Real London Post...
So...London was great!
A friend and I arrived there last Friday night; I stayed until Monday, and she stayed until Tuesday to get a new passport from the Indonesian Embassy there. That was actually the reason for the visit - I was just tagging along b/c she didn't want to go alone (and because I just wanted to go to London:)
The weather was slightly miserable at times (very rainy and windy), but the city itself is wonderful. It's extremely open and clean and the architecture is really nice. We stayed at the YHA Central London hostel, which was really nice. The rooms were clean and they had a bar and a nice lounge area. They played a Flight of the Conchords cd on Saturday morning while I was eating breakfast and I was singing along to every song hahaha.
We went on two 3-hour walking tours there; one Saturday, and one Sunday. The first one took us around the part of London where the Globe theatre, the Tate Museum of Modern Art, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, the London and Tower bridges, and the Tower of London are. We also saw the monument to the Great Fire that took place there. The monument was under construction, but there was some kind of overlay on it with a picture of the monument on it...so I guess we really only saw a picture of it lol. I had no idea how tense the relationship between the English and the French used to be. The English actually blamed the French for the fire that destroyed their city...even though it was found to be an English baker (who had left his oven on) who truly started the fire. There used to be an inscription on the monument stating that the fire was the fault of the French, but it has (thankfully) since been revised lol.
We then proceeded to get lost on the way back to the hostel for about an hour lol. We stopped to eat at an asian restaurant (I use the broad term 'asian' because I don't know for sure which part of East Asia the food was from), which turned out to be a not-so-great idea b/c neither of us liked the food. Then after walking some more, we finally found the street we needed to be on and got back to the hostel safely.
The next day, we went on a tour that covered Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (as well as a couple other, older palaces), Big Ben (which is the name of the bell INSIDE the clock tower, not the clock tower itself), Trafalgar Square (where all the big celebrations in London take place...like New Year's), the Houses of Parliament, and the residence of the Prime Minister. Both tours were really good, and completely free! You could tip the tour guides if you wanted, but there was no obligation to do so. Their company doesn't pay them to conduct those tours though; they just do it because they love doing it, which is pretty cool. Both of our tour guides were History majors who, after graduating, didn't want to get "real" jobs yet so they decided to be tour guides instead lol. One of them was Canadian, and he just left home after graduating...fled to Europe. He said his family was basically like "Wtf?" but he did it anyway haha. I don't think I could do that...I crave structure in that sense.
Anyhoo...we had lots of fun and my friend took lots of pictures. And we went to a great Italian restaurant Sunday night that more than made up for the not-so-good restaurant from the night before. I think I'll end up going back there (London) when my mom comes to visit. That should be fun.
Here are some pictures:
In front of a sculpture dedicated to Isaac Newton
Pushing my trolley through the wall to Platform 9 3/4!!!
Obligatory...lol
St. Paul's Cathedral
Standing on London Bridge with the Tower Bridge behind me
Clock tower with Big Ben inside
Me and Pierce Brosnan lol
My friend Nana and I next to one of the guards that...er...guard Prince Charles' home
Another guard on a horse!
My multi-berry muffin with purple icing and a candy on top
Thurr ya go!
A friend and I arrived there last Friday night; I stayed until Monday, and she stayed until Tuesday to get a new passport from the Indonesian Embassy there. That was actually the reason for the visit - I was just tagging along b/c she didn't want to go alone (and because I just wanted to go to London:)
The weather was slightly miserable at times (very rainy and windy), but the city itself is wonderful. It's extremely open and clean and the architecture is really nice. We stayed at the YHA Central London hostel, which was really nice. The rooms were clean and they had a bar and a nice lounge area. They played a Flight of the Conchords cd on Saturday morning while I was eating breakfast and I was singing along to every song hahaha.
We went on two 3-hour walking tours there; one Saturday, and one Sunday. The first one took us around the part of London where the Globe theatre, the Tate Museum of Modern Art, St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, the London and Tower bridges, and the Tower of London are. We also saw the monument to the Great Fire that took place there. The monument was under construction, but there was some kind of overlay on it with a picture of the monument on it...so I guess we really only saw a picture of it lol. I had no idea how tense the relationship between the English and the French used to be. The English actually blamed the French for the fire that destroyed their city...even though it was found to be an English baker (who had left his oven on) who truly started the fire. There used to be an inscription on the monument stating that the fire was the fault of the French, but it has (thankfully) since been revised lol.
We then proceeded to get lost on the way back to the hostel for about an hour lol. We stopped to eat at an asian restaurant (I use the broad term 'asian' because I don't know for sure which part of East Asia the food was from), which turned out to be a not-so-great idea b/c neither of us liked the food. Then after walking some more, we finally found the street we needed to be on and got back to the hostel safely.
The next day, we went on a tour that covered Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (as well as a couple other, older palaces), Big Ben (which is the name of the bell INSIDE the clock tower, not the clock tower itself), Trafalgar Square (where all the big celebrations in London take place...like New Year's), the Houses of Parliament, and the residence of the Prime Minister. Both tours were really good, and completely free! You could tip the tour guides if you wanted, but there was no obligation to do so. Their company doesn't pay them to conduct those tours though; they just do it because they love doing it, which is pretty cool. Both of our tour guides were History majors who, after graduating, didn't want to get "real" jobs yet so they decided to be tour guides instead lol. One of them was Canadian, and he just left home after graduating...fled to Europe. He said his family was basically like "Wtf?" but he did it anyway haha. I don't think I could do that...I crave structure in that sense.
Anyhoo...we had lots of fun and my friend took lots of pictures. And we went to a great Italian restaurant Sunday night that more than made up for the not-so-good restaurant from the night before. I think I'll end up going back there (London) when my mom comes to visit. That should be fun.
Here are some pictures:
In front of a sculpture dedicated to Isaac Newton
Pushing my trolley through the wall to Platform 9 3/4!!!
Obligatory...lol
St. Paul's Cathedral
Standing on London Bridge with the Tower Bridge behind me
Clock tower with Big Ben inside
Me and Pierce Brosnan lol
My friend Nana and I next to one of the guards that...er...guard Prince Charles' home
Another guard on a horse!
My multi-berry muffin with purple icing and a candy on top
Thurr ya go!