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Published: April 13th 2005
Well everyone i made it to London...
Right now i'm sitting at the hostel internet cafe after taking a couple power naps since i only got to sleep a couple hours on the flight over since the seats were pretty uncomfortable. I got to Paris around 5:50am and had to transfer from terminal 2C to 2F. So I got packed onto the bus but when the door went to open at my stop is caught my foot in the door and the driver started yelling at me in French...so that was fun. The flight over to london was alright, quick, about an hour. Once i landed I went through customs and headed for the underground to get on the picadilly line.
I got to the ticket station at 9:10 which was still peak time which runs until 9:30, so to save £6 i waited for 20 mins at a little coffee shop. I listened to the radio for a bit and luckily it was no crappy pop or hip hop...just thumping techno. London was growing on me already.
So after an hour long train ride and meeting a really nice girl from South Africa named Liesl who was just getting to London today as well for business, however, she'll be here for about 4 years bus says she doesnt know if she'll be able to stay away from South Africa that long. She's been to NY and knew where Long Island was. So that was a good way to pass the time.
I arrived at the hostel at around 11am but unfortunately my room wouldnt be ready until 1pm so I had to kills some time so I put my backpack in storage and headed out into London. This place is in a awesome location. In less than 10 minutes I got to walk around Trafalgar Square and went into the National Art Gallery and saw paintings from as early as 1200. There were some beautiful paintings by Seraut (sp?), Boticelli, Van Gogh, Michalangelo. After about an hour I left that and ventured off again.
Once again in about 15 minutes I walked past the stunning Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Clock Tower (aka Big Ben). I walked a little farther to a small park along the Thames River and relaxed on a bench and read some of my guidebook to see what else was nearby. Wouldnt you know it, I was about 10 minutes from Buckingham palace and it was only slightly out of my way so I went off in that direction and picked up a sandwich at a shop on Victoria Blvd I believe. I started to eat sitting at a fountain directly in front of the Palace but swarms of those damn tourists took away from the mood so I went and ate at the St. James Park which has this huge pond in the middle, tons of ducks, swans, geese, and other weird looking birds. This park puts Central Park in NY to shame, and this is not even one of the nicer parks in London but just happened to be on the way back to Picadilly Circus. I stayed here for a bit and finished my sandwich. Then the obligatory Old Crazy Pigeon Man (Think Home Alone 2)walked by, you know the people who are at one with the Pigeons...
I got back to the hostel around 4:30pm and took a quick power nap til around 6 then decided to head down to the common room to meet a couple people. There werent too many people there and I was so exhausted I decided to just go back and rest for a little longer. So I slept until about 8:30pm and went out to get a bottle of water and walk around Picadilly at night. This is a very lively area and probably a good area to stay in since there will probably be people around at most hours so I dont have to walk around any desolate areas of London late at night.
So here I am back at the hostel where I just found out I had been sleeping in someone else's sheets. I was told i'm bed D which had linens but the other person must have wanted to be on the bottom bunk, apparently I was supposed to come back to get my linens after 1. My other roommates have been gone all day so I dont know what theyre like.
Anyways, i'm either gonna head out to a bar in a few or call it an early night so i can halfway function tomorrow. We'll see...
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anonymous
non-member comment
It sounds like everything is going great so far and you'll really enjoy London. I actually hope this comment goes somehwere u can read it bc honestly i dont know if i did it right : /... Im jealous that i have to get up for school tomorrow and your in London. (Thanks a lot god lifes real fair ;) ... Well everyone at home has read what you did today wheather they respnided im not really sure. Keep us posted! Love yaa - Marissaaa