Thanks to Adrienn and Vance for pictures, as well as providing details about all the things I forgot. You'll also notice I went pretty hardcore on the Wikipedia links...do some extra learning!
We arrived in London on friday night, and got the full EasyJet London experiance (aka, 7ish hours of travel including an expensive train ride into the city). Vance spent some time freaking out about insane prices, but we quickly got him into the London mentality...just don't think about it and pretend all the prices you see in pounds are just Canadian dollars (actually a 2.5 conversion, eep!).
Out hostel was really awesome, the staff was friendly and had lots of good tips for getting places. Our plan for friday night was to see...Paul Van Dyke! While researching for the trip earlier in the week we discovered that he was spinning at Turnmills (a big club in London). Advanced tickets were already sold out, but we decided to show up early at the door and try and get in. Miraciously, this worked! And as a bonus we used our time in the line to get some quality pre-drinking in, so drinks for the night weren't too too expensive.
On the way to the club, making some phone calls (or pretending to, haha)
The club was really cool, and we had some time to chill before Paul Van Dyke's set started. We met Canadian and an Aussie and hung out with them for awhile, and then went to dance to the dj that was playing (that was really good music too). The place was packed, and the atmosphere was great, lots of excitement everywhere.
Adrienn and I with our new friends
Me, Vance and Adrienn ready to party
Paul Van Dyke was amazing...I am super happy that I got to see him, since I missed out in Ibiza. The set was filled with lots of energy, and everybody was really into the music. I danced lots, and we all had a really fun time. We even managed to leave as a group! Which was a good thing because getting home was a bit challanging since the tubes weren't running yet...it involved a cab, and then a night bus, which we got off at the wrong stop and then walked in the wrong direction. Eventually we made it back though, and had a good sleep.
Paul Van Dyke....great show
The next morning we got off to a slow start, and began the day with a walk through Hyde Park (which was right near our hostel). We made our way over to Buckingham Palace for some pictures, and then contiuned the walk through Green Park (basically the front lawn of Buckingham Palace) and then St. James's Park. It seems we were having a park day, haha, good times.
Red phone booth!!!
Hyde Park
Adrienn and me walking in Hyde Park
Hehe, Adrienn and I having fun...
Some random building. And a bus. Wow, it's a good thing I caption these pictures...
Buckingham Palace ...not really as awesome looking as you expect it to be....
Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace ...check out that dramatic sky!
Me, Vance and Adrienn in front of Buckingham Palace. Haha Adrienn was cold so Vance lent her the shell to his jacket
The road leading up to Buckingham Palace ....we couldn't figure out why there was Brazilian flags up everywhere!!! (We actually temporarily convinced ourself that it wasn't the Brazilian flag since it made no sense...)
Vance in Green Park (yup, it's green alright)
The ducks / other birds in St. James's Park. Mummy, you should have been there to help us identify them all!
Pelicans! (I told you they were pelicans Vance!!!!)
By then it was time for a tea/coffee break, so we went to a cafe called Paul's, that was reccomended to us by Jude (guy from London who works with Adrienn). I just wanted tea, but Adrienn and Vance had what they said were the creamyiest coffees ever, mmmm. Caffine breaks were really common on this trip...as a result I think we all got a bit addicted to caffine for awhile afterwards, lol.
Next we walked over to Harrods, a famous department store. The first thing that happened was that I wasn't allowed to bring my tea in, so I had to chug it outside, I guess I looked too much like a spill risk. We found out why though, Adrienn and I were looking around and we found a pair of super-expensive (and ironically, super-tacky) beaded pants, they cost 1939 pounds....that's about $5000!!!! We didn't spend a lot of time there, I spent most of my time looking at the stocking section, lol. Somehow Vance had enough time to check out the whole store....oh Vance and his efficient sightseeing ways, haha.
If that's what high class fashion looks like, I think I'll stick to H&M...
We walked through the Horse Garuds, which is a building where a bunch of Royal Guard hang out. I acually didn't know this it what is was called until writing this post... we kept referring to it as the Changing of the Guard (not the event, we were convinced that there was a building by the same name. Maybe the Lonely Planet led us astray). We had an interesting encounter here...since the once guard had crowds of tourists around him, we approached another one to take a picture. Only a few steps away, we passed some sort of invisible barrier, and he yelled out "Step away from the arches!!". We quickly backed off, and had a good laugh about getting in trouble from the Royal Gurad, and all the funny looks we got from people.
I bet we are the first people EVER to take this picture!!!
Next we went to take a look at Big Ben (did you know that is the name of the bell, not the clock itself. Ooooo, learning! I'm still gonna use that name for the tower though, so there). It's such a awesome looking clock tower, something about it is just so elegant. Side note: when I came to England with my family in 1998, we went to Legoland in Windsor. They had a replica of London there, and I remember how impressed I was with the mini Big Ben they build out of Lego!!!
Big Ben!
Next stop was the British Museum, which had a neat layout of a big open room with a cirular building in the center. Vance and I discovered that the building was actually a reading room, and we spend some time in there chilling out and reading books. Before that though, we all went to look at the various exhibits, including the Rosetta Stone! I found that really exciting to see... it's just cool to think what a significant part it played in the history of language.
Inside the reading room at the British Museum... they had lots of cool books on everything you can imagine... I read one about stonehenge.
The Rosetta stone... actually, I think this the replica they had out that you could touch... you would have believed me though ;)
Vance and the discus guy statue that he was so desperate to see
By then it was getting near dinner time so we took the tube back to our hostel area. Oh ya, also at this time we called Ed (used to be a praktikant living in Baden, goes to school on the outskirts of London) for the second time that day (he was still sleeping the first time, at 2pm, haha, oh Ed) to see if he was going to meet us in London for the evening. Typical Ed style, he instead wanted us to come out to Uxbridge where he was and party with his friends. That would have been fun, but we wanted to stay in London, so we made plans for the next evening instead.
