London Trip

I stayed in London this weekend with Carrie, Steve, Francesca, Josh, and Jen. Yes we are all couples… But before I get into the exciting events of the weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to recap what happened since I last posted.

There is a pub at the top of the Abbey drive way, the North Arms. I met the couple who run it. Their names are Nikki and Gary. They are very friendly people and accepting of us FDU students. They should be considered they bought the pub next to our college just one year ago. The first night I was there, Gary was playing 21 with some locals, one in particular was named Robby, I have seen him every time I go in. Anyway, I ask to see the deck of cards when they finished and I did my patent card trick… some of you have fallen victim to it already. They loved it! Told me it was worth a drink. In fact, when I went back Thursday night, I found out that I had gained a small reputation in town. Gary remembered my name and told many of his friends about my trick. I am a highly anticipated attraction now (sort of)! I did suggest that I can only do the trick well when I am drunk… I just want to see how many drinks the locals will offer to see it.

I enjoyed the rest my classes and teachers… blah blah, on to London. The weekend started with an early bus ride. As soon as we arrived in the city, my group picked up our stuff and headed to Trafalgar Square in search for an underground (British Subway). But we found the National Gallery and decided to take a look before heading to the Hostel to check in. It was free and a nice little aside on our adventure. I really liked some of the exhibits. Our Hostel was called the Bayswater Royal Hotel. It Costs £46 for the weekend. The Hostel overlooked Hyde’s Park. It was pretty beautiful. Carrie and I walked through it one morning, and watched everybody walk their fancy dogs. She got excited to see bulldogs, I think their ugly. The room was comfortable for the most part and quiet. You can’t ask for much better. There were a lot of young foreigners there as well.

The first night we went to the London Eye, where we took the marvelous ferris wheel for a ride. We went on at night to get awesome views of the lit up city. The pictures I took can portray the images better than I can, but can do little to capture the experience in seeing it first hand—simply awe inspiring. The next day we took a Big Bus Tour and spent the day seeing most of what the city has to offer. At night, we went pub hoping. At the Prince Edward I sat down to enjoy my first dish of fish and chips. It was delicious. I washed it down with a pint of Strongbow Cider. The drink tasted much better than beer and it helped complete the authentic experience of an English pub. That night I discovered a pot dealer near my Hostel. He sold wild opium and other legal psychotropic drugs. But when he saw that I wasn’t interested, he was convinced that I was looking for the real thing. I wasn’t of course, but it was still an interesting encounter. We went to bed early that night. Strangely, everything in the city, except for expensive clubs, shut down at 11:00…

The next day was hectic. We only had until 3:00 to do things before getting back on the bus to return to Wroxton. The majority of the group was tired and didn’t have much money left to do what I thought was the initial plan. We couldn’t get into the Tower of London the previous day because the Big Bus took too long getting there. I had my heart set on taking the boat tour and getting into the tower. Everyone else felt I was rushing them and that it would be too similar to prior day’s bus tour. The thing is, they want to spend more energy and money at night in Pubs and Clubs. I reserved my energy for touring, so we didn’t meet eye-to-eye in this respect. Carrie was tired but willing to do something with me considering she and I had already explored Hyde’s Park (that’s what the others decided to do). They gave me their tickets to see if I could pilfer them.

When Carrie and I got to the pier I sold the tickets in 5 minutes to a couple trying to get to Greenwich. I undercut the normal price by about a pound and made ten pounds in the process. The guide on the boat tour was funny as hell and I enjoyed the tour a lot, I was able to get even more pictures of the city. When we arrived at the Tower Pier we got off to explore the Tower. A ticket was £12 each, but because I sold those boat passes we pretty much got a free pass for the Tower. Inside, we saw exhibits of the Crown Jewels, King Henry VIII Living Quarters, the White Tower of William the Conqueror, and an armory of weapons and armor ranging from medieval warfare up through weapons of modern warfare.

We were carrying our belongings all day since we had to checkout of the hostel by 10:00 am. So we decided to head back to the pickup spot early. When we returned to Trafalgar Square the streets were packed with people. Turns out, there was a huge celebration for the Chinese New Year. We walked around for a bit, enjoying the free concert and live performances. I wish we had more time to kill but we had a bus to catch and Carrie’s shoulders were killing her from carrying her bags.

Quick Fun Facts
Don’t forget to look right first when crossing the streets of London.
Don’t buy tickets from private vendors.
Don’t expect to be welcomed wholeheartedly into pubs or restaurants if you aren’t wearing relatively nice clothes.
Hostel breakfast: toast, tea, butter, jam, and cornflakes… that’s it.
Don’t hesitate to break up from larger groups to do your own thing.
London is the most expensive city in the world.

I know you all want pictures, but the internet here is slow and it takes too long to upload. I will figure something out soon I promise.