hi there everyone. i woulda posted yesterday but i was so stressed out that i wasnt really capable of funtioning normal. it was a nightmare of a day really. first there were some crazy old southern ladies on the flight over to london and they kept bothering me. the seat next to me (between me and one of the old ladies) was empty so i flipped up the arm rest and laid down. apparently she didnt like it because she spent the rest of the time elbowing me in the head. yay for mean old ladies. i did however have a really nice girl named nicole sitting on the other side of me so we made friends and got through all the mess at the airport together until her friend came to get her.
then after all the immigration thing where i got grilled on the purpose of my trip and then over kate i bought my pass for the train into town. but apparently i didnt get the pass for the express but i got on the express anyways so the conductor was like "youre on the wrong train" luckily for me he didnt make me pay any extra or get off or anything. he just told me to make sure i took the right train coming back.
so then i got off at victoria station and then got lost in the station for about a good 45 mins or so. but i did successfully by my 7 day travel card which was worth the investment seeing as how many times i have been lost and used the public transportation. so when i could finally get some straight directions from teh wonderful people who work in the british transportation authorities i found my tube and got to my stop successfully. the neighborhood is kinda shady but it will be fine because tonight is my last night there.
so then off to kates apartment. i was supposed to call before i went but i seem to have forgotten teh address that has her phone number on it. along with some other info that i wanted. yay for me forgetting things. but i managed to get to her place without getting lost multiple times. just one wrong turn out of the tube station but i stopped for directions before i went to far and got coffected. no one answered at her flat but one of her room mates happened to be going in at the same time i arrived to she let me in. kate wasnt at her flat but i found her at chris's. we ended up walking along oxford streed and regent street shopping. some interesting stuff in Liberty's. i can now say that i held a pair of really cute prada shoes. then we went to Hamley's which was really cool. loved it. im going back to buy a teddy bear sometime. and then it started to snow on us when we were on our way back to we hopped on a cute doubledecker bus back to her place. we went to church with chris at this small little church right around the corner from her flat.
after that she and chris were going to go to dinner with a friend and her dad and i was going to go back to the hostel for my free dinner. so i went to try to find the next underground station which apperntly wasnt that difficult to find but i must not have been able to see it with my incredibly wonderful contacts and ended up wandering aimlessly around edgeware road in the dark for 45 mins. i finally got on a bus until i got to marble arch where i new i could catch my tube. by the time i got back it was only 20 mins from teh time i was supposed to be back at the flat to meet them. i tried calling her but first i had to look up her number and then the phones gave me a rough time with the phone card i had purchased. finally i managed to call her and agreed to meet at the tower for the ceremony.
we were 30 seconds late to the ceremony and the beefeater was locking the gate as we literally ran up adn he wouldnt let us in. i suppose they were serious when they said no late entries. but the reason we were late was because the tube lines we needed to take were closed for the weekend so i ended up lost several time trying to get to tower hill. kate also got lost though so i dont feel so bad.
and i still hadnt eaten dinner by that time but i wasnt really hungry. i ended up getting a mcflurry with smarties (the british version of m&ms which are better) and i felt alitttle better. we made plans to meet up today so hopefully that goes better. we are planning to go on the jack the ripper tour.
i spent most of today with the girl in my hostel. she is a graduate student working on research for her doctoral. we went to the british library to the treasures room and they have the most amazing things there. the magna carta, some of the old beatles lyrics (the hand written scraps of paper) and all kinds of other things tha ti dont really have time to talk about right now.
after that we went to the british museum to see all the things the british stole during their imperial conquests. fabulous stuff. loved it. elgin marlbes and the rosetta stone. cool stuff.
gotta go.
yay! im packed (until i get off work today when i will go home and unpack half of my clothes that really arent necessary) and ready to go (sorta... lots of stuff to remember later). gonna be at the airport @ 5pm. i cant wait to see kate! and shop at hamleys of course!
Hello and welcome to my Spring Break London Blog! I'll try to update every day that I have a chance which should be easy as seeing as how both of my hostels have internet cafes that are open 24 hours a day. Happy traveling to me!
