London

Sorry for no updates in a while again. We got an essay assignment over this past week and I also had Marcia visit me so I’ve been a little bogged down. Here’s my summary of my time in London.

London was a lot of fun.  We left on Thursday night October 1 and came back October 4.  We arrived in London Gatwick airport and took a 45 minute train to the London Bridge station.  We thought we could walk to our hotel, but quickly realized we had no idea where we were and took a taxi.  We checked into our hotel in the South Lambeth area of London.  For dinner we decided to have a small quick meal and ended up going to a place called Millenium chicken.  That night we planned what we would do during Friday day to make the most of the day and headed to bed.  We woke up early and walked about a half hour to Victoria station.  There we bought tickets for the Big Bus company hop-on/hop-off tour and purchased tickets to the London Eye, Tower of London, and Tower Bridge exhibits.  We took the bus around London for a bit, past Hyde Park and the Marble Arch, down Regent Street, and to Picadilly Circus and Trafalfar Square.  We got off near Buckingham Palace and got to see the changing of the guard.  I didn’t realize there was a whole procession involved as well.  It was pretty incredible to watch.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see what happened inside the gates but it was still very cool.  From there we walked towards the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.  We got some great pictures there and headed off to the London Eye.  The Eye itself wasn’t as cool as I thought (just a big ferris wheel really) although it did give a pretty good view of the city.  I’m glad I did it once but I probably wouldn’t do it again.  After the Eye, we grabbed a bite to eat then caught  the bus again to the Tower of London.  We walked all through the site (which isn’t actually much of a tower) and got to see some great exhibits.  At the time, they had a collection of Henry VIII’s possessions.  Very cool to see as he is arguably the most famous English king.  We also got to see the crown jewels which were gorgeous – so ornate and detailed.  After the Tower, we met up with a friend Julian and headed to the Tower Bridge which happed to be closed.  We headed back to our hotel at around 5:30 to relax, get ready for dinner, and drop Julian’s stuff off.  We went back out at around 7 to a place called the Texas Embassy for dinner.  My friend Bill had it recommended to him by his sister.  We all got margheritas and some Mexican food.  I had a burrito which was very good.  After dinner we went on a search for the Absolut Ice Bar.  We finally found it after about a half hour search and bought tickets for the 11 oclock session.  At the time it was about 9:15 so we decided to head to another pub in the mean time.  We had a bit of trouble finding a low key one (it wasn’t like Galway where there’s a pub every 5 steps) but eventually settled on a place called the Three Crowns.  It wasn’t much but we were just passing time.  At 10:50 we headed over to the Ice Bar to get the most of our time (due to the fact that the ice melts, you only get 45 minutes inside).  This was very cool (no pun intended).  The 4 of us enjoyed a free Absolut drink and had a good time hanging around. Here’s a picture (http://www.belowzerolondon.com/website/details.php?gid=553&sgid=&pid=21849).  We were all very tired after and decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel.  On Saturday we woke up early again and decided to get a full day Underground pass (worth it).  We headed back to Westminster for Julian and decided to go in this time (feeling guilty we had spent 16 pounds on the Ice Bar and not Westminster).  It was definitely one of the most incredible buildings I’ve ever been inside.  So many famous people were buried inside, and it’s so historically significant.  I’m glad we decided to go in. After we went to the Tower Bridge to go inside to the top and see the exhibit.  This is the famous bridge across the River Thames that gets confused often with the London Bridge.  The exhibit showed how the bridge was built and works as well as its significance throughout history.  There was also a small section about other famous bridges throughout the world.  From there we took the Underground back to Trafalgar Square to try and meet up for a Beatles tour. Unfortunately we were too late, but we decided to take another Underground to the northside of London.  We then went on a search for Abbey Road and the famous Abbey Road Studios.  We got a pretty funny photo of us crossing Abbey Road Beatles style, which was definitely difficult when you don’t have a camera crew shutting down the road.  After that we went back to our hotel and ate a quick dinner before going out again.  We were planning on meeting up with one of my friends Marisa who is studying in London but ended up not being able to.  Instead we went to a pub stayed there for the night.  We had a good time and went back to the hotel to get some sleep before our flight on Sunday.  The next day we went souvenir shopping while Julian took in some sights he missed during Friday.  We caught a train to Gatwick at around 12 to end the weekend.  Overall it was definitely one of the best weekends I’ve had since I’ve been here.  Hopefully I get back sometime in my life.