What an Adventure

If you guys didn't know, I went to London this weekend and I have lots to tell you. I will just do a run down of each day so I wont forget anything!

Friday: Off to London we went at 6:30am as we had a coach bus pick us up because they didn't want us trying to all ride the city bus in the morning with all of our stuff and than they could make sure everyone was there with taking a coach bus. We got to Waverly Train Station which is in the heart of Edinburgh and we got on our train and it left at 7:30am and we were on our way to London! The train ride was very nice and a lot to see along the way but didn't really know what much was or where we were since I have never been down that way. We got into King's Cross Train Station about noon and than thats where the fun begin! We hoped on the tube which is an underground rail station and rode it to Russel Square where our Hostal was. We stayed at the Generator which was actually really big and a lot of people were there! We couldn't check into our rooms yet so we dropped our stuff at the luggage holding room and went into the streets of London. Me, Britta, Tyler, and Aarynn went with Patty and her partner Nat to a both called TKTS, which is a ticket both for shows that you can get a really good deal for. We wanted to see STOMP so we asked the guy for the ticket price and he said we could get them for 28.00 pounds but if we went to the theatre where they were showing the show we could get a student discount. So what did we do, we whipped out our map and went to the theatre. We arrived at the theatre and a gentlemen was there and I asked him about tickets for that nights show. He said we could come back about a hour before the show and get cheaper tickets but he didn't know how many would be available. But he said that the front row might be available and they were only 20.00 pounds because you had to sort of look up and couldn't really see the back of the stage but we could sit front row so we took the first four seats! We than travelled down to the National Gallery which is right in Trafalger Square. We went inside and looked around a bit but that isn't my sort of thing and either for Britta so we only took a quick look around and than went outside into Trafalger Square. They have to fountain ponds with fountains and than little like dolphin founatins squirting out water. Also they have a really tall statue of some guy but don't know who it is. Than they have a coutdown till the Olympics which is kind of cool. I can't believe it's almost my time to represent the USA in London. Than we got out the map again and travelled up to Piccadilly Circus which looks like a mini Time Square. They have the big light up billboards and it was pretty cool during the day but we would go back at night later. We ended up eating at The Brewmaster and got mini burgers and chips (frensh fries). They were so good and we defiently all ate them fast because we were starving. We had time to kill till the show so we wandered up and down roads just looking at all the different stores and shops they had which was kind of fun but realized they have a lot of the same things as we do. We went to the theatre and got to our seats and waited for the show to start. It started at 8:00pm and they went for 100 straight minutes with no breaks. There were six guys and two girls. Ofcourse they made fun of the two white guys that were in it but they were the two funniest guys. They did some unbelieveable things and they are very talented people. I am still amazed at some of the things they did and would defiently go back and see it again! We decided to just walk back to our hostal after using our handy map! Ofcourse, me with no patients took the lead this weekend with the map. So I can defiently find my way around London because I read and lead the whole weekend!! I know everyone would be proud of me!

Saturday: We started the day by going on a three walking tour through London. We went to all the main places in London with our tour guide telling us about them along the way. We went to mostly alll the places he had showed us but just learned a lot about them during the tour and it was free so it was defiently worth it! After that was over Britta and I made our way down the to Tower Bridge. We were so excited to go see it until it started to rain and that changed our moods for the rest of the day. The walk from the Houses of Parliament to the Tower Bridge was probably a half hour walk and it was in the rain. It wasn't raining to hard so it was an okay walk. Once we made it there we were defiently happy and glad to finally be there. It was the biggest and highest bridge I have ever seen. We were going to walk across the whole thing until we got about a fourth way across and realized the rain was coming straight at us  and we turned around right away. I can still say I walked onto the Tower Bridge. We got to the Tower Hill tube line to realize they closed it down because they were doing repairs or something. So now we didnt know what we were going to do and we had to get back to the hostal because we had to get ready for Wicked. We got on a bus and it took us about half way back and than we had to walk the rest! We stopped to get out of the rain for a bit. We stopped and had dinner at Pizza Express. Britta and I shared a pizza and it was actually pretty good and filled us up. We made it back to the hostal, changed and got ready and left for the show. We rode the tube down to Green Park, which is by the theatre we had to go to. We got there a little early so we took a pit stop and Millie's Cookies and had some. The cookies were so delicious, I wish I would of gotten some more, maybe next time I am there! We went into the theatre and found our seats. We had gotten our tickets before we had left and we got there and realized that we were on opposite sides of the theatre from eachother. We both sat by other people from the program so we got to talk to some other people. The show started at 7:30pm and went for about a hour and a half and than had a fifteen minute break and finished with another hour and a half. Wicked was a very good show, with very good singer and preformers but it just wasn't my kind of show. But a very good show and very interesting. We took the tube back because it was so much faster than walking and it was already around 11pm and everyone was tired.

