London for the Weekend

Watching the Lord Mayor's parade from on top of St. Paul's.
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So we left Friday evening for the trip to London. This is weekend four of our five planned weekends. We took the National Express, a coach, so we had a most uncomfortable ride down to London. I tried to sleep but the seats we just not going to allow nor the screaming kid. When we got to London we went and found our hostel first thing. Josie had already been there so she could remember how to get to the place. Which apparently was a good thing because she said the directions the hostel gives are crap.

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After we settled in we were kinda hungry so we went back to the train station and ended up getting baguette sandwiches. They were soooo good. I got one that had ham and mozzarella cheese. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it now, and it's two weeks later. It was too late to go out so we called it an early night (12pm) and went to bed.

After we caught our breath we climbed the last 152 steps to the golden gallery, which is the highest you can go and also ends up outside.

The millennium bridge over the Thames.
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The next morning we got up and had breakfast. It was provided with the hostel, so that was a nice. Ramsey, Josie and Margeaux wanted to go watch Wicked and Kyle and I wanted to see Mary Poppins. We ended up splitting up so we could go buy the tickets. Then the other three wanted to do some shopping and I wasn't too up for that so we met up with them later for dinner. Kyle and I went over towards Leicster square and bought out play tickets and wandered around for a bit. Then we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. When we got off the underground at that stop it was like we walked into a wall of people. I had no idea why so many people were crowding that station.  We figured it out soon enough. The Lord Mayor Of London was having his annual parade and Lord Mayor's Day Celebration.

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We weren;t all that interested so we went into  St. Pauls. Because of streets being blocked off we couldn't go in the front, but had to enter through the crypt. I have to say that I kinda like entering that way. You explore the downstairs and then you go to walk upstairs and when you get to the top of the stairs you come out right by the dome. So my first view was the upward expanse of the nave and the dome. That church is amazing. You feel so tiny standing in it. I also could keep myself from looking up, the ceiling glitter from the stones used in the mosaics. We walked around the bottom part for a bit and then headed up.

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First you walk 259 steps up from the ground floor to get to the Whispering  Gallery, which is in the dome part. You feel like you've come a long way and then you get there and you realize that your still a far way. You still feel small below the dome, but everyone looks small below you too. We sat there for a while admiring the dome. Then we climbed the 119 more step to get the golden gallery, which is located outside. From here we could watch part of the parade as it wound it's way around the cathedral and through the streets. After we caught our breath we climbed the last 152 steps to the golden gallery, which is the highest you can go and also ends up outside. Right before you get to the top you have the change to look down through a hole down to floor. It's a long way down! From here we had a pretty good views of the city. It was really cold and windy so we didn't spend too much time up there.

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After we were done at St. Paul's we called the others to see if they wanted to meet up for lunch. We all had the play at 2, but thought it would be nice to meet up. So they tell us which tube station to get off at. When we get there I text Josie and she tells us they are in TopMan. Well we cross the street and go over. I realize this place is like a block wide and four stories high. So I text her again and she says that she is down stairs, well there are two floors below us. Eventually we find them in some obscure corner of the store. We took the tube to the Chinatown area and went to a Chinese Buffet thing. I wasn't all that impressed really, but everyone else seemed to really like it. Then we split off becuase it was time to watch the shows. I really liked MARY POPPINS. I was a little surprised at how scary they made her seem in the movie, but I guess that is more true to the original book then the Disney Movie. The set was really cool, it was the inside of the house and different parts of it would come down and in from the side. I had fun singing along to the songs that I knew. After dinner Kyle and I headed back to the hostel to meet up with the others. Once we all met up we went out to dinner. We had found a Mexican food restaurant that was right near our hostel. We all felt so at home in the restaurant. Although I do have to say I had an erg to order and talk to the waiters in Spanish, but I don't even know if they would have understood me. I ordered some tacos that were pretty good. The tortilla chips weren't right, but what can you do? After dinner we hung out at the Hostel for a while and then went back into Central London to a club. It was an interesting and fun evening.