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Published: September 7th 2009
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Day 1 This conversation actually happened at Heathrow airport upon our arrival:
Customs official: "So, where are you staying tonight?"
Kevin:"Uh, we're not sure yet. We haven't been able to get a hold of my cousin yet."
Customs official: "Next time you come to London, make sure you have a place to stay!"
So, we decided to take a train to the London Bridge stop and look for an internet cafe. In the end, we found out where Jonas was working, and luckily it was close to where we were. Since he wasn't off work until 5pm we got quite a bit of sightseeing in, even though we were exhausted after our exam week, even though we had only one hour of solid sleep on the plane, and even though this was the first time we were walking around with our heavy backpacks. We started by walking along the Thames river up to Tower Bridge, passing city hall on the way. On the other side of the Thames, we saw the Tower of London. We hadn't realized that this is actually a castle - both of us definitely thought it was just one solitary tower! There
were a lot of other tourists there, and the entry fee was quite high, so we decided to keep going. Before we left, we watched some people demonstrating how to use catapaults with water balloons.
Then, I spotted that big bluish-green building that looks like an egg. So, we made our way into the heart of the financial district. On the way, we saw some cool looking statues and decided to take pictures with them. We had no idea what they were for, until some random guy came and told us that this was the spot where slavery ended. Turns out this guy was originally from Owen Sound - small world! We also saw Lloyds here, the first insurance company. There was some very neat architecure going on here. We finally made it to the place where Jonas was working for his internship, passing St.Paul' cathedral on the way. After a quick snack, we went to his flat, which was a very unrealistic first impression of what our standard of living would be for the next nine weeks. The balcony looked out onto this building - do you recognize it from and James Bond movies? Another interesting fact about
this building is not even used - they built it, used it once, and now it's closed off!
Day 2 The next day, we started by setting out to see the London Eye. We walked across Waterloo bridge where the Victoria Embankment Gardens caught our eye. There was a massive building there that we thought most surely was a palace. It ended up being just a hotel. That's a great example of one aspect of London that really captured us - the grand and majestic architecture, old and new. We continued on to Big Ben, the Parliament buildings, and Westminster. These were all also too expensive for us, so we kept on walking over to Buckingham palace and the gardens around it. We walked by the prime ministers' residence and caught a brief glimpse of the buildings inside as the gates were open for a couple seconds to let someone important drive through.
On our way to meet up with Jonas, we passed by Trafalgar square. We basically did a lot of sightseeing during the day, but at night we went bar hopping. The second aspect of London that we really loved was how many
people are out socializing after work, having drinks out on the streets in front of the bars, in the piazzas where cars can't come through.
Day 3 On Thursday, we went back to Buckingham palace and waited for more than an hour for the changing of the guards. We found out later that it had been cancelled, from a very small and not visibly placed sign in front of the gates. Hey - none of the other tourists saw it either! We actually spotted the sign after the two guards who were standing in front of the palace switched spots and we thought that THIS was the legendary changing! After buying our bus tickets to Paris and taking pictures at platform 'nine and three quarters´, we walked around Picadilly circus and Soho. Kevin tried on a leather jacket at the Ferrari store and was quite tempted to buy it! We went bar hopping again that evening in Covent Garden since it was Jonas's last night in London.
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