After Prom--London (6-30 to 7-3)

Sorry for the delay, folks. I keep forgetting to put it up.

We arrived in London at about 6:45 AM. We woke up, grabbed our bags, and stumbled out into the Euston Train Station. We managed to make it to the Underground station and buy some 3 day passes that wern't TOO expensive: 18 pounds, unlimited travel for 3 days. We took the train to our hostel (Journey's) which was near the Lambeth Walk station, if anyone knows London.

Remember when I said that place in Edinburgh was the worst hostel we stayed at? That was only because I had not yet arrived at Journey's London Eye in London. This place was garbage. We were staying in a 12 PERSON ROOM. This room, to give you some perspective was smaller than a Marycrest room. 4 stacks of beds bunked 3 high in our room. The building wasn't air conditioned, making sleeping at the top floor on the top bunk awful. Plus, my bunk wobbled like an unsupported skyscraper every time one of my two bunkmates below me rolled over.

There was no room in each room to store your stuff. You just left it on the floor, making navigating the room a royal bitch, as theres about as much floor space left to fit a card table, and everyone was leaving their luggage lying on it. Each floor (not each room—each floor of maybe 40-45 people) shared two showers, making getting ready to go also a pain.

Anyway, so we stored our luggage at the hostel like we'd previously done, and set out to enjoy London. Our first stop was the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel overlooking all of London. However, each ride cost 17 pound, and having already blown a ton of money on this trip, we decided to pass on the Eye. You could get some good pictures of the parliament building from where we were, so we got some pictures and then walked over to it.

We also checked out Westminster Abbey while we were over there. Once again, my compadres decided to skip on paying 12 pound to go inside. However, when I asked them what they wanted to do, they suggested, “Go home and nap.” Since this seemed to be the majority opinion, I opted to stay and go check out the Abbey and meet everyone else back at our shithole hostel.

The Abbey is really cool, theres a lot of really famous dead people buried inside. Theres some really cool architecture too, but after you've been in Europe for two months, you tend to see it all in castles already.

After the Abby, I went back to the Shithole to move my stuff into my room. However, since everyone else checked into the hostel before I, I had no idea which room we were staying in, or what the password to the lock was. I went up to the desk, and was greeted with a “I'm sorry, in 15 minutes I'm not here...wait for the next receptionist to show up.”

Seriously?

Eventually, the next receptionist did show up, and helped me get to my room, where I dumped all my stuff off. We still had some time to burn before dinner, so I went out on my own once more to fulfill some personal goals of mine.

My first target was Fleet Street. My goal? Eat a meat pie. However, Fleet Street today, is this obnoxiously built area with lots of tall apartment buildings! I only found one place that sold meat pies, and they were all sold out. Oh well.

My second goal was a tad easier. I went over to Kings Cross Station to get a picture of the famed Platform 9 and ¾. However, when I got there, I found that there was no division between platforms 9 and 10. What gives? Upon leaving the area, I saw a sign declaring that “due to construction, platform 9 and ¾ has been magically moved to a new location. Please follow the map!” So, I followed, and got some other tourists to take my picture next to the famed gate.

We decided that a good evening activity would be to go see a movie. We chose “The Hangover” based on raving reviews of many of the locals that we met in the UK/Ireland. We took the underground to the movie theatre, bought the tickets, and then went to find a place for dinner.

We found this cool pub which I really enjoyed which gave us some pretty cheap food (comparably). I had fish and chips (yet again). After dinner, we walked over to the theatre and saw the movie.

This wasn't one of the cool theatres that had a bar, unfortunately. However, I figure that was probably for the best. This way, I wasn't getting up to pee every five minutes or so during the movie.

The Hangover was a really good movie; I really enjoyed it. After the movie, we decided to head in for the night. We were all still pretty tired from the train ride. First though, we headed over to the Picidilly Circus stop, which is a very “Times Square”-esque area. A lot of electronic billboards and flashing lights. It was a sight to behold.

The next day we got up and met Mike and George, fresh in from taking the Chunnel from Paris. We showed them the London Eye, and Big Ben, then we decided to go on a boat ride! We took a boat from the parliament building down to the Tower of London. We saw the new exhibit on King Henry VIII, as well as we got to see the crown jewels (at a lot of other rich person stuff). Afterwards, everyone went back to take a nap. I went to the Fenchurch Street Station to take a picture of the ticket queue (nerd alert!)

After that, we all went out for dinner and got ready for the stage show. We had decided to see “We Will Rock You,” a Queen jukebox musical. Troy, Dirk, and Frank decided to pay 50 some pounds to sit in 6th row seats. Mike, George, and I sat in the back row for 20 some pounds, then moved up to the front row of the balcony (a 50 pound value) after the show started. I guess some people don’t know how to see stage shows!

After the show, we went down to show Mike and George Picidilly Circus, then went and found a bar. The bar had a really good cover band playing, so we stayed there for a while. I figured it was my last night to drink heavily, so combine that with the 4 pound double cubre libres that the bar was serving, and you have a recipe for a good night. I did see someone who knew a friend of mine from high school, so that was cool.

The following day was my last day in London. We woke up and went to see the royal palace. We happened to be there at the same time as the changing of the guard, so we all saw that. Afterwards, we took the underground to the Hard Rock, and had lunch there. It was pleasant…one of the few air conditioned buildings in London! We split ways after lunch—George, Frank, and Dirk wanted to see Wimbleton, so they split off to see that. Mike was meeting up with one of his friends from his car forum, later, so he and Troy went home to take a nap.

I, upon recommendation from a Katie Marie Wilson, went to the Tate Modern Art gallery, one of the free museums in London. It was pretty cool. My favorite exhibit was the AnnLee exhibit, which was really intriguing. Afterwards, I had about an hour before I was meeting Mike and Troy at the restaurant, so I wandered into a park near the building to check it out, and lay down to watch the clouds.

I woke up two hours later. Shoot! I power walked to where they described the bar to be, but I could not find it for the life of me. I eventually gave up, with the intention of wandering into town to maybe see another show on my own. However, just as I was about to leave the area, I saw the bar! It was very exciting. I went inside and found them, and talked to the group for a while, before we decided to leave.

We tried to go north to find another of Mike’s friends at some bar, but we were incapable of finding the bar. We eventually went back near the hostel, and had a couple of drinks, where I tried to use up as much pence as I possibly could. We met the others back at the hostel, and all went to bed.

Wake up on the 3rd was at 6 AM. I snagged a quick shower, and threw my last clothes in my bag, then we were off to the Airport! We had to take the underground to the Victoria train station, then the half hour train from there to the Gatwick Airport. I said “goodbye” to my travelling mates at the entrance to the airport, then went in line to get boarded.

Travelling back to the states was pretty uneventful. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take my “carry-on” on the plane—it was too large—so I had to check it. However, I was still able to have my laptop and other paraphernalia on the plane. I exhausted the movies on demand list on the plane, as well as took a quick nap. We had two lunches…my meal schedule was all messed up due to the time zones. The first was chicken, the second, a small sub.

I had an orgy of phone conversations once I got back to Carolina. I had to stop and go through customs there. It was very simple…I was sorry that I didn’t try and take a few bottles of beer back to the states!

My flight to Pittsburgh was delayed for about a half hour, but my luggage and I got there eventually.

Thus ends this tale.