Thursday, May 26, 2011

Double-Deckin...

My first full day in London and it was your typical day…cloudy, windy, and RAINY!  So I couldn’t sleep very well from my body clock still being in America, so I got up early and go ready way before Katie J did.  So what else do you do in London, but get a cup a tea! I headed out, hopped on the tube where some Spanish speaking lady asked me for directions and I was honored to be thought of us as a Brit!  I went to Victoria Station since Katie was meeting me there later and thought I would just find a coffee shop in that area…not my smartest idea.   Victoria Station is huge and full of people in transit, so it was very overwhelming to figure out what to do.  I had about an hour and a half so I grabbed a tea (with milk, duh!) and decided to walk around.  For the most part London is safe with just a few sketch areas so I figured I was good.  Well I headed about and it was cold and windy so it wasn’t the most enjoyable and it was a business area, so not much to look at, thus I headed back to the station.  I didn’t really have time to go anywhere else so I found a Starbucks in the station and chilled until Katie arrived. 

Katie and I decided we would take a double-decker bus tour today to reacquaint ourselves with the city.  I had found in our Rick Steves’ travel book that we would get a discount if we showed this one company, the Original Company, our book.  Duh, me being a cheapo, we did so and saved 4 pounds! For the next 2 hours we rode around listening to the British Tour guide talk about the highlights of the city which included where Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna’s House.  Most of the time we had to ride on the bottom level because it was raining, but every now in then we would head up to the top and bared the wind to take some good pictures and take it all in.  I definitely recommend this tour!  Also it included the Jack the Ripper walking tour (about a murdered from 1866 and follows the location of his terrorizing) and a boat tour (which we didn’t get time to do).  Oh and I forgot to add that we made some friends on the bus from Ireland (a group of older ladies on holiday) and from Canada (a group of girls in their early 20s who have been traveling Europe for 3 weeks).  And how could I forget where we ate lunch…MCDONALADS!!!  It was cheap and good, just what we wanted!!
 On the bus tour 

 McDonald's

 I am 90% sure this is Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. We saw it on the Jack the Ripper Tour.

After all our touring and being soaked from doing the Jack the Ripper tour in the rain, we headed back to the Daniel House to change before going to eat dinner with Emma.  We ate at Wagamama, which is an Asian place that is quite tasty! Afterwords, we walked to a supermarket to buy a few things before walking back to the house.  Now I am socializing with some of the other students in the house before heading to bed because I need to get rested for tomorrow…Katie and I are going to Oxford J


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