First week in London

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WOW!
Can’t believe we have made it, our first week in London has been amazing. We caught tube to meet Leah at Paddington after finding the train we were suppose to get was cancelled and we didn’t want to wait another 40mins. The tube was crazy because although it wasn’t too busy it only allowed a short time to get on and off. You can probably imagine us with all our heavy bags stumbling on as fast as we could. Leah picked us up at the tube station and I was happy to see someone familiar and have an extra hand to help carry our luggage. We caught a bus, it was a red double decker bus just like the movies and I was relieved that it stopped just by our house because I didn’t think I wanted to walk any further with our bags. It was dark when we arrived but when we looked around it was crazy to see so many red double deckers and black taxis! Once we got to our street I was amazed to see that it was a cobblestone lanes, our bags were very noisy bumping over each stone. There are lots of shops about 5mins away so that’s handy and once we had put our bags inside we went and got Chinese from down the road.

Leah gave us instructions to get to the nearest tube station, so we could go to Oxford St to sort out our bank account and cell phone. We were amazed at how efficient the tube was it was right on time and we got to town in 15mins. After sorting out what we needed at Oxford St we got back on the tube and went to Piccadilly Circus for lunch. This was cool I saw my first sight of china town with all the red lanterns hanging down the lane. We gravitated to what we recognised for lunch which was Burger King, it was good. After lunch we got back on the tube and went home. Even with the directions Leah gave us we found ourselves lost, lucky for the a-z.


On Thursday we went into Trafalgar Square, where I had an interview with a nanny agency which went well. Then did some tourist things like the Big Ben, London eye, Westminster Abbey and Downing St. The Big Ben was cool and it was nice to hear it chime when it was 11.30. Walking around by foot we noticed how close everything is in town and realised that you can walk between Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben. We decided not to pay 10 pounds to go inside the Abbey because we might go to a service for free. (hahaha sneaky)

We were so excited on Friday because we met up with our friend Amber, and we went to Camden Markets, where the recent fire was, didn't affect too many shops though. Camden Markets were cool Stu you would love it, there are so many alternative shops and stuff. One shop has heaps of glow in the dark clothes and you can get a tee shirt that has a panel on it that moves like a computer screen. You can put your own words on it and make it say whatever you want. That night we had our first taste of the English Pub, had a meal (very nice) then just went back to the flat and had a few quiets.

On Friday morning I went for a run and during the run saw a weird creature with a bushy tail running over a fence. Later I learnt that it was a squirrel and they are everywhere as we saw when we went to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is lovely it looked very much like Hagley Park! Then we went and saw the New Zealand memorial which has all sorts of black posts coming out of the ground, with different events that have happened in NZ history, very cool (see pictures) Then we went and said Kia Ora to the Queen at Buckingham Palace. I managed to stumble across the building where the Canterbury province was initiated.

We had a relaxing weekend met another friend Jemma from NZ and had another pub lunch with her it’s good to find out more goss. London is cool so far and feeling very much at home.

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Photos

London
Big Ben

Me and Amber
At Hyde Park

Comments

[Ange]

Hi!
Hi Guys, Wow, it sounds like you're having a great time already. How did you get on at the nanny agencies? Leah said you went to hairspray last night - did you enjoy?? Looking forward to following your adventures and thanks for directing me to the blog. I wish I was over there too! Keep having fun, Love Ange xx