first night, Wednesday June 3rd
For this trip i was flying ryan air and that means that i was flying out of and into airports that are a way out of the city. kind of annoying and time consuming, but my flight was super cheap, so o well. So i got into London Standsted at like 8 or 9pm and hopped a cheap bus into the city. I think it took a little over an hour. Graham gave me directions on what tube to take so i could meet him closer to his and Kristen’s apartment. So while i’m in the tube station i hear my name being called. I turn around and its one of my friends, Amanda, from school. She works at the ATO and she just got to London a few weeks ago to start a study abroad there for the summer. I had no clue she was in london. Crazy small world that we bumped in to each. Seriously crazy. Soon after i met up with Kristen and Graham at Kensington Olympia station. It was so nice to see them. I havent seen them since the end of summer 05 at camp. So its been almost 4 years. We went back to the apartment for a second to drop off my stuff and then we headed out soon after. I’m pretty sure they live in West Kensington, but they like to pretend they live in Shepperds Bush. I dont really know what any of that means, but thats what they told me. We hung out at a bar for a while, reminiscing about camp. the whole weekend was pretty much filled with camp stories and gossip about life since camp and the recent camp reunion. We headed back to the apartment after a while and i was exhausted so i passed out pretty easily.
Day 2 Thursday June 4
Since it was Thursday, Graham went off to work early, but Kristen had off so we roamed around the tourist sites during the day. First stop was buckingham palace. We didnt really plan for it, but we ended up getting to the palace soon after the changing of the guard started. There were tons of tourists everywhere. I dont really know what changing of the guard actually means, but what we saw was some guards walking back and forth and a marching band (in guard uniforms) playing some music. Eventually there was some sort of parade and the guards marched down the street. Funny story: me and kristen were both looking at my camera to see the pictures that ive taken and an American women walks up to me asking if i got a picture of the king and queen. Then i said that i dont think that the queen comes out for this event. She responded that she heard that somebody saw them and then walked away. A second after she walked away i was like to kristen.. .wait.. there is no king of england.. haha. i love stupid american tourists. really funny. So me and Kristen walked for a while towards the Thames to see more sites. We saw Big Ben which is part of the parliament building, westminster abbey, and the london eye. At first i did not think that big ben was actually big ben. We walked up to it from behind, so i didnt look like it did in all the pictures, and honestly it didnt seem that big. O well. Eventually we figured ot that it was big ben. not that exciting. then we walked over a bridge (i think it was westminster bridge) to get to the south bank. There we walked along right by the london eye. for a while we walked on the south bank… some of the sites we saw were: the millenium bridge, shakespere’s globe theatre, we went to the bathroom at the tate modern (but didnt actually go in the museum), gabriel’s wharf, london bridge (not that exciting…just a normal bridge). Somewhere between all that we stopped to eat lunch. We pretty much stuffed our face with soup and pasta but it was really delicious. We were both starving and needed a pick me up at that point. Eventually we got to the Tower Bridge. We layed in the grass by the bridge for a while and i think i may have actually fallen asleep for a little. Then the bridge opened up to let a boat through. not that exciting in real life, but later graham told me that he has never seen it open up in real life (as oppossed to just in pictures), so then i guess it was kind of a big deal. Walked over the bridge (once it was back in place) and then passed the Tower of London..where the crown jewels are kept. Then we hopped on the Tube to head to Graham and Kristens office. They both work for some company that used to be part of the BBC..i dont really get it, but anyway, the important part is that they work in the BBC complex in London. Super cool. So i went up to there offices and Kristen showed me around for a while. They pointed out some famous BBC people that i had no clue were. Still it was pretty awesome. After Graham got off at work, we went around looking into different studios for a bunch of shows. The first one we walked into was actually just about to start a taping. Its some comedy game show. I think its called eight out of ten. I recognized the host from some show on comedy central. We maybe watched for about 30 minutes then left. Then we headed to the bar in the BBC building because Graham and Kristen take a British Sign Language class there. The lesson was actually really fun. After it we hung around for the bar a while, watching the premiere of the new Big Brother…which is huge in England. Eventually we went back to the bar we went to the night before and then when it closed we headed back to the apartment… O yea.. just remembered earlier in the day me and Kristen passed by 10 downing street where the prime minister Gordon Brown lives. Since there has been tons of controversey with him and the Labor party there were tons of papa razzi there taking pictures. Someone in the labor party drove right in front of us and ran into the building because tons of people were taking her pictures..
