London weekend

Finally, I'm up to date on my posts! This past weekend 5 friends and I traveled to London. We got in around 6 on Friday afternoon, figured out the tube and successfully found our hostel. It was a little far out of the way, but we all got to stay in the same room, and there were no strangers there with us. We felt confident in leaving our things in the room when we left for the day. The only downside to many places here is that they don't have air conditioning. Probably 90% of the time it's perfectly fine, except for this weekend. It was a very hot, pretty dry and sunny weekend so everywhere we went was warm, especially our room at the hostel. It wasn't ideal, but it was cheap, and sometimes that's what makes it fun. If not, it was at least memorable! That night, we went into central London to walk around Picadilly Circus and West End. We started to get pretty good at the Underground system, and really enjoyed that experience. We found a cute cafe to eat, also found an Internet cafe to check e-mails and headed home pretty early.

On Saturday, we started our day with a walking tour of London. We saw most of the major sites including Buckinham Palace during the Changing of the Guard, Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. It was another gorgeous day, and our tour guide was very funny! It was a long tour, so by the end we were all starving. We found a really cool noodle place to eat, and mine was a spicy beef dish. It has been interesting trying to find food that everybody likes, and is a reasonable price. (Especially in London!) Next, we split up for a while because we had some different interests. I went to the Salvador Dali museum with two others. It was very interesting, to say the least. Dali was a crazy guy. But what I didn't know was how many works he had done, and how many different mediums he used. He did mostly sketches, but he also got into sculpture, furniture design and glass blowing. Then, we headed towards Trafalger Square to meet up with our friends and spend a little time in the National Gallery. We didn't have much time before they closed, but I can now say that I've seen a real Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Cezanne and others. After that, we headed back to the hostel to clean up. We decided to try Covent Gardens for dinner and a night on the town. When we got there, it was already pretty late, so most pubs weren't serving food anymore. We were looking at restaurants, but many of them had very expensive menus. We were about to give up and go somewhere expensive, when we turned a corner and saw a TGIFriday's! It seemed corny, but they had good food which they were still serving, and reasonable prices. Plus, we were all ready for some buffalo wings and cheeseburgers! Then, we walked around trying to find somewhere to hang out. Most of the night clubs had a pretty steep cover charge, and a long line. We came across a casino that looked pretty fun, so we decided to go in. A few of the boys tried their hand at craps and poker, but nothing really came of it. The rest of us kind of walked around in awe and talked about playing slots, but it never happened. We took a taxi home since the Underground was closed, and had a very nice cab driver. He kept talking about his new wife and her crazy father, so that was pretty entertaining.

We got a little bit later start on Sunday, but we had a more solid plan. So, we headed straight for our first attraction which was the London Dungeon. We grabbed some breakfast in the subway station on our way, and I had the most delicious bagel sandwich that I want to re-create at home. it was a toasted bagel with cream cheese, bacon, tomato slices and guacamole. It was surprisingly refreshing! We waited in line for the tour, but it was very worth it. The London Dungeon is an attraction that's very similar to a haunted house. There was some historical significance, with references to Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper and the fire of London. They had a short water ride, and a free-fall carnival type ride at the end. It scared the crap out of me. I'm generally a really jumpy person, and every little thing startled me! I tried not to scream, but I'll be honest, it happened a few times. Next, we headed for the London Aquarium. It wasn't very big, but they had some really cool rays and sharks. They had a ray that was probably as big as a Smart Car, this thing was huge. For little kids and families, this was a great spot. It is very kid-friendly and it brought back memories of visiting aquariums in Tennessee and Georgia as a kid. One of our group members had just gotten in the night before, so he hadn't seen some of the big sights, so we walked all over London... again. This time, I just people watched and really enjoyed just being in the big city. It was a little cooler, and definitely more comfortable weather for walking around. Then, we had our most difficult hunt for food yet. We needed to find a place that served food and also would play the Brazil/USA soccer game. We asked a bunch of restaurants, but most of them didn't even have TVs. (Very different than the US...) Finally, a bartender told us the place to go. It was very similar to a sports bar in the US. We ate our dinner, and dilly dallied around so that we could keep our table during the game. It started to really fill up, and there were a lot of Brazilians there. By the time the game started, it was packed, and standing room only. We were really lucky to have a table, but it was really hot in the restaurant with all those people. Regardless, it was a fantastic atmosphere, with both sides cheering for their respective teams. It was a relatively high-scoring games, the final score being Brazil 3, USA 2. It was the final round for the Confederation Cup in South Africa. It's a bummer that we lost, but amazing in itself that we got to the finals! The Brazilian fans (most of them from our bar) proceeded to Picadilly circus where they were cheering, climbing the sculpture in teh middle and waving Brazil flags. It was such a cool thing to be a part of.

After that, we headed back and tried to go to sleep in our mini-sauna room to rest up for today. We woke up a little before 5am to pack up and catch the 5:30 train for our 8:15 flight at Stansted. We were cutting it close, but got to the airport around 7:20. Thank goodness there were short lines for security, and we made it with about 15 minutes to spare. We made it home safely, and I've had a very relaxing evening to rest, unpack and catch up with everything from the weekend.

I can't believe there's only one week left of my program! But, I'm ready to head home to see my family and eat some Chipotle! That's what I'm craving the most. What I do love, however, is the cool temperature. It's going to be a scorcher when I get home. I think I'll gladly put up with it in order to have a car, a cell phone and a TV again, though. It's been weird not having any of the three, but sort of refreshing. Being over here just really makes me appreciate all the things in the States that I take for granted every day. Probably because I didn't really know anything different, but now that I do, I'm sure to appreciate them so much more!