London

July 16, 2005
We woke up around 10 because the train didn't leave till about 1pm. We packed our things and took them upstairs to check out. We left our stuff on the main floor of the hostel and went to find lunch; we all wanted crepes. We walked down the hill and found a nice spot where we all bought nutella and banana crepes. We ate them on the way back to the hostel where we picked up our things and got on the subway to go to the train station.

We arrived at the train station, went through customs and waited in line to get on the train. We finally got on and found our seats. I listened to my iPod and write in my journal for most of the trip.

We arrived in London and tried to use the subway system. However, because of the bombing of 7-7, some lines were closed. We found two police officers and asked about the best way to get to the stop we needed for our hotel. They gave us directions and we got back on the subway.

When we got to our stop, we asked a subway worker which exit to take to the street. Amber talked to him and he showed her where it was on the map and then he started teasing her about how there was only one bed on the map marking the Holiday Inn. He said they wouldn't have a room for us. (You have to love the dry British sense of humour.)

We used the exit he had directed us to and walked to our hotel. When we tried to check in, they told us that the arrangements had been cancelled. They reinstated the reservation, but we ended up with a smoking room. It was actually fairly clean and it didn't smell too bad. The room was really nice besides that though.

We waited for Dustin to take a shower and change. Kelsey, Amber and I talked about what we wanted to see in London. We picked out a few things on the map and when Dustin finished, we left.

We went back to the subway and asked the same guy for directions. He borrowed my pen to get a girl's phone number so we picked on him for "meeting women on the job." He asked if we had found a bed at the Holiday Inn (because there was only one) and we told him that we had. We talked for a bit and he introduced himself as Lee. He gave us directions to each of the places we wanted to go, and suggested that we might not be able to get to all of them given the amount of time we had. We decided to go to Buckingham Palace instead of trying to go to London Bridge and Harod’s as well. We went to Buckingham Palace and took a few pictures.

We got on the subway to go towards Piccadilly Circus. When we switched trains to arrive at Piccadilly, they announced that there had been an unidentified bag in the station; so all trains to and from Piccadilly were stopped.

We got off the train to walk there instead of taking the subway. We met Ryan, Siobhan and Markus in front of Burger King and waited while Dustin went in the apothecary next door to buy more nose strips.

After he bought the strips, we went to search for someplace to eat. We walked down the street and picked a direction. We were trying to find a pub and as we were walking, we realized we were in the red light district of London. There were girls standing in the doorways and one of them said they were offering a free holiday to the guys. We decided we should probably leave the red light district. As we were wondering around, we found a bookstore. Markus saw something in the window that interested him. We went inside and looked around for a while. I reread the last few pages of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." I lost track of the time and everyone ended up waiting on me. :-(

We kept walking around, looking for a pub to get some food. We finally found one that didn't look too busy. We went inside and sat down and waited, and waited and waited and talked and waited. Finally, we sent Markus to the bar to find out if they were still serving food. They said they had stopped serving for the evening, so we left. We ended up stopping in a bunch of different pubs. We were having trouble finding one that was still serving food. We were going to get on the subway and go to another part of town when Markus finally found a place that was nice and fairly inexpensive. I had beef stroganoff, but it came with rice and gravy instead of noodles. It was good though.

After dinner, we decided to go see London Bridge and Big Ben. We also needed to find out when Westminster Abby's service started. We walked toward the direction we needed to go. When we were about six blocks away, we could see the London Eye. I made a comment about wanting to go up in it. We decided to go find it and see if we could get tickets. We asked for directions. Big Ben was on the way, so we stopped to take pictures. Siobhan and Ryan said they would check the church time for us and we should hurry over to get tickets for the Eye. We walked across the bridge and got there right as they were loading the last ride. Unfortunately, they were sold out of tickets.

We waited for Ryan and Siobhan, and then walked back towards the bridge. Somewhere along the way, one person decided to get ice cream. We went into McDonalds to get McFlurries (Why? I don't know...). When we got to the front of the line, they told us that the only flavour they had was "Smarties." I said I didn't want one if it had Smarties in it. When the McFlurries came, they had little M&M-type candy in them instead of what I knew as Smarties. I tried Kelsey's. It was actually pretty good. We went downstairs to hang out and talk for a while.

When everyone finished eating, we decided to go for a walk. There was a debate about whether to go to bed or not and we decided to go to a pub to get one last drink before we left (since it was the last time we'd see each other...at least in a long time). We found a nice place and went in to get something. Dustin and Markus had rum & coke. Ryan had a beer and I tried a Rossini (pureed strawberries with Champaign) which was very good. :-)

We talked for a while longer and then headed down for the subway so we could get back before they all stopped running for the night. As we were walking down to the subway, Ryan got a bloody nose. I felt really bad for him (it happens to me often at very inopportune moments). We sat on the subway waiting for our stop. We all got off the train. Everyone was kind of quiet. No one seemed thrilled about saying goodbye. Ryan, Markus and Siobhan had to walk to get to their hostel and Kelsey, Amber, Dustin and I needed to change trains.

We stood at the top of the escalators leading toward our next train. We said our goodbyes and gave hugs. Markus, Ryan and Siobhan walked toward the exit and we got on the escalator down to our platform. I looked back to see them walk through the doorway.

I knew I would miss all of them. We had just recently met, but all three of them are amazing people and tons of fun to hang out with. I just hope it won't be the last time I see them. I shared one of the highlights of my life with them and they just made it better simply by their presence. Ryan and Siobhan are so cute together. I think they make a great couple. They seem so happy and content with each other. I hope the best for them. I hope Markus continues to love his job (he seems so happy about it all the time) and I hope for all of them safety and the best in everything. I miss them already, but at least we have e-mail.

We waited over half and hour for our last train to show up. We walked back to our hotel; Amber, Kelsey and I took showers. Because church didn't start till 11am, we decided not to go. We set the alarm for 9am and went to bed.