Day 3, Friday June 5
Both Graham and Kristen had work on Friday, so i tried getting in touch with my friend from Wisconsin, but i think i may have had the wrong number or something because none of my texts or calls were going through. O well. There were tons of stuff that i still wanted to see in london and i didnt have a problem walking around by myself. First up I went to abbey road. Really cool I took some pictures, and then some other toursists offered to take my picture as i walked across. Its pretty much just an intersection and all the tourists almost get hit by tons of cars. I would probably be really annoyed if i had to drive past the cross walk all the time. They should put a stop sign or something up. Anyway.. the next thing i went to is Kings Cross Station. Thats where Harry Potter and all the wizards in the books get to Hogwarts… if you didnt know already. I found platform 9 3/4, took a picture and again asked another tourist to take a picture of me going into the wall. Next I went to Harrods. Super fancy and huge. Its about the same size i think of the big MAcys in NYC. I walked around inside for a while looking at all the fancy clothes. It looked like all tourists.. i didnt actually see any real people shopping. Then i headed out and got some lunch at Yo Sushi. This is the sushi place where you sit at a bar type thing and sushi and other stuff comes out on a conveyer belt and just goes in circles. You take what you want and the plates are color coded according to price. At the end they just add up you plates to know how much you owe. It was super yummy, but kinda expensive. Its pretty much a trap because of course you are going to grab a bunch of plates that are right in front of you all the time. But it was really good anyway. Next up I walked to Hyde Park. I walked around for a while. Then I walked to the other side of the park and saw Kensington Palace where Princess Diana used to live. Later I asked Graham and some other English people if they knew who lived there know, and no one knew. Kinda funny. Then i walked through Kensington gardens and saw the Peter Pan statue and the memorial waterfall for princess Diana. I layed on a bench in the park for a while because i was super tired from walking around all day and had some time to kill before i met up with Graham and Kristen at the BBC. Then i decided to head back to the apartment to find out where the closest Top Shop is. There was one in the mall that is super close the Graham and Kristen’s apartment so i headed there. Turns out it is a Westfield mall. Haha. For some reason i couldnt find Top Shop (even though graham and kristen told me later that there is one there.. i was in a different part of the mall) but i headed to the mall that Graham told me about before near BBC to see if there was one there. And there was one. Top Shop is a really cool clothing store kinda like Urban outfitters or H and M. But ten times better. I loved everything in the store. It was so nice and not that expensive. I walked around for a while and had to decide between a bunch of things because I told myself that I would only buy ont thing. I ended up buying the bright pink sleevless shirt thingy. Its really cute. After that i went back to there office to meet up with them. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the convenience store close by and then graham, kristen, there friend Dan, and I headed out to go to a concert. When i originally told graham that i was thinking of coming this weekend he said that him and kristen were going to buy some concert tickets and that he would pick one up for me too. Ive never heard of the guy..Dan Deacon, but i was sure i would have a good time anyway. The concert ended up being amazing. It was in the student union of some university so it wasnt that big, but the crowd was a perfect size. Dan Deaceon isnt my type of music but i still loved the concert. I really got into the music and the dancing. Dan Deacon is really cool. he got the whole crowd to push back into a circle so people could dance in the middle. It was really awesome. At the end i was so excited about Dan Deacon that i actually bought a CD. It was super fun. After the concert we headed back home.