We spent some time deciding what to eat... we were eating in resturants often, since we discovered that it's pretty much the same price as grocery store. Not because they are especially cheap, but because groceries are expensive...haha, oh London.... We ended up having an English breakfast (yes, for dinner), it was really good though. Haha, reminded me or Ibiza...
We did got ready for the night, and then headed to the Notting Hill Arts Club, which was just a few blocks away from our hostel (yay, isn't that awesome it was so close Vance!?). They were having a reggae night, and thought it took a little while to get in, it was well worth it. The place wasn't that big, but there was a good crowd and the music was really cool. At one point the dj said happy birthday to somebody, and then commented on how his next birthday he was going to be 65. I though he was joking (the voice sounded like your typical rasta cool guy), but then later saw him and it was true! Haha, so awesome, the guy had obviously been in the business for years and wasn't tired of it yet! He was really good too!
We stayed there until it closed, and then the 3 of us had a nice, uneventful walk home. Well, exactly one part of that sentence was true...haha..... oh adventures for everyone :)
Me and Vance at the club
Adrienn and me at the club
Vance ang Adrienn at the club (haha, can you tell we were rotating around the camera?)
The 64 year old reggae dj!
The next morning we had another slow start (well, some of us did at least...). Our first stop of the day was the Tower of London. Vance was suprised to discover that this was actually a castle that you could tour around...tsk tsk, Vance, you fail the tourist test on that one. We went in and got a tour from a Yeomen Warder (aka, Beefeater...like the gin!!!!). It was a really good tour, he knew lots of interesting facts and stories, plus was pretty funny (and he kept making fun of Americans, haha). I guess a lot of people though he was a good tour guide, because our group ended up being ridiculously huge... luckily we scored places at the front.
We looked at the crown jewels, which were awesome, they have the biggest cut diamond in the world! I liked reading about how they found the diamonds and processed them...though, I wonder why they cut them at all, couldn't you have just one super-huge diamond? Hmm, oh well..
Adrienn and me in front of the Tower of London
Our Beefeater tour guide, deep into a story
The Tower Bridge (NOT the London Bridge!!!) from inside the Tower of London
Me, Vance, and Adrienn with the typical tourist shot in front of the tower bridge
Later in the afternoon we went to Camden, which is a funky shopping area of London. First we stopped for lunch in a pub, where Adrienn had a misfortunate Ketchup incident...she was shaking the bottle and the cap flew off, haha. Luckily, Vance and I escaped unscarred. We wandered around the cool shops, and the market, where I bough a few t-shirts, yay, shopping! Vance asked us if he was cool enough to pull off a Star Wars shirts.... I informed him that sadly, he probably wasn't. Poor Vance... too geeky for geek shirts.
Adrienn decides to decorate the pub
We went to meet Ed and Andy (his friend) at the tube station, on the way seeing Trafalgar Square, and the Canada House. It was awesome to see Ed again! We all went for dinner at a spanish tapas resturant (that Ed semi-sucessfully led us to, haha), and all ordered a bunch of appatzers, it was really good. Next we randomly stumbled upon a Canadian Bar!! Haha, it was decorated with flags and a black bear, they had Molsen and Richard's on tap, and were showing the hockey game! It was a pretty fun place, I think Ed and Andy got a kick out of the "Canadian experiance", lol.
Afterwards we said our good-bye's and caught the tube back to our hostel. We were pretty tired from the night before, so we took it easy and just went to bed. Unfortunatly, none of us really got a good sleep, a combo of a bunch of factors including the room being too hot. Oh well...
A little piece of home
Ed and me at dinner
Adrienn and Andy
A bigger piece of home! Canadian bar!
Andy, Adrienn, me and Ed having some beer (I don't think any of us got Canadian beer though, haha, Europe has shown us the way...)
Andy, me, Ed and Vance at the tube station
Monday morning we awoke and went to the Tate Modern, a modern art gallery. They had some really cool pieces there, and for once, the captions were in English! I enjoyed reading about the artist's interpretation of their work, I found it made me see the art differently once I had something specific to look for. One of my favorite ones reminded me of a craft we did back in school...where you colour a picture, coat it in black crayon, and then scrape off the black to make cool patterns. The artist commented on how it was just simple and fun about scraping off that top layer... I though it was pretty neat :)
The gallery had a cool gift shop too...Vance bought some books (after we had a frantic session of picking out the best ones, haha) explaining time and logic in a introdutrory way...they looked awesome, I'm gonna have to borrow them.
Me and Adrienn, on the way to the Tate Modern
Me on the balcony at the Tate Modern...you can see St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millenium Bridge in the background
Vance and me doing an artistic silloette pic
After the museum we didn't have much time to get back to our hostel, so we went quickly by St. Paul's Cathedral for some pics, and hopped on the tube. We got subway for dinner (mmmmmm...it's been awhile), where there was some panic because Adrienn almost lost her wallet!!! Not that it would have been a new and traumatic experiance....haha, jk ;)
St. Paul's Cathedral
After a quick 8 hour journey on the tube, train, bus, plane, bus, train and bus, we were home again! Oh EasyJet...
It was a really great trip, we managed to see lots, party lots, and meet up with Ed too! It was a good city to see with a small group, since we were constantly moving around and trying to get places. Adrienn, Vance and I make a good travel group...and I'm sure Vance throughouly enjoyed the a weekend of listening Adrienn and I chatter on about everything that popped into our head, haha. Actually, by the end of the trip he had a pretty good inner monologue going on too.... good to see we had a positive effect on him ;) Yay London!
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....longest.....post...ever....*sleep now*
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