A Weekend Jaunt to London

Erin, friends from her program and me taking a novelty photograph in front of a... ahem... novelty shop.
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Early in the summer I found out that my very near and dear friend (and ex-roommate) Erin would be spending July in England, studying at the globe theater. Knowing that by mid-July (which would mark the mid-point of my time in Spain) I would be lonely for my friends, I splurged and booked weekend plane tickets to England. By the time July came around, I was so excited for the trip that even packing seemed like a treat.

Hoping to save some money, my flight up to London was at 12:37 a.m. and I landed in London sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. Since Id packed light and didnt need to wait for stowed luggage, I grabbed my backpack, got through passport inspection, and searched for a bench to nap on until the Underground opened. To my surprise, almost all the benched in the main waiting room were completely packed with travelers and whole families sleeping or talking quietly. One group had even stacked up their luggage (involving VERY large cardboard boxes) around their benches to form a little room all of their own. Finally I found a free bench and made use of my earplugs, sleeping mask, bookbag as a pillow, and alarm clock until 4:45 a.m. when I bought a train ticket for central London.

Since Erin had classes from noon until 2 am, I packed my purse and headed out to explore London for 10 hours on foot...

Big Ben with the Eye of London in the background. I was really impressed by the sights of London.
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I finally arrived at Erins bed and breakfast, exhausted a little before 7 a.m. where I had to convince the two desk attendents that I was indeed sure that Erin would want to be woken up and informed of my arrival. While waiting for her to come sign me in, I (in typical Sarah fashion) befriended the desk attendents. One of them offered me a drink (fresh squeezed orange juice) which I politely declined and asked inside for some tips on exploring London by foot the next day. At this, the juice-attendent pulled out a map and proceeded to highlight and circle every place of interest from one end of London to the other, including his personal place of abode. By the time Erin finally arrived, we had to wait another twenty minutes for this enthusiastic native Londoner to finished sharing his sightseeing insights.

My dear friend Erin standing beside one of the more interesting statues in the British Museum.
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As it turned out, Erin had classes all the day, from noon until 2 a.m., so I packed my purse with pens, camera, money and food (provided by the generous Martos) and set out to explore London for 10 hours on foot.

First I headed directly into the open-air market district, hoping to familiarize myself with the atmosphere of Southbank London, pick up some postcards and lose myself among the many quaint sidestreets. Without two hours, I had thoroughly accomplished this final goal and it took direction from four separate Londoners on four separate (but identical) street corners to find my way back to London Bridge. After that, I spent the rest of the day walking all the way up one side of the Thames and all the way down the other, from Tower Bridge to Big Ben. The sights were incredible, the street music was varied and impressive, and the sky was blue, blue, blue. I supped on some delicious end-of-the-day-discounted sushi sitting over the Thames below London Bridge. All in all, it was a perfect, relaxing, entirely whim-driven day.

Ummm... mushy peas, anyone?
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When I got back to the hotel, I was again met by the same overly-friendly desk attendent who suggested that I head down to the in-hotel pub if I still had free time, which I promptly did. Because it was mostly a youth hotel, the entire room was filled with georgeous young people from all over the world. In my typical fashion, I managed to befriend and spend the next hour talking to the only person older than 25 (older than 40, in fact) in the entire room. He was an interested and talkative construction worker from Brighton area and we talked for hours about London, the differences between different areas of England, and my traveling experiences. It was a treat to have an entire conversation with someone in English. It was the first time in practically two months that I could really express what I was thinking!

London Bridge. Doesnt look like much, but at least its not falling down.
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The next day, Erin had entirely free and she, a group of her friends from her program, and I packed up and headed off to the British Museum to spend almost the whole day exploring everything from ancient Egyptian mummies to the Parthenon. Afterwards, those who who up for a night on the town went out to a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner and then out to hit the clubs. My first surprise of the evening was being able to order wine at dinner. It still strikes me as strange that I can be illegal in one country and legal in another. My second surprise of the evening was how expensive it was to go out clubbing in London. I suppose Ive been spoiled by the relaxed and fun nightlife of Alicante and, more importantly, the lack of entrance fees. In London, the drinks were expensive and entrance fees were worse. Luckily, I had the best company in all of London and spent several really fabulous hours dancing and laughing ALL IN ENGLISH!