London in a Nutshell

The London trip officially began on Friday morning at 7:30am because that's when my alarm went off. I grabbed a shower and quickly finished my packing. Then Jen and I went down to breakfast. Everyone got onto the buses at 9am and we rolled. I slept on the bus most of the way down. I think most people did. The bus rides often become giant sleep fests, I've noticed. Nothing much else to do when you're on a bus and deprived of sleep, I guess. After arriving in London, of course, Tadd and Karen departed from the buses and they took us on a little tour of the city. A basic run down of where things were, as if we were supposed to be able to coherently remember any destinations but it was cool and our driver was funny.

Jen and I got to our room, which we shared with Cynthia Pruent who ended up tagging along with us everywhere we went because she didn't have any other people there who she really knew. First we headed over to the British Museum where we looked at the Egyptian stuff, some Asian stuff, and the Native American stuff. After that we bought a few post cards and then left in order to prepare to see Les Miserables.

The trip over there was nerve racking. I haven't seen that many people in a long long time. I hate crowds and this one set me on overdrive because Les Mis was playing at the Palace in Leicester Square which has to be one of the most crowded areas in London. We finally got to the theatre and found our seats. (Here I'm going to take a little break from the event-by-event and bitch about the seats. Tadd arranged the tickets alphabetically, which meant that I got a decent seat and Jen's sucked ass. These were the most uncomfortably seats that I have ever had the misfortune of sitting in. My ass was in so much pain. By the end of the show I wanted to kick Tadd so hard that he wouldn't have recovered for five years.) The musical itself was wonderful. I throughly enjoyed it even though all of my favorite characters died. I didn't know that was going to happen. The boring characters lived; happily ever after which isn't fair but neither is life so I guess that makes it tolerable or, at least, somewhat realistic. I was so glad that I had chosen to go see that one. I think Jen regrets the decision because of the shitty seats she got and I really can't say that I blame her that much.

We didn't do anything Friday night except watch some movie on the TV, once we finally figured out how to get it working, about this international hairstyling competition where this Welsh guy one. It was funny in a "I can't believe they even bothered to make a movie about this" kind of way.

Saturday we got up at 7:30am (again as it is apparently illegal for me to be able to sleep past 9 here) and got ready to go to the Tower of London. After finally figuring out how to use the Tub we got there. It was great. I have so many pictures and a goodly number of purchases. Postcards and a few little things for Chris. I bought him a shirt at one of the stores that was near the Tower of London that says, "My Girlfriend Went to London and All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt". Of course that's not all I got him. I'll give that to him first. I think he'll get a real kick out of the shirt. I also got him a shotglass that has the tower bridge on it and a pack of information cards that have pictures of places in London and then interesting history on the back of them.

After getting a quick lunch, we headed over to Madame Toussands but the line was too long for us to want to bother with it. Instead we went to Trufalger Square and took pictures and watched all the pigeons landing on people and eating cigarettes butts. (I saw them and I'm sorry I ever doubted you Corey.) Then we headed to Oxford Street which was a zoo and we left after about an hour, buying nothing and suffering from a major dose of price shock. We went to a Chinese Restaurant for dinner and went to the London Pub for a drink. I didn't have anything, though. I just didn't feel like it.

Sunday we got up at 8:15 (a little better but not by much; next weekend I will sleep until 10 because I am not going on the York daytrip) and packed for the return trip. After a throughly horrible breakfast, we got back onto the buses and headed for Hampton Court. On the way one of the buses suffered a broke window. I have no idea yet as to how that happened though I intend to ask around of people who I don't consider idiots later.

Hampton Court was cool. Lots of places to go and the Tea Room had some very delicious food, though it was a tad bit more expensive than the other places that we ate. Jen and I walked around, took some photos from the outside, bought some stuff (postcards and handmade mugs; I got one for myself and then one as a birthday present for my friend Jeremiah). Then it was back on the bus, more sleeping and finally landing back at the manor for dinner, unpacking, and the last bit of homework that I needed to do.

If everyone will give me a mailing address then I'll start sending postcards. I have a bunch of them all sitting around waiting to be sent.