a bratwurst is like you, *shaking hips*: SPICY

LONDRES

yeah, i love london. amazing weather, children in daffodils, accents, fish and chips, what more could a girl want?

Life Tip: I've said this before. Take the train, kids. Let's say a train ticket from Paris to London is 100€. EasyJet flight from Paris to London is only 65€, look! And it flies out of Charles de Gaulle! Well, kids, it flies into London Luton, which is £10/20 mins or £5/90 mins from central London. And, let's not forget that it takes 8,20€/40 mins to get to Charles de Gaulle in the first place. And you have to get to the airport early to check in and go through security. And you have to be careful what you pack, no liquids more than 100mL! So, take the train. Just do it.

london was fabbity fab fab fab!! unfortch, i took a later flight on friday because i had classes. funny thing is, i decided to skip my classes friday. so i was sitting around with not much to do, wishing i had taken an earlier flight. the airport was kind of a fiasco. when i got there, i didn't know which terminal to go to, and of course the terminals are about a 5min monorail-ish ride away from each other. of course, i go to the wrong terminal first, and when i finally get to the correct one, it turns out there are four parts to the terminal...so i had to basically walk the length of three terminals. greaaat. and then i was in the security line and the guy in front of me had a bird. a BIRD. it was great! he had this box thing and was talking to the security guy and the security guy was all like nooo you can't put animals through the xray. and then the guy takes something out of the box...it's a little cage with a BIRD in it! security guy gets confused and calls someone else over...and then they take the guy out of the line. hahahahah.

flight was usual, landed in luton and got on the bus to go to london. it was a loooong bus ride. i slept for some of it. after getting into london and trying to figure out the underground, i got the the hostel and dropped off my stuff...and then dindin!

London Tip: Get an Oyster Card. It's a £3 deposit, each ride only costs £1.50, and you won't get charged over £4.80 a day (prices for zones 1-2, pretty much all you'll need). After you're done, you can turn in your card and get your deposit and all of your remaining balance back in cash. A single one-way ticket costs £4 and a regular day pass costs £5.30. Friday I took three trips (£4.50), Saturday I took five trips (£4.80), and Sunday I took three trips (£4.50). Not too bad.

first dinner in london was at a vegetarian restaurant, carnevale. HIGHLY recommended. and i love meat. don't get the pumpkin ravioli, though, it's kind of sweet which is weird. i got the risotto and it was AMAZING. and then when we left the restaurant it was somehow midnight so we just went back to the hostel.

i do not enjoy hostel living. it's a tiny room with six bunk beds in it. i had a bed up against the wall so i only had one neighbor. i was separated from him by a fabric wall. these beds were all connected, with just a little pane of fabric separating them. and there was crap thrown everywhere and i had to carry a key with me to get back from going to the bathroom. and there were people yelling and running up and down the halls at all hours of the night. my nice neighbor was talking on his cell phone, IN BED (as in, ten inches away from my head) at 5am! evidently, nobody was on europe time.

speaking of europe time, the english end their day so early! people eat around 5! at around 8 we tried to look for food and all the places we went to had signs that said 'no food after 6' or 'no food after 8'. wtf?? and, when we were walking around at 8-9ish, people were in line for clubs and completely smashed, running around screaming! at 9! i don't get it.

london loved me, i awoke saturday to bright blue skies and big puffy clouds. we headed over to buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard. good thing changing of the guard only happens every other day during the winter (on even numbered days). so, we wandered through green and st james parks. the flowers were in bloom! and there was grass and trees and swans and ducks! and english pigeons are much less annoying than french pigeons. more proper, even.

we walked towards...whitehall? and i saw rhino man. he's going to be doing some run to save the rhinos in south africa in april. meeting rhino man was the highlight of my saturday morning.

for lunch, we grabbed fish and chips and, after failing to find a park that was on the map at the bus stop, sat on this large stone...thing. it could have been a table, only there were no benches around it. times like these make me wish i could put photos up. but, my computer's internet isn't working, and it's far too much of a hassle for me to load pictures from this computer.

after fish and chips i visited trafalgar square and the national gallery. a lot of museums in london are free, but i wasn't allowed to take pictures in them. LAME.

amy really wanted to visit scotland yard. so somehow we ended up in the west end (theatre district). and then somehow we decided to SEE SPAMALOT! yes. spamalot in london. BEST. THING. EVER. i cannot put into words how AWESOME it was. note: the plot is almost exactly the same as the holy grail, but with a completely different ending, that is perfectly corny. they change the theme of the story from finding the actual grail (if you saw that as the theme) to "finding the grail inside every one of us". so corny, and kind of lame, but, with the HUGE LANCELOT PLOT TWIST i can forgive them. because the huge lancelot plot twist is AMAZING. i was rolling.

after spamalot was more tourist time: picadilly circus (which i don't really get. it's just one wall with ads, and they're not very impressive looking), big ben, tower bridge, westminster abbey (didn't go in, that costs seven pounds), the eye (didnt go on, that costs FIFTEEN POUNDS! ridiculous), wandered around tower of london area. i did catch the tower bridge going up! and felix capture the occassion with TIME LAPSE technology. so i need to figure how to put that in here.

amy and i shared two pastys: a traditional and a pork and apple. DELISH. and then we went to covent garden where everything was closed and one of the guys at one of the places that werent serving food anymore told us the best place to go was the rock and sole plaice. so yes, i got fish and chips....again. and it was DELICIOUS.

and then sunday was super nice again, and i went to PLATFORM NINE AND THREE QUARTERS!! and, along with the requisite group of asian tourists, there was also a small boy (ok, like ten or something) DRESSED UP AS HARRY POTTER. it was AMAZING. he had glasses and a broom and a messenger bag that said hogwarts. just fabulous.

and then alice and i did a quick 40 min tour of tate modern, the modern art museum. i really like modern art. mostly because it really makes no sense and i can see whatever i want to see. i like mostly the stuff that does make sense, though. there was this one work where it was a bunch of child size beds put together and a map was painted on all of them. combining indoor space with outdoor space. i thought it was really cool.

then, we made the 11:30 changing of the guard! only there was beacoup de monde and i couldn't see anything. but i COULD see their big fuzzy hats! note: the guard's winter uniform is grey. so not as fun as the red guards. AND buckingham palace is closed to the public in the winter, so you have to go in the spring/summer/fall if you want to harass the guards. LAME.

and then, the long trek back to paris. but not without stopping by marks and spencer! marks and spencer is a department store but they have these 'outlets' that are basically fancy grocery stores that sell prepared food. a high-class wawa, if you will. i bought second lunch (first lunch was a DELISH sausage from green park), a prawn salad, and THE BEST CHIPS I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. marks and spencer brand sea salt and balsamic vinegar crisps. they were AMAZING.

and then i missed an amazing view of some country palace from the plane. ah, it would have been epic