LONDON

Sarah and I just got back from London. Classes don't start until tomorrow, so we decided to head to London for a little trip. We left on Wednesday and got back last night. We went to London without any idea of what we would do.
We got there just before 3 and headed to the hostel to check in. It wasn't too far or too hard to find, so we walked there fine and checked in without a problem. The hostel was nice (Smart Russel Square, I think it was called). Though, the site we saw said free wi-fi, which was not true. 15 min on their computer was 50p. Anyway, we dropped our bags on a couple of beds and went back out. Not knowing anything about London, we looked at the underground map and picked something we recognized- Piccadilly Circus.

From there, we got 2-day tickets for an open top double decker bus tour. It's a bit pricy, but we figured it was alright since we didn't know much about London. We rode around on that, saw some sites, then hopped off, hoping to find some food since we were quite hungry by that point and could no longer feel our feet. Frustrated that we couldn't really find anything, we decided to head back to the hostel and ask them. Between the underground stop and the hostel, we saw a cute little Italian restaurant and just stopped there. We were already beat, so we stayed in that night at the hostel. The common room was bustling, but we weren't really sure how to really break in to any groups, so we mostly just hung out awkwardly. This guy, AB, eventually invited us over to talk to this really weird group of people. AB was around 40 and he was talking to this guy Andrew, who was something else. Probably also nearing 40, he really creeped us out. He was pretty drunk and told Sarah to do Ketamine...We tried to steer clear of him. Once we got tired of this group and most of the people had run to the liquor store, we excused ourselves and went up to bed.
The room, BTW, was freezing, but there were these FANTASTIC blankets that were so fluffy and warm. In the morning, I did not want to get out of bed, but breakfast was free and over at like 9:30 or 10, so we went down. We were the only ones in pajamas- wtf?
We hopped on the bus tour again, a different one, tho. This one was supposed to have a live tourguide - alas, nope. I think it's the off-season. We eventually got pretty cold and hopped on the boat tour (which also came with our ticket). This was the lamest boat tour ever. You had to pay extra for a guide, so we just sat on it...riding up and down the river. Then we decided to go to Fleet Street for dinner because we remembered that there were a lot of restaurants there, but we didn't know how to get to Fleet Street. We stopped at a souvenir shop and pretended to be really interested in everything....and looked it up on a map. We settled on Ye Olde Cock Tavern and went in and sat down. We didn't realize it was bar service and we were very confused. Eventually, we ordered food. She got a fish and chips, I got a Welsh rarebit and we split some nachos. I forget the name of the beer I got, but it was basically European Keystone. I felt at home.
We had planned to go out that evening so we went back to the hostel and fixed ourselves up a little...nothing crazy, just brushed our hair and put on some mascara. Headed out and found that everything near the hostel was closed. Sad and defeated, we grabbed ravioli from a 24 hour convenience shop and cooked it up back at the hostel. I think we may have overcooked it a little. Chowing down on our late night snack, we sat at a table and found us sitting next to 2 Canadians who had just arrived. We started talking to them - Martin and Simon. Martin was such a know-it-all...who didn't actually know it all, so we had an interesting conversation about everything...while Martin and Simon got drunk, to try to beat the jetlag.
We planned the next day to go to Westminster Abbey and try to see a musical in the West End in the evening. When morning came, we were too tired to make it to breakfast, so we stayed in bed extra, eventually got up and showered. I forgot to bring flipflops to France at all, so I showered with socks on - it was weird haha. Then we went to Westminster Abbey, which was surprisingly interesting for a church! I recommend it.

We went to Piccadilly Circus to find tickets for a show that night. We found Grease tickets cheap enough and had a plan for that evening! We went back by the hostel and had falafel at a place nearby. It was delicious! So much different from the ones we usually have - it had some sort of chili pepper sauce in it and it was grilled into a wrap shape. It was great.

Then we went to Grease, which was great. A bit different from the movie, but some of the differences were funny. I'm not sure they understand some bits of 50s American culture. Danny greeted the T-birds with balltaps! They would've been much too homophobic for that! Also, some of the dancing was a little fruity.

Oh, the hostel. This evening, we spent time with our buddies, Martin and Simon. And a group of Frenchies. More BS from Martin - at some point he told me Ron Paul was a socialist...?? I was like, "I would probably...definitely, put him in the libertarian category...sorta opposites"
We were talking to the French kids, in English because they're in London. But I was talking to this one French kid who was not very good at English so I was speaking in French to him. Then his friend came over that we had talked to earlier and said, in French, something about "luck with the girls." I wasn't paying attention when he started talking so I'm not sure if he was teasing him for having or not having luck with the girls, but, either way, it's kind of embarrassing. The kid who he was making fun of was super embarrassed and put his face in his hands and then the other guy turned to us and said in English "We're talking about serious stuff." The poor embarrassed kid turned around and was like, "they speak French!" as I was explaining to Sarah what had happened, since she was a little far to hear it all.
Shortly after, they peaced, out of embarrassment I think. But they were nice, no need to be embarrassed!
Oh well.
The next morning we checked out and left our baggage in the baggage room there. Then we basically wandered around London with nothing else to do all day.

On our way out of London, we grabbed some cheddar and some really delic M&S candy bars.