Sunday:Last full day in London and we made the most of it! We went to Buckingham Palace because they had the changing of the guards at 11:30am. We got there about 10:15 and there were a lot of people already there and more coming quickly! By 11:30am the roads and sidewalks were packed and there wasn't too much room to move! We started watching it but half way through we were all kind of sick of watching it and we wanted to get the rest of our day going so we moved on. Since I didn't get to go to the Chelsea football game on Saturday, I made sure I got to atleast tour the stadium, so we made our way to the stadium. It is on the far end of town and we decided to walk there to see everything along the way. It took us 45 minutes from Buckingham Palace to Stamford Bridge and we were doing moms walking pace, so we were flying!! Mom we are ready for we to get here, we got our walking pace up to maximum. We got to the stadium tour and muesum two minutes before the 1:00pm tour left so the guy let us on that tour! We got a student discount so it only costed us 13 pounds instead of 18 pounds! Any deal can help us over here. I love European football tours because they bring you everywhere! We sat in all four sides of the stadium, saw the press room, the away locker room, the home locker room, the tunnel they walk down, where the player and manager sit for the games and ended in the megastore and I mean MEGA! The store was two floors of all Chelsea apperal and everything and anything. I was defiently in heaven! Than we went and walked around the muesum and learned the history and saw all the trophies which was probably the coolest part of the place. After we finished we made our way back to the main part of London. We stopped in Harrods which is one of the largest department stores in the world! It is four floors and is huge. Defiently biggere than the palace I am living in now!! Anyone can get lost in there. They have store guides, it is so big and confusing to get around in. We wanted to eat at Hard Rock Cafe London, so we went there. It is defiently smaller than I expected and there is defiently a long wait if you go later in the night. But we sat at like the bar area so we got in right away. We both were very hungery, so britta got mac and cheese with grilled chicken and I got a burger that I couldn't even fit in my mouth and you know it must of been big, becuase I have a big mouth! Up the road a little ways was two streets of the expensive stores I like to call it. It had Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vatton, Rolex, Apple, and many more. Ofcourse we went in Apple because it was the only store I felt I could go into. and it is the biggest Apple store I could ever think of. Ofcourse it was two floors and so much stuff it took forever to look at all of it and it was very packed!! We decided to head back to the hostal because we had walked everywhere that day. We got back to the hostal and saw, Lael, Eryn, Hannah, and Katyln and they wanted us to go to a pub with them since it was only like 8pm. So we went to a place called the Rocket and played cards and hungout, and there was a football game on so I watched that mostly! Than after it was over we went back to the hostal. Britta and I think we walked about a total of 15 miles today!! We didn't use any transportation except our feet the whole day! We were defiently tired and both slept really good that night!!

Monday: Well it was the last day in London and we only had one more thing to do and that was go up in the London Eye. We walked ofcourse to the London Eye and bought our tickets right away and got in line. We got there at 10:15am and they opened at 10am so the line wasn't too bad. We waited about 10 minutes and it was our turn. they put about 10 people in each cart thing and it takes 30 minutes to go around so we get to take lots of pictures and see everything. I didn't really like it because I didn't really like the heights and being in like a glass case cart wasn't the best idea for me but it was defiently worth doing it to see all of London. I never would of thought I would be above Big Ben but I was and it was pretty cool. After we got off we made one more stop at M & M world. It was four floors and I had never seen so many M & M's and so many different things that are M & M's. We made our way back to our hostal to get our bags and get on the tube to go to Kings Cross Train Station to go home. Our train left at 3pm and our four hour train ride home started. It felt like a lot longer because I just wanted to get off the train. Once we got back into Edinburgh we had to find our way home so ofcourse we took the bus back. Everyone is so tired so nothing is going on here tonight!

P.S. Mom got your package today, and it is wonderful so thank you!!!

P.S.S. We got our Celtic Tickets today and I AM VERY EXICTED AND THE GAME IS THIS SATURDAY AND I CANNOT WAIT TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope everything is good in good ol' Minnesota

Miss and love everyone back home!! Almost March 17th!