Trying to Catch Up.. London

London with Matt and Jen Feb 28th to March 2nd

On Saturday, I went to pick up Jen at the airport, bright and early. She lost her luggage so I ended up waiting around for quite a while, and then we went off to breakfast. We then walked to my apartment to get my staff to travel, and headed back to the airport to go to London.
Of course, our plane was delayed and we were both exhausted, but it was so nice to have her there. The flight before ours was cancelled and therefore, the two flights were combined, so it was a mad rush to get on the plane, since there were no longer assigned seats. The flight was fine. We met Matt at the airport, after going through customs, which was pretty much an interrogation. It was so nice to be with such good friends in a country that actually spoke English.

We didn’t really have any trouble finding out hostel, other than the fact that it was pretty far from the airport. We stayed in Shepard Bush and our hostel was attached to a bar, which was just recently redone, so it was really nice. We stayed in a room for four, and the first night, the other woman in the room didn’t even sleep there, so it was pretty enjoyable. The first night, since it started so late, we decided to just stay in the immediate area. We went to the mall that was right by our hostel so that Jen could get some clothes and essentials, since she didn’t have anything with her. We were going to eat at the bar, but the kitchen had closed by the time we got down there. We decided to just walk around. We immediately ruled out Spanish or Italian, so we ended up at a Moroccan restaurant. The food was amazing, or as Jen would call it, a “food bliss”. By the time we were done, we decided to go to bed so that we could get an early start the next day.

On Sunday morning, we decided to get up at 7:00ish so that we could shower, eat breakfast and take the tube for the half an hour it takes to get the center of London. Matt woke us up at 6 because he turned his watch the wrong way when trying to account for the time difference, so we pretty much hit snooze about 30 times before we actually got up. Breakfast was included and I realized just how much American coffee tastes like water, since I’m so used to drinking Café con Leche. Afterwards, we headed into central London. We decided to take the tour bus so that we could see everything. It was a great idea. Since we spoke English, we were able to take the live tour and it was really interesting. We got off the bus at the tower of London and took that tour too. The tour was awesome. The tour guide was really funny and informative, and we got to see and learn a lot. After the tour we saw the crown jewels too. After that, we got back on the tour bus and went for lunch. We had fish and chips, while I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do about my money situation (my ATM card wasn’t working). I ended up borrowing money from Jen and then paying her back later. I think we pretty much saw everything work seeing and walked around a bit. I was kind of disappointed by Buckingham Palace though. I just pictured something completely different.

That night, we had decided to go out. That is, until we realized it was Sunday and everything closes early. We went out and had Tai food at a buffet really close by. Then we had cider at the bar, which is my new favorite beer-like drink. It’s like alcoholic apple juice. Matt made friends with our roommate because she was really into history and politics and me and Jen disappeared to have girl talk.

On Monday, since we didn’t have as much time, we decided to wander a bit and see the Churchhill museum, because Matt really wanted to. I insisted on the audio guide so that I wouldn’t get too bored, and ended up really liking it. We then took tons of pictures of random stuff and headed back to the airport, because Matt’s really anal about time. We were really early but we had tea, which I really wanted to do in London and shopped a little. I also had a bagel, which was actually a really highlight. Our flight was late, but it was nice to be with Jen.