large movie theatre playing the new Harry Potter film. (So this is how they lure them in…)
Thursday
On Thursday evening, we went to a hip-hop club called NYT. Drinks were 6pounds, which is equivalent to $12! We shared one between the three of us. (Before going out, we stopped at a liquor store and bought a bottle so that held us over till the night was through.) The music at NYT was refreshing since they played a lot of what we hear back home.
Friday
We woke up early on Friday morning. Not easy since we got home around 5am the night before. The hostel provided us with a continental breakfast- toast, juice, and tea. We left the hostel around 11am and rushed over to the Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards only to be disappointed by a negating sign that read: No Changing of the Guards Today.
We were scheduled to meet Jen’s friend at Hyde Park at 12:30. She said we were to meet him by the statue of the elephant. The one “statue” of an elephant that we did find was not that right one. Every one
Yum!
The best won-ton soup in London! Inexpensive too... great for travellers on a budget. that we passed in the park was questioned about an elephant statue. We received laughs and confused looks from all of them. Some thought we were playing a joke. About an hour after searching, we decided to stop and have him meet us instead. We were eventually taken to the statue that he was talking about. I guess the mistake that we made was turning right into the park instead of left. It was a little adventure though and we all thought it was pretty funny.
Jen’s friend showed us a cheap market to get some food at. I almost didn’t believe it, but they had Stagg’s Chili! Of course I had to buy a can with some bread…. Best meal so far! Phoebe was thrilled to find a can of Dr. Pepper. It was funny to be so excited about food we hadn’t seen in almost 2 months.
That night, we saw the Guys and Dolls production.
Saturday
Attempt#2: Changing of the Guards
This time, they did have it. We kidnapped the roommate in our hostel and hustled to the Buckingham Palace once again. We arrived a little before 11:30am. Definitely should have been there sooner. The crowd
Smut booths.
Wow! We're definitely not ashamed of our smut here. was huge and aggressive! And a lot of them were taller than me…. From where I was standing, I was able to watch the guards pass by and go into the gates, but I never actually saw the “changing” ceremony. Still, the marching band played very fun music that made me dance.
After the ceremony, we thought it would be a good day to get some souvenir shopping out of the way. We ran around Piccadilly for a bit and checked out a bunch of the tourist shops then returned to the Chinese restaurant we ate at the night before. Yum, yum!
We hopped on a bus after lunch to Westminster Abbey to check out Big Ben and the House of Parliament. We made our way across the river to the London Eye (11pounds to enter so we skipped the ride) and into the Dali Universe exhibit. Dali is by far my favorite artist so I was incredibly excited to see his work. The Dali exhibit was 8pounds with student ID. Small discount but well worth it.
We wandered the streets, exhausted from carrying our bags everywhere with us and from lack of sleep. We ended up at Jen’s buddy’s
NYT
Jen, me and Phoebe at the NYT (?) night club. 6pounds (which = $12)for a rum and coke. Hmm... good thing we had that bottle on the way. flat around 1am. The plan was to hang out for a bit, freshen up, and go to a club called Fabric around 3am. Never made it to the club. People got really drunk really early: Everyone except for me as I had to leave at 7am to catch the bus back to the airport. I met a lot of really cool people that night. There were almost a dozen from Mexico, one from Portugal, one from Denmark, some from England, and a couple from Jamaica. I’m not sure where others were from since I didn’t speak with all of them. I was talking with a small group of people and one of them said that they love the way American’s sound. He said that our accents were very soft and he loved to hear us talk. My first thought was that I did not, do not, have an accent. But to him and the others there, I did. It never really occurred to me that I did have an accent. Funny. When the sun came up I struggled down to the closest Metro. I did not sleep one bit Saturday evening so I took every chance I could to pass
Nice home you've got here...
It really is a big house! We were laughed at many times when asked where the Buckingham Palace was. In our defense, the trees were in the way and all the buildings around it are almost as big. We rushed to get here to view the changing of the guards.... out: in the Underground, on the Metro, at the bus stop, on the bus, at the airport, on the plane, on the bus from the airport… and when I got back home.
Definitely a fun trip!
( I apoligize if I repeated anything or if this journal seems really unorganized. It is. I put this together over so many days so it may or may not make sense. Either way, enjoy the fotografias!)
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Kelli
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Merci for sharing!
It has been so wonderful to share your adventures with you! How amazing it has been to enjoy all of your photographs and journal entries from so far away. I am so excited to hear more stories...in person!!! Continue to travel safely...and I will see you soon. I love you.