London

Cheerio! Well now that we have made it to London, the trip seems to be coming quickly to its end. We stayed on the Southbank and our hostel was within easy walking distance to a ton of the usual touristy stuff (Big Ben, London Eye, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, etc). On the afternoon of our arrival we walked along the Thames and explored the riverside. Later that evening we went Leicester Square, which is where all the movie houses and restaurants are, and watched our first movie in a theater in what, like 6 months.

Our first day we walked around the rest of Southbank while it was nice outside, but, eventually it started to rain again, so we ducked into the Tate Modern. That night we went to a pub, the Three Stags, which was just across the street from our hostel. The next day the weather was… well exactly what you would expect from London in Spring… it was rainy. So we did some badly needed laundry and got all of the things we had been putting off done.

So one Saturday everything cleared up and it was a beautiful day. So according we went to go see the parks. First up was Green Park, which runs into Buckingham Palace (no, we did not go see the changing of the guards, I mean seriously who cares about guys in big fur hats marching around and getting their pictures taken). After that we walked up the Princess Dianna Memorial Walkway, which I mistakenly thought was unfinished (the dirt path was actually intentional, since it was in reality a horse path). This led up to the famous Hyde Park, where we walking around the lake and past the Kensington Gardens. From there we walked back toward Piccadilly and down to Trafalgar Square.

On Sunday we decided to break down and ride one of those dam tourist buses. The bus took us from Westminster Bridge, past the Southbank Cultural District, over to London Bridge and Tower Bridge, then we went up through Old London and the Financial District. From there we doubled back along the otherside of the river past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, back up to Buckingam Palace, over to Trafalgar Square, up to Piccadilly, up Oxford Street, over to the edge of Green Park and Hyde Park, and there we got off. Man, I was wrong about those, we had a blast, got a decent overview of the city, and still managed to have enough of a day left that we to the British Museum and send the rest of the afternoon hanging out around Piccadilly, Oxford, and Leicester Square. The Again we closed the night hanging out at our favorite pub, the Three Stags, since it was homier than our hostel and much more fun… although watching Italian girls trying to learn how to play pool is a very amusing thing indeed.

Finally on our last day we just ran around on the Tube, which is awesome and clean, but really expensive if you don’t do it right. Make sure you buy either a tourist pass, an oyster card, or at least a day pass, otherwise it could cst you up to 8L a piece for a downa and back. We ran up to Baker Street for the obvious tourist trap and then went to a tea place that Jeannie desperately wanted to find (Twinings). After that we went over to the Tate Britain and had a nice stroll home.

London was a great time, really expensive (that ole 2:1 exchange rate gets you poor quick), and on the whole the weather was surprising good. Let’s just hope this holds up while we are in Dublin. So off we go to see if these Irish folk really are as fun as people say they are.