LONDON

The blog continues as Shelby ventures yet again to a new, exciting English city...London!!! 

 This trip commenced unlike any of the others I've taken so far. No cushy coach this time, just a train and the prospect of adventuring for more than six hours. I'm not sure I've ever really traveled on a train before (mom and dad are already shaking their heads because this is certainly not the case), well none that I specifically remember. And NONE with a real live girl-group on it, belting out tunes the entire trip. Yes. I had a girl band behind me. Well, less of a band, more like a group of loud, make-up caked, teenage girls accompanied by their even louder, over-dressed, drunk mothers. Of course I didn't realize this until they started harmonizing to Top 40 hits blaring out of an iPod, and gabbing about their 'set-list' comprised of songs like "Holding Onto You" "Party Harder" "Glitter Heels" "Lipstick On Your Collar" and a slew of other age-inappropriate but fascinating titles. Really, you can't make this stuff up. 

 Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to catch their name (in order to immediately look them up on facebook and become approx. fan number 1563). We arrived at London Euston around 8pm after leaving Lancaster at 5:40pm, not too bad of a trip. It was the first time in London for all of us, and I'm sure we looked that way, all giddy and crowded around our city map. The hostel we were staying at was only about a 15min walk and we were excited the whole way...until we found the hostel.

Now, this was the first hostel I'd ever stayed in, so I had nothing to compare this place to. However the other girls, Caitlin and Kelly, had traveled for a couple of weeks prior to arriving in Lancaster, and were well acquainted with the general quality of hostels. This ranged from immaculate and helpful, to passable, to sketchy and wholly unhelpful. Ours was the latter. We got smacked with a hidden fee of 5 pounds right off the bat, and was met with total disinterest when we requested to acquire a room together. Oh well. I walked up 3 flights of stairs to my 8 person room, which turned out to be nothing special for sure. I snagged a bottom bunk and walked back down to meet the girls. Turns out, the room they were in was the same size as mine, only with mini-beds and 16 people crammed into it. Bummer. 

The rest of the night was spent grabbing dinner and finding a pub to hang out at. It was silently agreed that we'd stay out as long as possible to avoid returning to sleep in our charming accommodations. A couple of pints and some mulled wine (super duper delicious by the way, a new fav) later, and we felt buzzed enough to head back and fall quickly asleep. 

One suffocatingly hot, uncomfortable, and restless sleep later and I'd survived the night. We met downstairs for our complimentary breakfast, which we were surprised our hostel was offering (only to immediately lose surprise)--a mountain of white bread stacked next to a toaster, a giant tub of butter and jelly, another giant tub of what looked like corn flakes, and a couple gallons of whole milk. Yumm. Fuel for the day!

 Then the matter of the showers. Caitlin and I searched for a good 10 minutes through a maze of doors and stairs before finding them in the furthest corner of the basement. Not the cleanest things as you can imagine. Kelly refused to take one the whole weekend, but I was determined to experience hostel living to the fullest. It was cold, I had to use a t-shirt for a towel, and definitely didn't have the luxury of curling my hair, but I did it:)

Setting off around 9:30 we took the underground to Leicester Square, because Kelly and Caitlin had their hearts set on getting tickets to a musical that night.The original plan was to go see the new Harry Potter movie, which I was uberly excited about, but one of them had already seen it and "wouldn't it be so cool to say you've seen a show in London?!". Well sure...until we decide to buy tickets to the cheapest one, which happened to be Grease...couldn't imagine anything worse. But whatever, I wasn't going to be the downer travel-buddy when they were really excited.

The remainder of the day was spent jaunting about and hitting attractions on the west side of town. We toured Harods where we 'oohd and ahhhd' over all the gorgeous designer clothing we could never afford. Grabbed a cup of coffee and took a stroll through Hyde Park. Then caught the tube over to St. Paul's cathedral and the surrounding area. 

St.Paul's was amazing. A couple of people had recommended getting a view of the city from the cathedral as opposed to the more pricey London Eye. Again, Kelly wasn't down with this plan (despite the fact that she's super religious?), so she walked around for a couple of hours while Caitlin and I admired the catacombs, sat in the whispering gallery, and climbed the 500+ steps to the top. The 360 degree view was fantastic (pictures at the bottom). But ohhh man were our legs SORE by the time we got down. Totally worth it though. 

We met up with Kelly and walked over Millennium Bridge to see the Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, and the London Bridge. The interesting thing about all these places, is that they've been completely developed around, and unless you know what you're looking for you're in danger of passing them right by. It's a bit anti-climactic, and not what I was expecting. I mean the Globe was sandwiched in between some modern office building and a restaurant:( 

I was giving it my all to remain excited and upbeat throughout the latter part of the afternoon, but Kelly was bored and showing it (she'd already seen a bunch of this when she'd left us), Caitlin's feet hurt and it was growing chilly.  The 8 hours of walking had taken its toll, so we headed to Piccadilly Circus to grab food before the show. But it only got worse. We walked around for another hour looking for a place to eat. Caitlin had her heart set on sushi, Kelly wanted something safe like pizza, and I didn't really care as long as those two could just decide.  Another 20 restaurants went by (Shelby was now freezing and properly irked) so I told them to figure it out and meet me in the pub afterwards. Great decision. A little mulled wine and I was feeling much more myself.

Grease turned out to be fine. And by fine, I mean the wine had basically put me to sleep, so I was less sickened by the crowds of English people clapping in unison and screaming every time a song started. Though the irony of the whole ordeal really hit me when Danny Zuko spoke out with an English accent at the end. So unnatural. 

We were out and about by 8am the next morning (I happily skipped the shower this time).We traveled the underground to Victoria station, where we walked to the Westminster Cathedral to attend Sunday Mass at the request of Kelly (she actually went into this one). Afterwards it was to Buckingham Palace for the change of the guards, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Parliament. As soon as we crossed the bridge to take pictures of the parliament building, it began to pour buckets, and my backpack suddenly felt like it weighed about a million kilos.

By this point, we were thoroughly exhausted and figured we'd done a pretty good job of seeing all that we came for, and that a long relaxing lunch was in order. I really appreciated these girls inviting me to join them on their London trip, despite the conflicting ideas (and them not really wanting to drink with me), which is to be expected. We'd all deemed London a must-see, and were glad we did, but as the weekend came to a close we began to worry again about unfinished schoolwork and deadlines. It's pretty safe to say at this point that everyone is ready to go home, especially with the invasion of Christmas decorations and music everywhere you look. This weekend was good timing though, because after Brussels this coming weekend, it's time to crack down and pass my classes here. 

Our train back to Lancaster departed at 7:30, so we killed the rest of our time sitting on a bench in the British Museum, then sitting in a Starbucks, then sitting in the train station. I cannot convey how good that sitting felt. A long weekend of walking and map reading and backpack hauling takes it out of you like no other. We got safely to the train, and with no girl group or other entertainment act seated near me, I fell into a comfortable, much-needed sleep all the way back to Lancaster.

Caitlin and Kelly

Hyde Park

St. Pauls

Views from St. Paul's

The Globe (?)

London Bridge

Buckingham Palace

Under arrest???

Westminster Abbey

London Eye

Biiiig Ben