London bridge is falling down...

Actually it's not, I haven't gained that much weight. So November has been my month of travel, in accordance, I went to London, England this past weekend. It was loads of fun, Molly, Des and I had a good time being confused with the underground system, being able to only get take away the first night and then never knowing where to go to do things. Oh, traveling is wonderful. Here is the account of my travels to London:

Thursday:
This week we left early to maximize our time in England. We left around 4pm about half an hour after I packed. I barely remembered to bring underwear and socks, and definitly forgot to bring pajama bottoms (how embarassing!). The flight was good, uneventful, which is saying a lot for Ryanair. We had to take a train to get into London and then took the Underground (mind the gap!) to get nearer our hostel. After we dropped our stuff off we went out in search of food at about 11pm. Turns out that's closing time for like... every restaurant in that area of London. So after trying in vain to find a dine-in place we brought take-away Chinese food back to the hostel.

The hostel was fun in the way that I've become a better person for staying there. Here's a picture of our room:

Molly getting ready for our first day out.

Looks nice right? Well, in most aspects it was very nice. Except that the shower is just a stall at the end of the bunk on the right. No surrounding bathroom, or even space to get undressed. So we had to turn our heads whenever someone wanted to shower. Then we had to walk down the hall and down some stairs to get to a bathroom, which isn't a problem. Except there was only one toilet without a sink, which meant that we had to walk back to our room to wash our hands. It was just very strange. Especially because I had to get fully dressed every morning before peeing because I had no real pajama bottoms. Well, only two mornings, because the third I was tired of it and just walked to the toilet in my (new union jack!) underwear. Enough about the hostel.

Friday:
It was quite a rainy day Friday so we decided to spend it shopping, and what better place to shop than the biggest department store in Britain? Harrods! But first we had to find out how to get there. Thankfully some nice English lady noticed we were lost and gave us directions to the store. That was the start of our realization that the English give poor directions. What was suppposed to take 20 minutes took about twice that and we had to ask two more people for directions. But we had a nice stroll through Hyde Park!

Molly and I hanging out at Hyde Park.

This picture is funny because Des is Canadian and so are the geese. They got along well.

We had to walk down this road. I puked a little because of it.

Harrods! It's the brownish building with all the flags and takes up and entire block!

After shopping for a long while we went back to our part of town and I got my hair cut at Aveda. What an experience! I got a sweet back massage and tea. Their shampoo and everything smell really good, so it was a cool experience. Though I'm not sure how much I like the swoopy bangs, the rest of my hair is nice and I'm glad I got it done.

Not sure if I like my new hair cut. Swoopy bangs don't really work on me.

Later that night Des, Molly and I went out around Picadilly Circus and found a place to go watch a movie. It was a low key night due to the unfriendlyness of the rain. There were three movies playing at the theater, Saw 3, Borat and Scenes of a Sexual Nature. Of course we saw the last one. A very strange and very Brittish movie. It's like the anti-Love Actually. After that we were tuckered out and went back to the hostel for some good sleep.

Des and Molly hanging out after the rain.

Saturday:
This day was meant to be our tourist day. Being that, we took a bus tour around London and also went on the London Eye which is a big ferris wheel-like thing. Everyone gets into these big pods that fit like 15 people and you slowly go around. It takes about a half hour so you sort of get your 13pound money's worth. The line was ridiculous though, so Des and I went out in search of tea and cheesy chips to keep us warm in queue. We got three orders of cheesy chips for the three of us, which was actually a bit much. But we ate all of them! The people in line were jealous of our ingenious idea. I could tell.

The London Eye from the view of in line. Notice the little crown on the lamppost. That signifies that this area is under the crown for something. I'm not really sure what the area is called but it means that all the money-making places in this area have to give a cut of profits to the queen.

Molly and I waiting in line to get tickets to wait in another line.

The view from the eye! Also the only real picture that came out.

After the Eye we went and got tickets to a show for that night because apperantly London has a lot of theaters. Strangely enough we saw a show all about Motown and the songs that came from there. But it was really good and totally worth it to see old Brittish ladies dancing along to the music. After the show we wandered around the area and I think went to Soho, which is a bit sketchy. We discovered that people in London dress to the nines when they go out, and we weren't dressed as such. So it made it difficult to choose a place to go for a drink. When we did find just a regular pub there was a 3pound cover! Who charges to get into a pub? So then we just went back to the hostel for a quiet night.

The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower at night.

The London Eye at night. So pretty!

Sunday:
We started this day off with a traditional English breakfast which consisted of bacon, sausages, baked beans, grilled tomato, toast, eggs and tea. It was... ok. I'm not a real big fan of the sausages, beans for breakfast or sunny side up eggs. But, I'm glad I tried it. We then went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the gaurds, and had some fun along the way. We got there about an hour early and the place was already teeming with people. When it finally got to be time to change the gaurds there were tons of people around. Really quite amazing. My favorite thing about it was the little boy behind me who said that the soldier was carrying a floppy sword. Brittish accents on children always crack me up. The changing of the guards is an interesting affair, and the soldiers look a bit ridiculous with their tall fuzzy hats, stomping around and yelling. Buckingham palace was really pretty, quite large. I accidentally called it a castle and someone corrected me. So don't make that mistake when you go to London.

I just think this is a pretty picture. This is a war memorial because the English fight a lot of wars. The red wreaths are to commemorate those who died fighting.

This is the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walkway. Quite pretty. There's a nice sandy path for horses to walk on the right.

Molly and I demonstrating how the sandy pathway is to be used.

Buckingham Palace! It has quite the gate.

Queen Victoria fountain with riders in red. We weren't sure what their purpose was, but they looked nice.

Changing of the guards with ridiculous hats.

After the guards changed we got our stuff and went to the airport to go home. All in all I had a good time in London. It was really cool to see the sights that are so famous. But I didn't really like London as a city. Everywhere was so busy and just jammed with people. It was a bit too big for my taste. I'd be interested in seeing what other parts of England are like. In the end, I was just really happy to get back to Dublin and the Euro. Sterling is really tough to deal with since everything looks cheap, but really isn't. I've learned that I never want to drive in London, they view the lines on the streets as just decorations. No one drives in the lines and they're all crazy. So that was my experience in London!