Day 4 Saturday June 6
The next day was sort of a lazy day. Not really. Kristen had work super early, so i didnt see her untill later at night. Me and Graham headed out around 2pm to meet up with Scott Connor from camp at a sports bar. Him and graham are good friends now and always meet up to watch soccer games. This one was a qualifying game for the World Cup next year between England and Kazakhstan. Before the game started we watched the end of the UK Lions rugby match. The lions are a team made up of athletes from England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and only get together once every 4 years. I guess its a really big deal and only the best players from each place make the team. the lions won and it was a really close game. Eventually Scott and another guy from camp Brian came. He worked at camp when i was 12, so i didnt recognize him at all. It was pretty funny because at first he thought i was Kristen. I guess we do both wear glasses and we are short with brown hair. Funny mixup. Today was also the day that i was supposed to meet up with Sam Chelton. He was a counselor in 05 also. I barely talk to him since camp, but we were pretty good friends at camp and i was really looking forward to seeing him. I was kinda nervous that he wasnt going to show up because it seemed like he had tons of stuff to do that weekend…but he did. It was so nice to see him. I was pretty much going though camp story overload..and i think he was too. He had worked at camp 05-08 and this was his first summer that he didnt go back.And he also worked there during the year. England won the game 4-0. Yay. Eventually Kristen came and it was a mini summer 05 reunion. Then we headed to another bar. We all hung out for a while reminiscing and telling funny stories about camp. It was really fun. Im super happy i got to see the people that i did see. Eventually we headed back home
Day 5/6 Sunday/Monday June 7 and 8
The next day Kristen had work as well, so Graham got the chance to take me a around london again. First we headed to the National Portrait Gallery. Woo its free! Some super old stuff, but some newer paitning and pictures of people i recognized as well. After that we headed to Convent Garden where there are tons of street performers hanging around in the streets. We then had a quick bite to eat and then we headed for Camden Market. Camden market is huge. Its so awesome. Tons of little shops pretty much selling everything. There were really really cute clothes stores everywhere. I probably could have spent tons of money there and spent the entire day therre. But i wasnt really in the wasting money mood. Also it was kinda raining so that was annoying. We also saw a really small old lock and watched a tour boat go through it. It took kind of a long time for such a small lock and small boat. But it was interesting to see how old and old fashioned the lock was. After walking around in Camden market for a while we headed back to the apartment for a little rest. I was pretty sure that i saw everything in london that i wanted to see. Both me and Graham couldnt think of anything else that a tourist needs to see on their first trip to london. We hung around the apartment for a while and then headed to a bar around the corner from their apartment to play some trivia. At first we were doing really badly but we made up for it later. We ended up getting 20/40 points and 2nd place. The team that won was a group of 8…so there was really no was we could have beat them. It was a good time. I love trivia. After that we headed back to the apartment to watch the results of the European Parliament elections. I dont really know much about European politics but it was super interesting because there is tons of scandel in the curring English government. We had some pizza for dinner and eventually Kristen got home from work. I needed to catch a city bus (yes the red double decker bus) at 2am so we all just stayed up watching the results on tv. They walked me to the bus stop and said our goodbyes. It was super nice seeing them and I hope they know how much i appreciated them letting me stay at there place. It was a nice little camp reunion and kinda made me miss camp. Around 2:30 i got to the train station where the bus would pick me up at 3am to take me to the Stansted airport. the bus only cost 12 pounds round trip. for 3 hours in total thats really cheap. Im super happy i booked in advance because there were a bunch of people that tried getting on the bus but the next available one was at 6am. sucks. So the bus was easy. i slept untill we got in the airport. I spent the rest of my 7 pounds of a sandwich and 2 drinks…i had like 60 pence left that i didnt know what to do with so i just left in on a random table… hopefully i made someones day. And then i got on my plane. The plane left at like 6:30ish i think. I landed at 9amish Dutch time.. the flight was only an hour, hopped on a bus at eindhoven to get me to the centraal station, and then hopped on the train to get back to Utrecht. I finally got back to my apartment around 11am and when i opened the door Aliisa was there. I was so happy. I havent seen her in 2 1/2 weeks. i really missed her and im pretty sure she missed me too. My original plan was to sleep all day because i had to pick Steph up at 9pm that night.. but i was super busy and needed to clean and do homework and add london pictures to facebook. So i didnt actually sleep. So i was working on the 1 hour sleep i got on the bus and 1 hour sleep i got on the plane. Most of the day i was fine, but towards the end of the night i was super exhausted.
