Day 76: Saturday, April 2, 2011

The bus that took us all around London

Today we woke up at 7:15 to the most repulsive person I have ever met in my life.  He was about 30, pretty tall, really, really skinny, and the oddest man in the world.  We were awoken by him hawking lugi's in the bathroom.  And as mentioned, the walls in this hostel were paper thin, so we could hear every single thing that was going on in that room.  It was basically like it was happening right next to my head.  It was the most disgusting thing I have ever had to listen to, for over an hour.  He was puking, and spitting up, and being so incredibly rude.  He knew for a fact we could hear him, and it literally made me nauseous.  Finally, about 8:15, we just got out of bed and started to get ready.  And of course, the second we got out of bed, he stopped being repulsive, and just sat there and fanned himself while he watched us get ready.  There was definitely something wrong with him.  First of all, he was 100% anorexic.  But something else was wrong with him too; he was fidgeting and sweating profusely.  It was so bizarre.  So we got ready, packed our stuff, and headed out.  Our flight home on Sunday was at 6:00am, so we decided to save money and not get a hostel for tonight.  We definitely regretted the decision when we were getting out of bed at 8:15 this morning, and realized we wouldn't be getting in a bed again until about noon tomorrow.  We checked out, left our bags in the luggage room, and left for the day!  We grabbed a bagel to go, then hopped on the bus to watch the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. 

Before the Changing of the Guards

We got there around 10:30 for the 11:30 showing.  We originally thought we got super lucky with the seats we got; we were sitting right on the curb in front of the Palace, with everyone behind us!  However, we realized during the actual Changing of the Guards, the best seats were probably the ones right in front of the fence outlining the Palace.  Because where we were sitting, we couldn't see the actual Changing of the Guards.  We got an excellent view of all the activity that went on outside the Palace, but we couldn't see inside the courtyard.  Everyone that went inside the Palace passed right in front of us, so that was cool.  But we didn't get to actually see the guards changing.  However, the people that could see the guards changing, couldn't see the streets where everything else took place; so there wasn't really a win-win.

Everyone anxiously awaiting!

We hung out for awhile, waiting for it to start.  Finally around 11:45, the rituals began.  It wasn't what I was expecting at all; everything was very incremental. First a band came marching through while playing their instruments, then nothing happened for about 15 minutes.  Then some more soldiers came through on horses, then nothing happened for another 15 minutes.  It went on like that for about an hour.  All the soldiers marched through the front gates of the Palace, then performed the changing of the guards within the gates.  That's when it would have been nice to have seats by the gates!  But God forbid we crossed the street to try and get closer; I think the Police would have literally shot us.  They were so strict about what you could and could not do there!  After the guards switched, the soldiers marched back out right in front of us, then up the street.  It went on for a little over an hour, then everyone dispersed!  I took some video clips throughout the whole show, then combined them all on my Mac!  It looks choppy because I didn't record the whole thing, but here it is!

Changing of the Guards

On the River Cruise!

The bus ticket we bought yesterday came with a free river cruise, so after the Changing of the Guards, we decided to do the river cruise.   We were kind of nervous because the tickets were only supposed to last for 24 hours, and we had passed the mark.  But it didn't matter at all; they barely looked at our tickets.  We hopped on the boat and got great seats right on the railing.  Because we had hopped on and off the bus so many times yesterday, we felt like we had passed all the sights 100 times already!  So the river cruise was pretty much the same thing as the bus tour, but by water obviously.  The tour guide was saying pretty much the same things we had already heard, so we only stayed on for about 45 minutes.  We were really hungry, so we hopped off and grabbed lunch.  And much to our surprise, it was amazing.  Definitely one of the top five meals I've had since I've been here.  And it was just a simple pulled pork sandwich with french fries.  But it was soooooo delicious!  For some reason I have never ordered a pulled pork sandwich from a restaurant, but that is definitely going to change when I get back to the states.  Because I cam to the conclusion that I love them.  

Traitors Gate from the Thames River

I love Bodean's.

