London Adventures

Friday

Arrive in London and meet Shelby at the bus stop. Get lost getting back to her house. Meet her roommates and her roommate, Kellie’s friends that were also visiting from Spain, Germany, and Ireland. We were a pretty multicultural house! Went to O’Neill’s a bar/club with a rock band and we were “front row.” It was awesome because they played some pretty good songs and we danced all night.

Saturday

Toured the Tower of London, bought roasted peanuts from a street vendor under the bridge, walked across Tower Bridge, lunch at a bagel shop, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, witnessed a Veteran's parade, walked through St. James’s Park and fed some ducks, Buckingham Palace, fireworks at the London Bridge, Covent Gardens, dinner at some random restaurant and gelato to follow, finally home. Watched the Syracuse basketball game (all the kids including Shelby go to Syracuse) and Signs and went to bed.

From the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Parade

Just hanging out with Big Ben

Which way next?

What's up?

"thank you for being here"
In front of Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives

Sunday

Abbey Road to take a picture, of course, Notting Hill, back to Covent Gardens to get some hot chocolate and really good cookies and to listen to some guy playing music in the center, walked through Piccadilly Square and Oxford Circus then continued down Regent Street where we did some window shopping and saw all the Christmas lights until reaching Marble Arch, and back home!

Woohoo Abbey Road

Covent Garden dressed for Christmas

Monday

Get up at 4:30am to catch the bus to bring me to the airport. Get a chai, cinnamon bun, and Cosmo before heading to security where I find out my flight is booked for the next day. Yup, I went to the airport a day early! So I went to the desk to find out how much it would be to change my flight. The guy said 83 pounds so I said see you tomorrow. Clearly London did want me to leave, and neither did I! I went to the desk to buy a ticket and the lady behind the counter wasn’t waiting on me so I asked her if I could buy a ticket and she said “yes when I open.” I asked when that would be and she said at 7. It was 6:57, really, she couldn’t just give me the ticket then.  After I bought the ticket, I walked out to the bus stop and as I was walking there, the bus pulled away and I had to wait another half hour before the next one. Thank you lady behind the desk. I finally got back to Shelby’s around 9. I hung out with her roommates while she was at class and then later that night we went to Primark, a huge department store, and cheap too.

Tuesday

Get up at 4:30 and repeat the same process as I did the day before. I wanted to make sure I knew what to do, that’s why I made the trial run yesterday. This time I finally made it back to Compiègne. I was walking back from the train station when I realized that I left my wallet on the train. My wallet that had my passport, credit cards, license, basically, every single piece of identification I own. I ran back to the train station and told the teller. She had me fill out a lost item report and said if it turns up we will call you. I was freaking out and assuming I had lost it forever. I walked outside to wait for the bus and called my mom crying when the teller came up to me and said that someone had found it and that she had it. So I went back inside and got my wallet back, fully intact. I want to thank whoever found it and turned it in. I headed back out to the buses clutching my wallet. I then boarded the bus only to realize I had taken it going in the wrong direction so I took a nice detour of the Compiègne Industrial Park before arriving back at the train station, 20 or so minutes later. I finally got on the right bus and got back to my room around 3. After a long day, I came home and made some homemade chicken soup and showered and headed to bed.

Phrase of the trip

“them crumblies” – Leigh, from Ireland

Besides the whole wallet fiasco and you know going to the airport a day early, it was the best trip I have taken so far. I met so many people who are also studying abroad and it was awesome to hear their stories and to talk about places that we have all visited. Thank Shelby for a great "extended" weekend!!