First trip to London

Yesterday was the first of several (God-willing) successful trips to London.

We met outside or dorms at 6:50 am for an early morning walk to the train station. I almost didn't make it though--Janie happened to notice my light still wasn't on after 6:30 and came over to my room to wake me up. I am exceptionally skilled at turning off my alarm in my sleep without noticing, but thankfully Janie woke me up just in time for me to shower quickly and be ready on time.

Anyways, London was lovely, of course. It's crazy to think about just how old this city is, and how much power it has held over the years as the capital of England, which at one point was an enormous empire holding land all over the globe. Incredible. You can just feel that history and culture throughout the city, which is one of the things I love the most about it.

We decided that yesterday should be about getting a good overview of all the main sites in the city and not worrying so much about getting tickets for specific tours and spending money on events. With the exception of a pound or so spent on postcards, we really only spent money on our train ride and our lunch and supper--not bad for spending an entire day in London. Our train took us to Waterloo Station, where our group of 11 split into two and my half headed west toward Big Ben. We walked along the Thames, stopping for pictures of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. We then wandered north through Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus, hopped on the London underground (aka, the "tube") to Elephant & Castle, a station on the outskirts of London for a cheaper, less touristy lunch location.

When I got to the counter of the restaurant to pay for lunch, I realized my wallet wasn't in my purse (yes Mom, go ahead and groan and say I told you so, heh). I hadn't taken it out since hours earlier when I took my train ticket out of my wallet to board the train in Winchester. I called a friend in Winchester who offered valiantly to walk to the Winchester train station to see if a wallet had been turned it, and in the meantime there wasn't really anything to do but wait. But then, miraculously, one of the restaurant staff came over to our table and said someone had just turned this in and asked it if was any of ours. Thank God--it was mine. My drivers license, student id, and credit card were all still there, which was what I was most concerned about cause it would have been annoying to replace, but my cash was gone. Bummer. The weird part was when I went to talk to the staff again to tell them the cash was missing, they said a man had turned it in at the counter claiming to have found it in the women's bathroom. Interesting. I had been in the bathroom earlier but I never even opened my purse while I was in there. From what I can remember, my purse was slung over my shoulder and zipped up until the moment I went to pay for my food. Oh well, it will remain one of my life's unsolved mysteries. But I'm still pretty happy I got it back. =)

Moving on. So after lunch we jumped back on the tube (we got an unlimited day pass for the tube with our train ticket, pretty sweet) and headed over to London Bridge (I believe this is the third or fourth London Bridge or something, and the previous London Bridge is in Lake Havasu, Arizona). From London Bridge we walked down to Tower Bridge, across to the Tower of London (a giant fortress and prison where some royalty were even housed and executed), back across London Bridge, and over to the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's theatre). We then took the tube up to Camden Street Markets, a maze of vendors and shops selling everything imaginable. It was fun to get away from all the really touristy things and experience what felt like a more personal part of London.

By then it was getting later and quite chilly, so we took the tube back to Waterloo Station, had some supper at a weird, tacky diner near the station, and then got on a train to go back to the Uni, pulling into Winchester at about 9:30 pm. We were exhausted. Overall, it was an awesome and overwhelming day. But even though I felt like we walked and traveled all day and crammed a lot in, we barely scratched the surface. A couple of us are going to try to go back again soon, this time to spend all day visiting the museums and art galleries, especially some of the visiting exhibits, which include Salvador Dali's artwork, a Star Wars exhibit, and all of King Tut's stuff.

I'm going to post my pictures in a separate album again like last time, so I'll post that link as soon as I upload my pictures. I don't have too many cause my batteries died halfway through the day (hadn't changed them in a long time), but I'll post what I do have. Well, time for supper. Until next time.