After our incredibly scrumptious lunch, we continued to use our expired bus tickets and hop back on the bus.  We had originally planned to do the London Eye.  Although London rarely has clear days, you can supposedly see as far as 25 miles when there's blue skies.  Fun fact: there are 32 carts on the London Eye, but the builders thought it would be too unlucky to have a cart number 13, so they skipped it!  Anyways, it cost 20 pounds per person to ride the London Eye, which we thought was kind of ridiculous.  Our tour guide told us that we could climb St. Peter's Basilica for free and get views that are just as spectacular.  So we took the bus to St. Peters.  We got there at 4:06, and they stop letting people in at 4:00.  Such a bummer!  We learned that things in London close super early.  What kind of establishment closes at 4:00pm on a Saturday during tourist season??  So we settled for some Starbucks, then got back on the bus and took it to Piccadilly Circus.  It's a really cool circle with shopping and neon advertisements and billboards.  It's always so hectic that if you have lived in London for 10 years, it is impossible to stand in the circle for more than 33 minutes without seeing someone you know.  

London from Primrose Hill

By this time, it was getting dark.  Christi's friend Laura had mentioned a favorite spot of hers, Primrose hill, was a great place to go to watch the sunset.  It happened to be just a 10 minute walk from our hostel, so we took the bus as close as we could to our hostel, got a little lost, then found our way.  We hiked up to the top of the hill, and it was the best recommendation ever.  As we were walking up, the sun was just beginning to set, so the sky was a pretty pinkish-blue (see right.)  But soon enough, there was the most beautiful, vibrant, magnificent sunset ever.  I had never seen anything like it.  The colors were so bright!  There were people perched all over the hill with bottles of wine watching the sun go down.  It would have been such an awesome place to go on a date with Kevin! (But Emily was a good date too!)

Emily and I at Primrose Hill

The sunset

So pretty <3

After the sun went completely down, we walked back down the mountain and then continued the mile and a half to Chipotle :)  It was the last time we were going to have it for a month and a half, so once again, we ate every last grain of rice in our burrito bowls.  And because we were homeless, we hung out there for about an hour before heading back to the hostel.  We didn't have a room to go to, so we hung out in the bar connected to our hostel for a little.  We had some pounds to spend, so we decided to order a fishbowl of jungle juice.  And it was literally a fishbowl.  The drink was delicious, so we finished it, then reluctantly headed to the airport.  We spent our last pounds on a taxi to the bus station, then took the bus to the airport.

-This is now Sunday, but I am continuing on Saturday's post because unless I go to sleep, it is still considered the same day. And we got no sleep.  

Sleeping at the airport

We arrived to the airport around midnight and it looked like a campground.  Literally.  The airport itself was completely shut down; none of the counters were open, but there were people sleeping everywhere.  And not just on chairs, all over the hard, marble ground.  I guess all these people were on the same page as us with saving money on hotels if you have a cheap flight!  So we found a nice, "cozy" spot to snuggle up on the ground, and chilled there until they opened the counters.  Marble floors get freezing cold, so we were literally shivering as we were waiting.  I managed to fall asleep for a little bit (of course) and was woken up around 4:00am when people were shuffling to the check-in counter.  We waited in line and went through security, then had to wait for another hour on the other side of security for them to put up our gate number.  Finally, around 6:00am, we boarded our flight.  I was 100% exhausted.  The second I got on the plane I fell asleep.  But when I woke up an hour later, we were still on the ground.  I was so angry; why hadn't we taken off yet????  Coincidentally, about 30 seconds later, an announcement came on that said there was something wrong with the plane, and that all passengers needed to exit the plane.  Once again, I was so angry.  This would happen the one time where we haven't slept in 24 hours.  So every passenger got their luggage, got off the plane, walked across the tarmac to a different plane, then still had to wait 20 minutes outside the new plane!!!  Once we got on, I immediately fell right asleep again.  I slept the entire flight; I didn't wake up until we were landing.  We tiredly took the long journey from the airport home; I have never been so excited to see our house!!  I went right to bed when I got back, and took a nice three hour nap :)

HOME SWEET HOME!!