Paying the Price

Well last weekend was our trip to London... and needless to say IT WAS AMAZING!!  We had a fantastic time!

We arrived on Thursday night to the Royal National Hotel, changed clothes and freshened up and headed to a club in Piccadilly Circus! We had a blast, ran into some other Harlaxton friends, and ended up walking a couple miles home because the tube was shut down for the night when we left!

Friday we set our alarms pretty early (for us anyways) and set out on foot to see London.  Our first stop was the British Museum, where we saw the Rosetta Stone and lots of other Greek and Egyptian statues, tombs, etc.  Then we continued walking until we hit Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and Whitehall Street.  There we saw the beginning of the Horse Parade to changing of the guard, got to pet the horses, and crossed the street into St. James Park.  The park is absolutely gorgeous, so we spent some time walking around and enjoying the scenery.  We met a man who calls over the squirrels and feeds them nuts out of his hand! It was crazy! We asked him if he'd ever had one go crazy on him and he said that one crawled into his pocket once!! After strolling through the park, we headed towards Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Supreme Court.  These were some of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen! We didn't take a tour of Westminster Abbey like I wanted to, but I plan to go back and do that when my family comes over! Next we headed down the street to a little cafe where we bought sandwiches and had a picnic in St. James Park. After eating (and feeding the pigeons), we headed to Buckingham Palace, which was just at the end of the park.  We stopped for a few pictures, and made a wish and threw a coin into the fountain. Then headed towards the river.  Here we saw the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben again, and crossed the river, walking by street vendors galore!  Then we headed down to the river walk where we ran into Bob, who we had met earlier in the day.  He checked up on us to see how we were doing and if we made it everywhere we wanted to! His wife gave us some shopping tips for the next day, and we decided to call it a day and head home on the tube.  After getting back to the hotel, we went right back out and went for dinner.  We ate at an Italian Restaurant in SoHo called Bella Italia. It was absolutely delicious! Then we headed back to the hotel, changed clothes and went to a pub called Knights Templar. It was beautiful.  We had a great night, ended up walking back to the hotel (again) and slept in the next morning.

We got going pretty late on Saturday, and decided to head straight to the Tower of London.  We got on the tube, and in the middle of changing tubes at a station, found out where we needed to go was closed. MAJOR DETOUR. We asked a worker what the best thing to do was and he said that they were running a replacement bus service that would take us right there. So we crossed the street to the bus station, grabbed a bite to eat at a great place called Pret, and waited for the bus.  As we were waiting, we heard some chanting and shouting from across the street and went to check it out.  There were police all around, so we asked what was going on.  Evidently this was the start of a protest led by the English Defense League that would be going through town to the East London Mosque.  I had never seen any thing like that before, so it was kind of neat.  When the next bus came around, we hopped on and asked the driver if he was headed to Tower Hill. He said no. :( so we hopped right back off. We decided to ask the director at the bus stop what bus we needed to get on. He ended up talking to the driver and said that this bus would take us where we needed to go. So back on we went.  We got to sit on the top of the double decker bus and see the city as we went.  Pretty soon, we stopped at a bus stop that said "Rail replacement service ends here", so we had to get off.  Unfortunately, we were NO WHERE near the Tower of London.  We ended up in far east London, where much of the Islamic community lives. We started heading back the other way on foot and ran into the East London Mosque, where hundreds of people were gathered to protest their side.  It was a little scary, being in an unfamiliar city inside a mob of people and trying to get through.  We clearly stood out as foreigners, but we had two of our good guy friends with us and they made sure we all made it through safe.  There were hundreds of police there and the people probably went on for a mile.  We actually saw a man get arrested as we walked by.  It was truly an eye opening experience, especially to see both sides of the protest.  I am so thankful we made it through okay, but I'm also thankful that we had to go through it.  I think it gave all of us a lot to think about and it was definitely an experience I will never forget.  I can't imagine the people that have to live with that every day.  After that whole ordeal, we finally made it to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge! After looking around a while, we decided to continue our day with shopping!! We headed to Harrods. My dream (:  We didn't spend a whole lot of time since clearly we can not afford to shop there, but it was amazing. And huge.  I looked at a simple black maxi dress, and it cost over 3000 pounds!!!! Insane! After heading to a few other shops in the area, we went on to Oxford St.  There we pretty much stopped at H&M and then headed home.  I picked out a few dresses and got pretty good deals on them!! After we headed back to the hotel and changed for the evening, Natalie and I met her boyfriend (who is studying abroad at the University of Notre Dame - London) and headed to the American Sports Bar to watch the Notre Dame football game! I was in heaven... football, quesadillas, and molten chocolate cake!!!!!!! It was delicious!  Unfortunately, the bar wasn't able to stream the football game like they orginally thought, so we went on down the street to a pub called Chandos on Trafalgar Square.  When I think of a typical British pub, this is what I think of.  It was great.  It is part of a line of pubs on that street that they call "Samuel Smith" pubs.  They each have their own home brew for 2 pounds.  I tried one called Samuel Smith's Taddy Lager, and it was good!! We had a fun night hanging out with Jack and Ben, and headed back to the hotel to get a good nights rest after the pub closed.  As we were heading into the hotel with our Ben & Jerry's ice cream, we ran into a couple Australians and talked to them for a while.  They are traveling around Europe and had stopped in London for the weekend.  I was getting a kick out of them because they thought I had a strong accent!! Brennan told me that he couldn't understand me some of the time!! Which I think is hilarious!! Anyways, a great way to end our last night in London.

On Sunday, the school took us to Hampton Court Palace before we headed home.  It was a typical breezy, rainy English day, so we toured inside for a while, then grabbed a bite to eat.  We asked one of the guards where a good place to eat in the area was and he sent us to King's Arms Pub.  I wasn't sure what to get so I asked our bartender.  He ordered my a typical English Sunday dinner... roasted lamb, with roasted potatoes and vegetables, and a traditional English ale.  It was delicious.  I loved getting to eat the local food and really experience the culture.  Our next stop was Runnymede, the place where the Magna Carta was signed.  This was more a stop because this is what we had been studying in British Studies at that time.  If you ask me, it was a poor excuse to drag tired college students through a field in the rain to see a gazebo built by the American BAR Association.  I would've rather stayed warm and dry on the bus. (: But, overall we had a FANTASTIC weekend (as you can probably tell by my rambling on and on about it here).

Now that was almost a week ago, and a lot has come from that weekend.  I am definitely paying the price for our busy weekend. I have a sinus infection and have not felt well the last two days, particularly yesterday.  A lot of things have gone on back at Baker this week and at home, and I'm getting a little homesick.  I'm jealous of all of you that are there.  Now don't get me wrong, I am having an amazing time here and I love it.  Its just starting to get to me that I'm not going to be home for a while.

To end on a happy note, I get to have an easy weekend this weekend! I have nothing planned (besides homework).  I'm hoping to maybe take a day trip somewhere on Saturday, but I'm not sure yet!  My next exciting thing: I meet my Meet-A-Family next Wednesday! I'm so excited.  Marcus and Maureen Pettmann are letting me and one other student be a part of their family for the semester.  I cannot wait to meet them and make plans with them!

Until next time, have a great one!