Reunion in foggy London town

East End (older part of town)
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My second to last trip! I can’t believe how fast this is all going. Anyway, London was tons of fun. Jess and I flew out Thursday night and arrived pretty late (around 1130pm) to Luton, which is almost an hour out of London. We thought we’d take the metro, but it was closed. There was no information desk and barely anything open. After a brief freakout, we found a few options for getting to London. Despite the ridiculous prices (plus the horrid exchange rate), we took a bus. An older security guard fooled us (thought he was funny) when we asked if it was the right bus, by responding with “No…where did you even buy this? This company doesn’t come here. It’s a different airport. This is a phony.” Etc etc. Not too funny at the time. So we took the bus in, and were surprised to see everything was closed! All the lights in the homes were off, and there weren’t any people out and it was only half past midnight! Not anything like Spain. We ended up having to walk about 40 minutes (down a really pretty lighted street, with more people on it) because for some reason everyone we asked along they way kept saying we were only 10 minutes away. Not the best estimaters, perhaps? We were trying to meet up with my friend Alix (studying in Florence) who had taken a taxi. We were having trouble, trying to be quick on the 2euro a minute phone convos. Jess and I wandered down one street and I hear a “Shanna?” It was Ferry! (my good friend from high school, David Ferry) We were on his street, luckily and he had been waiting around for us. So we all went to get Alix and finally made it back to his “flat” at about 230am. Nicola (best friend from high school) had actually surprised me and come to London (she’s studying in Paris)! However, we were all so tired; we pretty much said our hellos and went straight to sleep. The next day we woke up fairly early in order to make to Ferry’s class field trip where his professor gave us a walking tour of the East End of London. It was actually really interesting walking through the ever-changing area. We saw the street where one of Jack the Ripper’s murder took place, old Jewish homeless centers, and the now Indian part of town. We stopped for Indian food for lunch (a main thing I was looking forward to!) which hit the spot. (Naan and veggie curry!) Ferry, Jess, Alix, Nicola and I decided to walk back and see other parts of the city. We walked back and saw the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Shakespeare’s The Globe, and Burrow Markets (open market full of delicious food!). We taste tested all the samples there and bought some great chocolate covered honeycomb. We took some pictures along the way, as we walked through the annoying drizzly mist. An umbrella didn’t really help because there was such strong wind that the rain came sideways. It didn’t last too long, luckily. It got dark around 4pm (!) so we headed back to Ferry’s flat and picked up pre-made salads for dinner at the store. We tried to save money everywhere we could. We ended up hanging out in the flat for most of the night with Ferry and his friends, trying to avoid the rain. We went out to one bar which was really crowded so we weren’t there long. We walked back, took pictures in the phone booth and went to sleep (on Ferry’s couches). Saturday Alix, Jess, Nicola and I set out to see as many sights as possible. We walked down to Leicester Square to buy theater tickets, but they were way too expensive so we decided not to. We continued our tour of London walking down Whitehall, by the London Eye (from afar)Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and then stopped for lunch at this pub/restaurant called The Crooked Surgeon. We were all pretty hungry, and it looked good. We ordered drinks and food and while we were waiting in our window-view table, the tv’s go out and there’s an announcement (recorded) saying “Due to unforeseen circumstances, we ask that you calmly exit the building.” We all freak out, and start heading out, but no one else is really moving. It was so confusing. The tv’s came back on, people sat down, and the waiters said “sorry about that,” but not another word. We still have no idea what it was about! Strange. Anyway we ended up waiting about 2 hours for our food, because the kitchen “was backed up” (related to the announcement?) and ended up getting our entire meal and drinks on the house! I think it was worth the wait, saving about 30 US dollars! We moved on from there to see Trafalagar Square, Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery (my favorites were VanGough and Monet!). We walked back to the flat down Oxford Street (the main shopping street) which was closed off to cars, fully decked out in Christmas lights, and packed with people! I guess December first is the biggest shopping day of the year for them! It was crazy. I bought a few souvenirs and we met up with the rest of the group at Ferry’s. We went to an adorable pub down the street from Ferry’s but there weren’t any tables (and we had a big group with us) so we had to leave. After almost an hour of debating where to eat, we settled on some bread, cheese and cider from the market. We had a sort of makeshift picnic in a plaza, while the guys made sandwiches. After that, we walked a ways to an Irish style bar with a wood cabin feel to it. It was also packed, but a lot of fun. Alix and I were exhausted and decided to head back around 12 but the other stayed out. We had to wake up at 5am to get to the airport. The “tube” was closed (which we found out from some construction worker on our way there) so we had to take a taxi and then a train. We waited around, caught our flight, I slept the whole way and made it back on time. I’m still really tired, so Ill be going to bed early and trying to catch up much needed sleep! Overall, I really liked London; it is so similar to the states that it almost felt like home! The fact that they speak English helped too. It was great being able to get all my friends together, in LONDON (during the holidays) of all places. I loved seeing Ferry, was thrilled Nicola came too, and of course always love traveling with Jess and Alix!