First London Weekend

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Group trip to London where the school put us up in a hostel and let us run wild with touristy things. The hostel experience was... interesting. I survived though, which is all that really matters. 😊

My longtime friend Tristan met me and drug me around to a bunch of places. We didn't do too many tourist-y things though, because I had boring things I needed to do, such as find UK/US plug converters and a stupid hairbrush. It was most excellent to have a London native find places for me. I'd have wandered around aimlessly for hours, no doubt.

We did go to the Tate Modern museum, which was really, really awesome. My favorite part was the turbine hall, which Tristan has informed me changes twice a year. Unilever (yes, the company) sponsors an artist every six months to do something with this huge, two story, warehouse-looking space. This time it was entirely empty... and it was a sound exhibit. There are speakers mounted every so often along the walls on the first story and from the ceiling on the second. Each speaker loops a different phrase (not sure where they were all taken from). The sound you got was different in every single place you stood, plus there was this overall ambient noise. I think we spent 20 minutes in that room alone. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen (well, heard).

We went through a lot of other exhibits, which ranged from the bizarre to the beautiful. I pooped out partway through due to aching feet. It was one of the coolest art galleries I've ever been to. I'd love to go back when my feet hurt less.

We had lunch in a pub called The Green Man. I had some really strange but good chicken strips and some not-quite-as-impressive chips.

That night we went on a pub crawl with some of his friends (no, I wasn't drinking!). So, minus the cocktails, and perhaps the point of it, but still fun for the experience. It was of a chain of pubs called the Eerie pub company, which meant that all of the pubs had a Halloween-y theme, which was very amusing.

The next day we did wandering in search of the things I needed to buy. There was also a fruitless search for Splenda (sold out everywhere!). I had American food twice in one day - the first time since I'd gotten here! It was on the suggestion of the British guy who hates it though... I think he was trying to be nice. 😊 Mc Donald's and Pizza Hut. Both were slightly different than what I get at home, but still not bad by a long shot. The chicken sandwich I had at McDonald's was like a million times better than the chicken sandwiches in America... but the fries (I don't think you'd call those chips - they're too different) were terrible. That night we went to Pizza Hut, which was again different. THe pan pizza looked identical to the US, but Tris' favorite is a crust called "italian", and since I rarely meet pizza I don't like, we went for it. It was fantastic

We went to Trfalgar (sp?) and Leicester (lester!) Squares. And, in honor of my aching, blistered feet, went and saw a movie (National Treature with Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean... though we both managed to miss the fact that it was Sean Bean until the credits rolled).

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Photos

Platform 9 3/4
My first Harry Potter sight!

St. Paul's
Bad picture, but I did walk around it like 900 times that first weekend.

Christmas Tree in the Thames
While walking over a bridge, we randomly saw someone's poor Christmas Tree floating away down the Thames River.

Leicester Square Sign
Proof I've been there! Home of much American fast food and most of the movie theatres in downtown London. It's where most of the movie premieres are.

Tristan
Tristan in London somewhere...