London

Me and Amy left for our week after trip on Friday morning, the 11th. Sabine took us to the airport and said good-bye to us then. I was doing alright holding back the tears and then she hugged me and I saw the tears in her eyes and I lost it. I bawled from then until we landed in London and then it took a lot of effort to hold back the tears then. I’m fighting it right now. She was an amazing host mom and I’m really going to miss her. She said that I need to come back and visit her someday. Hopefully, I can do that.

            When we arrived at the airport it was a little ways out of town and we had to take a train in. The woman at the ticket desk was really nice and told us to make sure and show our student cards everywhere, because you never know who will give you a discount. She even did 25% off. It was the beginning of a lot of discounts.

            We checked into our hotel and began exploring. The first afternoon we walked around and explored the Tower of London. The first part of it was built in the 9^th century. It was really cool and a great place to just explore and look around, we even got to see the royal jewels. NO pictures, please, though. We were then in a perfect location to walk over the London Bridge and then down the Queen’s Walk. We also went into the reconstructed version of the Globe Theatre. Go when it’s warm outside, because it is an open air theatre. The next stop on the list was Kings Cross Rail Station. It was probably the most disappointing part of the whole trip. In Harry Potter they have to go in between platforms 9 and 10 onto platform 9 ¾. There is no platform in between the train tracks of 9 and 10. The trains are right next to each other. I have a picture of where they could potentially “get on the train,” but even that is a little iffy. Dinner was enjoyable though. We went to Hoops and Grapes and I had fish and chips. The place had a pet cat and it snuggled up next to Amy and fell asleep. The hostel we stayed at is next to a bar, but the actual hostel is behind a locked door. Our room had 20 other people, but surprisingly we were able to get a decent night’s sleep. Everyone else in our room wanted to sleep as well and the lights were off by midnight. The craziest part of the night is I’m talking to Amy and I crawl into my bed and the girl next to me asks where I’m from. I told her Oklahoma and she gives me this look and goes “No way me too!” It turns out she went to Union and graduated the same year as Jessica. It is truly a small world.

            There is a company called New Europe that gives tours of major European towns. They use hostels to solicit their tours. I went on one in Berlin and it was excellent. They give you the basic facts of the major historical places, but they also tell you side stories that aren’t always in normal tours. They keep them funny and entertaining, because they work off of a tips basis. So I drug Amy along with me for the tour of London. We started off in Hyde Park and the Wellington Arch. It was made to rival the French Arc de Triumph, but the British version lacks a little. We then headed to Buckingham Palace and our guide Ed told us a few funny stories about people breaking into the palace. In the 80’s a group of Germans intending to camp out in Hyde Park actually ended up sleeping in the Queens private garden! They were as surprised as the guard who they asked directions from the next morning. We then saw where Prince Charles and William and Harry live. They have those guards with the funny hats outside of their house even when they are not home. Then a few more random places. It actually started sprinkling on us about half way through. It was one of those rains that you can see the sun shining a few feet away, but you are getting wet from a random rain cloud. We saw Big Ben and learned that that is not the name of the tower, but the bell inside the tower. The tower is just called The Clock Tower. Westminster Abbey and Parliament are both beautiful. The architecture is so different and intricate. We didn’t go in either, because of our time restraint. Oxford the largest shopping street in London and it is packed with people. What was nice was about half way down it there was a Christmas Market that they had tried to make look like a German Market. It was cute and little, but it was like being back in Austria for a few minutes. The London Eye is the world’s largest ferries wheel and looks nice with all its lights on at night. Big Ben also is worth seeing at night. Amy and I also went Ice Skating that evening right next to the Tower of London. So we skated while looking at a castle. Only in Europe! They only let you skate an hour at a time and the session had already started when we got there so we asked the guys working there a good place to eat that was close and good so that we could come back for the next session and both of them suggested Wagamama’s. It was an Asian noodle restaurant and the name means naughty child. The food was good and the name is fun to say. Our last mission of the night was to get pictures in a phone booth after that was completed we went back to the hostel and crashed. It had been a really busy day and we had accomplished a lot in London in 2 days. It is possible to see everything you need to in two days, I wouldn’t recommend it, but it is possible, just walk fast.