Candace's 21st in London

Wow, time is flying - I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated my blog.  I am sorry, school just seems to be taking over my weeks and we have been gone every weekend, keeping me very busy! On November 5th, we went to London with our school for a field trip to St. Paul's Cathedral and the National Gallery/Portrait Gallery.  St. Paul's Cathedral was really neat - we got a tour around the inside by a professor, and then were able to go up to the top (a LOT of stairs) and look over the whole city.  It was kind of rainy and cloudy out, but the view was still gorgeous.  In the afternoon, we headed over to the National Gallery.  Since I had already seen it with my mom, we decided to spend some time eating at a nice restaurant.  After that, we headed back to the buses to get our luggage for the weekend.  We got a free pass down to London, and if we decided to stay the weekend we had to find our own transportation home.

Candace's friend Ryan has an apartment in London where he is studying abroad and said we (Candace, Veronica, Talia, Holly, and I) could crash at his place for the weekend.  He met us at St. Paul's cathedral and we went to his house right away.  It was pouring rain out, but we decided we still wanted to go out to celebrate Candace's 21st birthday (Nov 2).  So we got ready and headed out to a pub crawl.  We went to a couple different places and ended up at Ministry of Sound, which is supposedly one of the best clubs in Europe.  Due to the rain, and the fact that we had no idea where we were compared to Ryan's apartment, we took a cab home and crashed for the night.

The next day we just HAD to go to the only Chipotle in England for lunch, and then we went shopping for a couple hours.  In exchange for a place to stay, we promised to make Ryan and his roommates a home cooked meal, so that is what we did on Saturday night.  It was the same meal we had made my mom the last time we were in London, a pasta with olive oil and vegetables.  After that, we just relaxed and went to bed early because we were so tired.

In the morning we left early to catch the first train back to Grantham.  We just barely made the train in time.  To add to our stressful morning, when the conductor came to collect my ticket he told me that I had the wrong ticket.  Turns out, the ticket office in Grantham gave me a ticket from Grantham to London, instead of London to Grantham.  Despite my attempt at explaining the situation, I had to pay a 57 pound fee to buy the correct ticket.  Trust me, I was not happy.  After talking to a couple people from the company, I am currently working on getting all my money back, but I have learned now to check the train ticket before I leave the ticket office.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, and our last in London before we come home. Miss you all, Love you!