Day Two,
What can I say about this day?! Magnificent, Amazing, Truly eye opening, Interesting, and Starstruck?! One may ask, “How can one day fit all those describing words into it?” Well, the adventure started off early this morning when I blew up my hair dryer! As one might know about me my hair is very important to me. Luckily, one of my roommates had her blow dryer working so crisis was adverted there! We then boarded the tube (underground train) where as a group we went to the University of London where we will be studying. We got a pick tour of that and an orientation from AIFS, American Institute for Foreign Studies. We then had a three hour break where we could do whatever. I went off with two people, Emily and Jay. We walked around, I purchased a cell phone to call back home or among the people in the group or possibly the chance I have the opportunity to get a number from a cute British man…..RIGHT!! We then ate at a place called………… After that we boarded a private bus tour where we went around and saw London with our own tour guide. What can I say; London is huge and full of history! We saw so many different things I know I won’t be able to remember all of the information we were given, tho I know the three references the guide gave about Harry Potter. J We saw Westminster, the Queens Palace which had a flag hanging where it showed that she was in her London residence. This was also where Barrack Obama stayed when he was in London and had a BBQ, also was the balcony where William and Kate kissed!! (Yes mom I took lots of pictures of that for you!) We saw big ben, which wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be. We saw the London Bridge and a whole bunch of other places that I will write about later when it’s not so late and I can get the cheat sheet from my roommate who was smart and brought along paper!
After the tour we were off on our own! I went along with Emily and Jay for the night. Our night started out in the hopes that we’d make it to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. It was about a 30-40 minute walk from our flat, we finally made it there and the line was around the block. We decided we’d go in the store, well that was another wait as well as a fee to enter. We quickly scratched that off the list and decided it was cool enough that we at least went past the first Hard Rock Café. We continued walking and found a lil pub called Henry’s Pub. We ate there and it was delicious! I had a steak sandwich. I ordered lemonade, for those of you who really know me know that I’m not a big lemonade drinker but decided it sounded good. The waitress warned me that it was a bit bitter; I decided it couldn’t be TOO bad, so I ordered it. WELL….she wasn’t lying to me! It was very bitter as well as carbonated. That is one thing I’ve noticed here everything seems to be carbonated! I decided after dinner I needed some dessert so we went right next door to a frozen yogurt shop. I thought it would be awesome, well I soon found out it was nothing close to awesome it was downright WRONG! It should not have even been considered chocolate; there was no chocolate flavoring to it! Both Emily and Jay tried it and agreed with me. But once again MOM, I am reaching out of my comfort zone and trying new things! Needless to say I threw it away after one bite!
After the yogurt, we decided to continue walking and exploring! We came across this crowded place on the sidewalk with paparazzi taking a million pictures, so of course we HAD to stop! We stopped and ended up chilling there for about 45 minutes. We learned that it was the opening night of the summer exhibit of the British Art Museum. There were a bunch of celebrities and famous people, of course we didn’t know anyone but felt the need to watch and take pictures as well!!! We met these two older ladies who we began talking with. They were very friendly and gave us some directions and ideas of places to check out on our stay.
So we continue on our journey, this is where things got a bit interesting! We hit the Piccadilly Circus area. This was an interesting place! Lots of shops and lights! We walked around exploring; saw a bunch of people crowded around, so once again we had to go check out what was happening. We did and found a crazy Jamaican guy about to limbo under a stick maybe a foot off the ground! It was pretty crazy! After that we continued on, we got lost at this point. We went down a street we were directed not to go down because it was not properly lit. Well we thought it led to a shortcut. Little did we find out it was NOT a shortcut! We found a guy standing on the corner looking possessed screaming about God and the Devil. We continued on, even though we should have been leery at that point, and found ourselves in what we are now calling the red light district of London! It was an interesting alley, one where we will not be going back to that is for sure! We decided it was a wise idea to ask a police man we saw at the end of the lil alley how to get back to the street we knew we needed. By the way this is about 3 hours into our journey on our feet with about a 40 min break for dinner. Anyways, we got back on the right path and was looking for a street called Baker street. That is the street we live on. We soon found out we were not right after we saw a sign that said “busses discontinue here.” So in other words, the busses stopped, it was a dimly lit street and we had a map out. At the orientation we learned to try to blend in and not have the map out in front of your face because you are the number one target at that point. So we scurried to a lit street and stood under a light to figure out where we went wrong. Here the street we were looking for was called a different street name for 2 blocks of the map but was essentially the same road! So we headed back towards the right street. This is where my night was made! We were waiting at the street corner for traffic and we heard sirens. Sirens in London I have quickly come to find are not anything uncommon! So we waited and a motorcycle approached and stopped all traffic, about 30 seconds later 2 more motorcycles come and then an armored car and another car, which is where we saw the QUEEN! This was at one point where I wish the camera would have been on and ready so I could prove that we saw her, but I know that I saw her and it was the best part of my whole trip! It made the getting lost and the 5 hours of walking around well worth the adventure!!! She was dressed in a blue dress and had pearls on with a woman sitting next to her. None of us really saw the other woman to know who it was, but we were all excited to have got a glimpse of the queen!
I don’t know if anyone is actually continuing the reading of this long post, but tonight was the best adventure of my life! I’m not sure how today can be topped! It was filled with so many surprises and great sights I know I am forgetting parts of the day and sights that I saw. I just feel this was the best in the moment experience I could ever ask for! I hope there are more crazy great adventures like this to tell you about later, however my feet are killing me and it’s time for bed with school in the morning! Flip flops and about 10 miles on cobblestone sidewalks are NOT a good combination for this girl! I am ready for a nice night of sleep and more stories to come!!!!
Love to all you back home! Hope you continue following :)
Love to all you back home! Hope you continue following :)
