So much has happened in only a week's time! On Saturday morning, my friend Morgan and I took a coach (long-distance bus) alllll the way from Chester to London!!!! We finally arrived at Victoria Coach station and went in search of our hostel on Belgravia St. We didn't get too turned around and found it not long after! It ended up being a really great hostel...very community-style and homey. It's called the Victoria Astor Hostel, and I'd definitely stay there again the next time I'm in London...
So what did I do while in London? Let's see...we took a hop-on, hop-off bus tour around the city. I saw hide park and listened to some people at Speaker's Corner :) They were fun to listen to! I went to Trafalgar Square and saw the impressive Nelson's Column and the National Gallery full to the brim with amazing works of art. That's when I saw my first sighting of Big Ben!! We walked and road a bus down to Westminster Square and saw parliament for the first time along with the HUGE and famous clock tower. We saw the outside of westminster abby for the first time as we ate a lunch of sandwiches with some pigeons with pouty faces (I'm pretty sure they just wanted our food...) We decided we were definitely coming back to see the inside of westminster abby. We then hopped back on a bus and road on the top of the double-decker across the Thames, seeing Tower Bridge and the Tower of London for the first time. We learned that one of the previous london bridges is now in Arizona...ok? Our tour guide on the bus was hilarious and definitely had his awesome "British humour" flowing. Notice the spelling? For dinner we bought some frozen pizza and made it back in our wonderful hostel's oven...yum! It was Valentine's day...so what better way to celebrate than in the hostel's lounge watching Never Been Kissed?! A great way to relax after a VERY BUSY day!
The second day in London Tricia, Morgan, and I saw more of Hyde Park and the western part of London. We got off our bus tour in Nottingham (!) and took the tube in order to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace! We admired all the guards and their pagentry, and were scared to think how busy it must be in summer!! We also ate at Jenny Lo's Teahouse for lunch (yummm). Then we went to the British Library (where I saw manuscripts handwritten by Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and Leonardo da Vinci. I also saw the Magna Carta!! After the library we went to the fabulous British Museum...da da daaaa!! We were super tired after admiring thousands of years of history that we took the tube back to Victoria Station and grabbed some kebabs and chips (french fries) to take away before collapsing in our hostel :)
The third day dawned behind clouds and a perservering drizzle...but we perservered as well. In the morning we went to the Tower of London and after we heard about all the blood and guts and decapitated heads, we admired the very glittery crown jewels. I was mostly impressed with the vault doors and security...considering that the rooms that house the jewels are some of the most secure rooms in England. After spending the entire morning at the tower (and coming out alive) sarah, morgan, and I were up for a quick lunch before taking the tube over to Westminster Abby. I was super excited because the abby was one of the main things I wanted to see! Westminster Abby is absolutely beautiful, and while I was there I had a goal to find two specific people: William Pitt and William Wilberforce. I found William Pitt almost immediately, but couldn't figure out where Wilberforce was, even though I knew he was supposed to be buried nearby. After about an hour and a half of walking through the abby admiring all the other things to see, I finally went up to one of the cute old men working in the abby and asked him if he knew where Wilberforce was. He was very nice and told me where he was buried and also where there was a statue of him in another part of the abby. He seemed to be proud that I knew who Wilberforce was and let me go throught he barriers so I could find his grave faster (I love cute old English men). It turns out that I was actually standing on top of Wilberforce when I couldn't find him! Literally, if I had look below my feet I would have seen his plaque...wow...I'm a horrible detective. Haha, after we left we went in search of a place to get tea and scones. With a little help from a lady selling jewlery at the station, we found a cute shop and had delicious tea and scones (yumm). I felt very lady-like, except I couldn't figure out how to hold my pinkie finger out properly :(
On our last day in London, we went back to the British Museum to take in some more of the artifacts, and then for lunch morgan and I had gigantic hot dogs from a street vendor on our way back to our hostel. The next thing on our agenda was to catch the bus to London Stansted, where our plane was waiting to take us to IRELAND!!
Sorry if this is a little long-winded or boring...there's just so much to say. I'll give the Ireland story in my next post :)
Melissa
p.s. sorry for all the pictures. I figured if you get bored you can skip over what you're not interested in, but my mom wants to see them all and she gets priority :)
