London Bridge is Falling Down.

As I sit here in my dorm room finishing up some last minute Sunday night homework, it’s hard to remember that I am in England.  However, all I have to do is lok up at the gorgeous designs on the ceiling to remember that I am living in a ridiculously large castle.  Every time I walk from one place to another, I feel like I take a different route.  My friends and I have also found numerous “secret passages” in which the doors are decorated so much like the wall, you don’t even notice them.  Although the food is actually pretty terorible, I have no complaints.  All of my classes are in amazing rooms that I’m sure would have incredible stories to tell – If only walls could talk.  Basically, I am still in awe of the manor I live at, and I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet that when I come home from a weekend trip, my new “home” is something I could have only imagined in my dreams.

Speaking of weekend trips, we just got back from London.  This was one of the trips hosted by Harlaxton so about 120 students and a lot of the faculty packed onto three different buses and headed to London on Thursday night after dinner.  It took us about 2.5 hours to get there by bus (it’s only a 45 minute train ride) because they don’t really have freeways here.  There are two lanes going each way but people can come on from crossing roads and of course there’s the occasional roundabout.  

I have never seen a city like London.  I don’t know how else to describe it, but the word fascinating comes to mind.  I really can’t explain London because words don’t quite do it justice.  I don’t even think a picture would do this city justice – you just have to see it.  The hustle bustle city life consists of narrow lanes, small cars, people on bikes, people walking everywhere, tube stations, little shops below apartment buildings, old buildings next to new buildings, and of course all the tourist sites.  By the time we got off the bus we were pretty excited to hit the town and explore.  We dropped off our stuff and a group of about 8 of us left to go find a local pub.  We ended up walking a lot further than expected but finally we found a club called the verve that looked like we could just sit down and enjoy ourselves.  We found out as soon as we tried to get in that there was a three pound cover, so being the cheap college students that we are, we decided to leave.  Across the street was a pub so we headed over there, found a table and were about to sit down when a waiter told us that they were closing in 10 minutes.  As we were leaving the host at the front of the store mentioned that he could get us into the club across the street for free.  So we go back to the verve and he gets on his radio – and we walked in like VIP.  We found a big table in the back and just got to know each other and had a few drinks.  Getting home was interesting because we had walked so far to get there, but we made it no problem.

The next morning Candace and I got up for a tour of the Tower of London.  After a mishap of getting on the wrong train at the tube station we got to the tour 15 minutes late and our group was still standing outside – so thankfully we didn’t miss it.  Our tour guide gave us a lot of information about the tower that pertained to what we are currently studying in British Studies, so that was nice.  We then had an hour to walk around the buildings; we saw all of the crown jewels, the bloody tower where Prince Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, were murdered, and a lot of suits of armor that the royalty used to wear.  The plan was to meet up with some other friends at noon but we never found each other (I don’t know how people ever lived without cell phones) so we decided to take off and walk around other parts of London on our own.

 
We saw just about every tourist thing there is to see in London.  We took the tube to Westminster and saw the London Eye and Big Ben.  We walked along the river and saw the Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We were pretty much dead tired from walking so far but regained a burst of energy when we got off the tube in the Soho District.  It was full of places to shop everywhere.  The first store we walked in had five levels, and that alone wore us out so we went back to the hotel.  Friday night a group of us did a pub crawl through London.  We got into 4 pubs/clubs for free and a drink at each – all for 10 pounds.  It was a pretty fun night.

Saturday morning we got up early to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  There were so many people there we really couldn’t see much of anything.  So we decided we’ll get there much earlier on our next trip to London.  We then took a walk by Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Tate Britain .  Later we took the tube up to Camden Town where they had a ton of street vendors and some really cute clothes.  The guys that were traveling with us were not thrilled about shopping, so we decided to save that for another trip as well.  Saturday night we took it easy and stayed close to the hotel because all of our legs ached from walking so much over the weekend.  We got some pizza and the best bruchetta I have ever had at a local pizza place, and then headed back to the hotel for an early night.

This morning our buses left at 10:00 AM and headed towards Hampton Court Palace.  We spent a good four hours there looking around, watching short videos, and live skits.  It is amazing to walk through a place that has so much history.  The ceilings were all painted with gorgeous murals and many gigantic tapestries were hung on the walls.  Again, there are no words to describe it – you just have to see it.

All in all, it was one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.  It still hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I am actually living in England, but I’m sure it will soon.  Next weekend we leave for Edinburgh, Scotland at 7:30 AM Friday morning for another weekend adventure.  Until then, I have to get through this week and actually do some homework.  Work hard, play hard.  Right?

Love and miss you all!