The real entry....

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I do realize that we've been here for over a week now, we've already in our third city, and we have yet to write a real entry..... I had good intentions in Amsterdam when I started writing the previous entry and saved it for later... but I might as well write a fresh entry with the 20 minutes I have left on the internet. Luckily, this computer is programmed to the American keyboard, so I can find "@," and I shouldn't mix up "y" and "z."

Well, first impressive of London: SO expensive. All the prices looked as though they would be correct--in DOLLARS--so it was a little shocking each time we realized that we actually had to double the pounds to convert back to dollars! For example, a one-way ticket on the metro (tube?) system was GBP4.... The prices didn't mar my impression of the city TOO much, though, and I still think it was a great place.

Anyhow, I began writing about our activities the day we got in, so if you read the previous entry you saw that we certainly saw a good amount in those few hours after landing at Heathrow and getting settled in the hostel. The following day, we set off on one of those big red double-decker busses, and we got to see a little more of the city that way. Unfortunately, it started raining partway through the tour, which made the open-air top deck slightly less enjoyable. It was fun nonetheless... I am excited to return to London at the end of the trip and spend a couple more days there. The bus ticket also included a short river cruise, so we got to float under the London Bridge and Tower Bridge, in addition to seeing the sights along the water. We then went into Westminster Abbey, which was HUGE and packed with a ton of artwork and tombs. Surprisingly, the interior was a lot lighter (literally lighter, color-wise) than other chuches I've been to (the Vatican's St. Peter's comes most readily to mind, and I keep envisioning the the dark marble that seemed to cover every wall there). We walked around that area some more to find food, and we got to enjoy daylight well into the night, around 9:30 or 10 PM!

It turns out that some Cal Band buddies (Brent, Rachel, and Paul) were staying at the same hostel as Alisa and me--what are the chances! I knew that we would all be there that night but had no idea it was going to be so easy to meet up. The three of them shared some travel tips with us as we chatted in the hostel bar.

We keep meeting a lot of fun people coming in and out of the hostels; many of them seem to be from the US and Australia.

Time is running low, we'll try to keep up w/ the blog!

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