Unfortuantly I didn't take my camera out very much on this trip, and Adrienn's camera ran out of batteries, so there's not many pictures. You will just have to use your imaginations.
Adrienn and I flew in on Thursday afternoon. We got our flights from EasyJet, and got a wicked price (~$80)...the drawback was that we flew into Stansted, a "London" airport way out of the city. So we did the standard 8 hours of travelling surrounding an hourish long flight...included a train and then adventures on the London tube. Finally we got to Uxbridge, where Ed met us and took us over to his place. His flat is pretty sweet, he lives with 2 roommates Andy (who we met when he came to visit in Baden) and Christine. We chilled out in Ed's room with Andy and Dale (a friend of theirs) and played some xbox, which Adrienn was thrilled about. Haha, not really, she's not a big fan, but Ed and Andy are obsessed with it.
We ordered in pizza for dinner (mmmmmmm) and then got ready to go out to a club in London called Fabric. They were having a special drum and bass night in honour of the club's birthday, so Ed, Andy and us met up with their friend Claire and caught the last metro into London at midnight. We encountered a bit of complication with a tube line being shut, but made it to the club eventually. One thing that was awesome abot hanging out with the guys is that they took care of navigating, since they know all the areas better. It was such a nice pleasent change to sit back and not have to worry about reading maps, woot.
The club was really sweet. It's in a building that used to be a train station or something, so you have to walk down a bunch of steps to get to the club. I really enjoyed the music, even though I didn't even know that I liked drum and bass, haha. The crowd was really into the music, and the place was packed, making it really fun to be out on the dance floor. One strange thing about the club is that it had one bathroom for guys and girls, and it was just open to the club with no doors (there were doors on the stalls, don't worry). I never really got what the deal with that was.
We had an amazing time, probably the most fun I've had at a club in a long time. We stayed until it closed at 5, and then took the metro back to Uxbridge. It was raining as we were walking which I was really enjoying. Back at Ed's we were all still wide awake, so we stayed up and kept the party going. By closing the blinds we could pretend that the sun wasn't already up outside, haha. Eventually we went to sleep, and woke up late in the afternoon. Ed cooked us a "proper english breakfast", it was delicious. We also had scones with jam and clotted cream...man the English know what good food is, haha.
By then it was evening (Friday was pretty much a write off, haha), so we headed out to a nearby pub. It was a nice place, pretty busy so we sat at tables outside. One thing cool about pubs in England is they always seem to have a good crowd, no matter what time or day is is. They like their beer, lol. This place was cool because it doesn't close at 11pm like most of the pubs in England. We stayed there until they closed, and then went back to Ed's to chill out a while before going to bed.
On Saturday we got up and went into London to go shopping. Ed and Andy took us to the best shopping areas, and we had fun looking in the stores. I didn't end up getting anything, but they guys both got some clothes (Andy was referring it as his one shopping trip for the year, lol). While we were walking we noticed some guys were about to do a show on the street, so we stopped to watch. It was mostly a juggeling act, but had other various stuff and was pretty funny. Our next shopping stop was Camden, a shopping area with some crazy shops, and even crazier people. Lots of punk and goth types, it was crazy. The stores had all kinds of cool clothes and stuff, and there was one area that was a kind of market. I could have spent a long time wandering around there, but unfortunatly we could only look a bit before everything closed (probably for the best, I would have spent waaay too much money, haha).
We headed back to Uxbridge and had a quick dinner before going out to see a comedy show at the university. Unfortunatly, we had taken a bit too long and we got there too late to be allowed to go into the show. It was alright though, because instead we went to the university bar and played some pool. It was a pretty cool place, looked like it had been redecorated recently, everything was new looking. Not as good as the Den though of course ;) Ed and Andy beat Adrienn and I at pool (no surprise) and then the guys played (Ed won of course because he is the pool champion of all time). Next Adrienn and I played a game, but we were bring so useless that the game took forever. The bar was closing (remember, 11pm) and we still hadn't finished, so the guys quickly wrapped up the game (the bouncers were nice enough to let us finish the game, but we were still being too slow, haha).
We went next door to the university dance club which was fun. Neither the club or the pub was really busy, apparently on the weekends people usually go into London, and on weekdays it is busy. We stayed there for awhile, dancing and making fools of ourselves, haha. Later on we took a cab back to Ed's and stayed up for awhile (as usual) before heading to bed.
On Sunday the guys took us into London to see some sights. Ed did a good job of being a tour guide, and had a route planned out to see everything and get some pictures. We started near the Tower of London, and worked our way down along the river. We ate at a nice pub (mmmm, it's been awhile since I've had a burgar) and then went over to see St. Paul's, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Trafalger Square. Next we took the tube over to Picadilly Circus, and went to a pub for a beer. That night we stayed in a watched Shaun of the Dead (awesome movie) and just hung out.
Riding on the tube...Andy looks scared
Beefeater at the Tower of London. He told us some cool stories and we didn't even pay for the tour, mwah ha ha.
The Tower of London
Ed, me and Andy in front of the Tower Bridge
St. Paul's Cathedral
Cool shot from one of the bridges over the River Thames
Big Ben at night
The London Eye at night
On Monday, Adrienn, Ed and I went and wandered around Uxbridge. We ate lunch at chicken place that was really good....hmm, can't remember what it was called. We stopped at few stores, and I randomly decided to buy monopoly (London edition, ooo). None of the praktikants have it, and I've been wanting to play for awhile. And it was on sale, woot. Adrienn, Shane, Evan and I played a few days later, it was an epic game and we played for about 5 hours before calling it a draw between me and Evan/Shane combined team (it was sort of at a standstill, and 2:30 am and we had to work the next day).
Anyways, enough about monopoly. In Uxbridge we also stopped by the travel place to investigate the best way to get to Luton airport (another obscure airport way on the outskirts of London) for our 6am check-in the next day. The only option she could suggest was catching the last bus to Heathrow at midnight, and then taking the train to Luton and spending the night at the airport. It sucked, but we didn't really have any other options.
Me and Adrienn chillaxin in Ed's room
Toe facination
Ed reminiscing with his high school yearbook
Andy playing xbox
That night we ordered in curry, mmmm, it was delicious. We hung out watching some snowboard movies, listening to music, playeing xbox, etc. At some point Andy suggested that taking a cab to the airport in the morning would be a lot less hassle that spending the night there. It was a decent idea, especially when we found out that a cab would only cost a little bit more than the bus/train. We decided that it was a way better option, so booked a cab for 5am the next morning, hooray.
Not so much hooray when we had to get up at 4:45, haha. It was alright though, the journey went smoothly and we got back to Switzerland and went straight in to work. It was a fun weekend, a lot more like a vacation than most of our trips. We mostly just hung out, slept in late, partied and got spoiled by Ed, haha, what lucky hobbits.
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