When we made it to the airport, it was filled with Italian soldiers in the uniforms. They were all saying good-bye to their families. The entire waiting room was filled with camoflauge. It was a pretty amazing site. Yet it was really sad, and made me miss my soldier. :( It was heartbreaking seeing little kids give their daddy a kiss good-bye.
Our flight got delayed. The flights to London before and after ours were both cancelled, due to weather conditions (snow!). Luckily ours did not get cancelled but it was delayed by about a half hour, which was not bad.
The flight was a lot of fun actually. The flight attendants did not speak any Italian. We took EasyJet which is based out of the UK. All of the flight attendants had volunteered for this flight, because of the weather conditions. When the Italian passangers would complain about something or do something rude, the flight attendant would role their eyes or curse under their breath. It was great. They said the weather in London was really cold and would only be normal to Canadians :) Right before landing, the flight attendant informed us that they would be shutting down the lights. "So if you are scared of the dark, either scream now or push the button above your head."
I quickly came to realize that I should have studied in London. The people were extremely friendly and funny. When we were looking at the "tube" map (the subway), a man came right up to us and asked where we were trying to go. And he didn't work for the public transport or anything. He was a genuinely nice guy. And he wasn't the only one we came across.
Our hostel was a nice like place. There was snow all over London and I felt like I was in a winter wonderland. As we were laying in our beds, ready to sleep, we could hear people with British accents out in the "corridor." :) I told everyone I felt like I was at Hogwarts!!
Saturday morning we decided to get on a hop-on hop-off tour bus to see the city. The first two tour guides were great and made lots of jokes. Our first guides name was Nobby (pronounced Naw-be). Ummm....Dobby from Harry Potter? Yes! The third guide was an old man who was a complete jerk. He called this one person stupid for standing on the bus while it was moving.
Anyways, we saw Belgrave Square. It is an area with very expensive apartments, all look identical. We were told that a small apartment in this area would cost 10-15 million pounds. I don't even want to know what that would be in U.S. dollars.
We drove past an area that has a nice restaurant for some tea. Nobby, the tour guide, said he was going to get some tea and a fag on his break. Fag being a cigarette. But he corrected himself and said that he wasn't allowed to say things like that because of culture differences. lol.
There was a protest going on for climate change in London. We drove pass a line of about 20 large coach buses. Our 2nd guide, Aden, said, "It's kinda ironic that they are protesting climate change but took these huge buses all the way here." Got to love the British!!
Some interesting facts I learned. There are so many tress in London, that it is actually considered a forest. The most popular tree in the Plain Tree. These were planted to absorb the pollution. We saw Baker's Street, which is where the fictional character, Sherlock Holmes lived. At 221 Baker's Street to be exact. People write letters to this address still. Even if Sherlock Holmes was a real person, he would be dead by now!
There is telecommunication tower jutting out of the middle of London. It used to be the tallest building in London. This tower was not put onto maps until the 1980s because it was considered a top secret loction. Aden, the tour guide, said "So...Don't tell anyone!"
There was a large group outside of a store called TopShop. This group was protesting. Aden said, "Perhaps they didn't like the winter collection."
The first place we got off of the bus at was Hamley's. This is a toy store. It is basically a Toys R' Us on steriods. There are seven floors of toys!! I bought my first candycane of the season here. :)
For lunch we had Pizza Hut. I had been looking forward to this for a long time. I realize pizza is all over Rome, but Italian pizza is all thin crust cardboard. At Pizza Hut, I got some yummy thick crust. I am embarassed to admit...but I literally at 1/2 of the pizza.
Next we say the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the Abbey. These are all amazing to see. We couldn't go inside the Abbey because we didn't make it early enough. Things were already closing, which was really unfortunate.
We headed to the London Eye. The line moved really fast and we were on the ferris wheel in no time. It was an amazing view. It takes 40 minutes to make one rotation around the ferris wheel. I just wish the weather was nicer, that way we could have gotten some better photographs. Our tour guide told us that people have been married on the London Eye. And apparently there were inquiries about having a wedding reception on it as well. This is not allowed. Why? Because drinking is involved at receptions. And there is no bathroom, and it takes 40 mins to get in and out of the ferris wheel.
Next we saw the London Bridge and London Tower. It was getting late already, so we never got off of the bus to explore. We still had much to see and very little time to do it. Our last stop was Buckingham Palace. I was heartbroken to find out that there were no gaurds outside. Apparently they don't protect the palace when it gets dark out. :(
We really missed out on a lot of things and I definitely want the opportunity to go back sometime. We didn't make it to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross (Harry Potter). But we did play in a red phone booth. There was a down button, so we attempted to get down to the Ministry of Magic, but we had no luck.
Tynisha needed her Hard Rock Cafe pin, so we walked from Buckingham Palace all the way to Hard Rock. It took her about 20 minutes to get her pin. Then we had to back track and walk even further to get to Victoria Station (train station). From here we hoped the train to Tower Hill.
This was the place we were to meet for our Jack the Ripper Tour. We got there a little early so we went into a pub for a quick drink. The tour was okay. Definitely not what I tought it was going to be. It was very informational but it wasn't at all scary. There was a lot of walking and it was raining out.
Our tour ended in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea where we were. Tim lead the way to what we thought was going to be the pub we had our drinks at. We were planning on having dinner there. Tim kept looking at a map, too stubborn to ask someone for directions. So I turned around and found someone to ask, which made things much easier.
When we got to the pub, it was nearly 10pm and their kitchen was closed. The train station at Tower Hill was also closed, meaning we would have to walk a distance to find another train station. I said, "I don't care what ya'll do, but I am taking a taxis." So I waved down a taxis and hoped in. Apparently my statement meant, we are all taking a taxi and Casey is paying for it. So 15 pounds later....
We ended up at Victoria Station, hoped the train to West Kensington (where our hostel was). Tim and I stopped at a place for some kebabs and fries. Bliss and Tynisha got some fish and chips.
Our plane left at 12:20pm on Sunday. We left the hostel at 9:30pm. This was my first time going through security that I did not beep, therefore I did not get padded down. I felt really proud of myself.
All and all....London was great. I didn't get to experience half of the things that I would have liked to, but with about 24 hours in a huge city like that, I couldn't expect much. The people were very friendly and I haven't laughed that much for a long time. Now I have a little over a week until my time abroad is over. And I am very ready to come home.
