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Published: November 25th 2009
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London
in Leicester Square Dear family and friends,
I spent last weekend in London visiting 4 friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a long time and had an absolute blast! It was so special to be able to spend time with all of them and explore the city for the first time. The budget airline company Ryanair has flights to London that leave some of the small airports in northern Spain so I was able to fly to the London Stansted airport from Valladolid and arrive in London on Friday afternoon, Nov. 13th, fairly easily.
On Friday night I met up with my friends Jenny and Fernando to go out to dinner. Jenny is from the London area and we met at U.Va. when she studied abroad there last year. I met Fernando when I studied in Valencia last Spring and he is currently living in London. We went to a Jamaican restaurant in Soho that Jenny suggested and it was really delicious. We were also extremely hungry because we didn't finally begin to eat until around 9:30 pm and hadn't eaten much all day.
Saturday ended up being extremely rainy and windy but I managed to see a lot
London
with Stephanie on Saturday afternoon of the city with my friend Stephanie, whom I also met when I studied abroad in Valencia. We took the tube to the Parliament and Trafalgar Square area and then headed into the National Gallery. It was definitely the perfect day for a museum. After taking two art history classes at U.Va. and having learned about some famous works in high school, I had been interested in entering the National Gallery for a long time. It was delightful to see so many works that I had studied in the museum. In the afternoon, the rain had died down a bit and we walked through Leicester Square (the theater district) and then down Oxford Street (the famous shopping area of London). There was supposed to be a fireworks show by the Thames scheduled for 5 pm (the sun sets at 4:30 pm this time of year in London!) but it ended up being canceled due to strong winds which was too bad. Stephanie and I walked along the bank of the Thames and down by Parliament to see it lit up at night instead, and later on we saw a British film called "An Education" in a movie theater which was
London
saying goodbye to Courtney in the Kings' Cross train station on Sunday morning quite good. After we got out of the movie around 10:30 I was exhausted from so much walking and not enough sleep and we called it a night.
On Sunday morning I took the tube down to the Buckingham Palace area and walked around there as well as Green Park and Hyde Park. I met up with Stephanie and Jenny at 1 pm by the Wellington Arch to take a "free" tour of Royal London (i.e. tip what you think the tour guide deserves or what you feel like giving). I had been on two tours like this previously with the same company (New Europe) in Paris and Madrid last year and they had both been really great ones with energetic guides. This tour was no different and the weather on Sunday was also quite sunny and warm which was a nice surprise after witnessing Saturday's weather. It rained a little in the early morning and then was very clear for the rest of the day! On our tour we walked by Buckingham Palace, St. James' Palace, Trafalgar Squire, Westminster Abbey and ended up at the Parliament building. Afterward I walked with Jenny down along the Southbank where we
London
with Stephanie during our tour on Sunday afternoon passed by the London Eye and headed to the Tate Modern, a great modern art museum in London. We got there around 5pm and the museum closes at 6 on Sundays but we were still able to see most of the permanent exhibits (where the entry is free) and I would definitely like to go back to check out more! We then crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Thames to the area by St. James' Cathedral and took the tube back to the hostel where I was staying near Russell Square. Later that night I went to Fernando's apartment where I had dinner with him, his flatmate Shin, and Stephanie. Fernando's apartment is very small and his landlord is currently living in the living room of the apartment (where the dining room table is) so we ended up pulling chairs into Shin's room to eat dinner because there was no room for us anywhere else. It was pretty hilarious really. Shin had prepared a delicious curry dish and we were all very hungry. It was a fabulous evening.
On Monday morning I went to the British Museum, which has artifacts from many ancient civilizations (and the entry to the
London
with Jenny during our tour on Sunday afternoon permanent collections is free). I particularly wanted to see their Egyptian exhibit (the Rosetta Stone is there!). The museum is huge and my feet weren't up for too much more walking so I stuck to the Egyptian, Greek and Assyrian exhibits which were great. I then met Stephanie in Russell Square and we had lunch together before I had to say goodbye and take the train to the airport to catch my flight.
All in all it was an excellent, though exhausting weekend (from so much walking!). I'll be back in London around Christmas time and I look forward to getting to know the city even better and visiting my friends there again!
I've only posted a few pictures because the photo uploader on this blog site hasn't been working for me very well. I've begun to post all of my pictures on Picasa which is much more user friendly. Check out all my London photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DSR1700/FirstTripToLondon?authkey=Gv1sRgCMOJtMON6rffNA&feat=directlink
I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!
Besos,
Dana
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Aunt Kathi
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Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving Dana! Love, Kathi, Dan, Darcy and Kyra