London

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I took the red-eye over and landed around 9:00am on a beautiful Wednesday morning; so much for my stereotypes of English weather. My friend Amy had been nice enough make arrangements for me to stay at her University dorm, so that would be my first top, to drop off my bags before heading out to see some of the city sight. I took the Heathrow Express into the city (which was when I first experienced the shock of British prices - £30 for a 15 min train-ride) and came out of Paddington Station into what I now-know as typical London madness. People everywhere. I had wandered out of the train station and had already some way before I realized that I didn’t know where I was going. So I checked my map and noticed that I had somehow wandered exactly where I was meant to go; the dorm was on my right.
Amy had told them I would be showing up but I wasn’t expecting them to just hand me the key and send me up to the room. I was definitely expecting some sort of catch along the way, but the journey outward had been easy and uncomplicated. Then the jet lag hit.
It didn’t help that my going-away party had been a total piss-up, but with the combo of a longish journey on a shakey airplane, I was done in (despite being a red-eye flight I couldn’t sleep). So rather than checking out the city in the daylight hours I took an extended nap and went out exploring just in time to catch the last bit of daylight fading over the top of Buckingham Palace.
After looking around the Palace grounds and doing a bit of a wander (read ‘I got lost’), I headed over to Trafalgar Square to meet Amy and her 3 American friends. It was freezing so we booked it over to The Sports Café, which was only around the block, and tucked into some pitchers of Margaritas and baskets of wings. At £10 for a pitcher of booze and 50 wings you can’t go wrong there. (Thursday nights ladies and gents. Just around the corner from the Canadian Embassy in London. And they play hockey games on the big screen.) I’ve since been back. Several times.
After the booze and medium wing sauce took effect (chicks don’t do hot wings) we headed out to Leicester Square to go bar-hopping. I was like a kid on Christmas. Going on vacation to a new place is one thing, but knowing this is your first party night in a city that could be your new home is something else. It ended up being a very good, very long night. Couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to London.

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Photos

London3
A proper dinner to begin a night of boozing.

London1
Amy and friends.

London2
Again, Amy and friends.