England: Day Three: Late Night/Early Morning London
The thirdish morning started after noon with a very tasty English breakfast (and lots of tea). Simon's folks were up at their usual time, while we were awake by mid-day. While some of Simon's friends wanted us to come out to London early, we figured we only wanted to go there once instead of there and back again. Instead, we went on a lovely walk with Simon's parents and dog off in the park near there house. It had been an old quarry and was now a lake with forest around it.
By the early evening, we'd gotten put together in clubbing gear and headed out to the train. The ticket machine wouldn't allow us to buy the 4 for 2 fares into the city, so we just waited around on the platform, intent on purchasing tickets on the train. A group of teenager boys gave Rachel and Kate a good staring. Teenagers are the same everywhere, it seems. Simon and I conspired to have me ask for tickets, as he still thought he sounded too British. To our ears he did, but his friends seemed to think he had an American accent. Weird what different culture's ears will pick up on. Apparently Hugh Laurie's American accent on House sounds terrible to the Brits as well. Sounds great to me!
We spent the evening hanging out with more of Simon's friends at a pub in some famous district in London whose name completely escapes me at the moment. There were street performers and drunken football fans in the area as well. Finally, after staying so long that the grocery had closed, we stopped at a pasty shop. Mine was fantastic, though Rachel's was cold. No good at all.
The night started up for real when we made it to Slimelight, a three level goth/industrial night club in the Angel district in London. We spent time there from ~10 PM until 5 AM; talking, laughing, dancing, drinking. It was just such an amazing time, both for bonding and hanging out.
At 5 AM, we made our way to the bus station. Some hilarious (from my perspective) conversations at too early o'clock in the Victoria train station. Just good times. We boarded the train around 6:30 back to Simon's parents' place with a very tired group of people and a very drunk Simon.