The Story So Far...

Have to love song titles and lyrics for titles to blogs.

The past couple days still seem like a dream to me.. regardless if I haven't been sleeping much.  Day dreaming maybe?

My first impressions were so haywire.  My flight was delayed almost two hours and I had an entire cheerleading team of at least 50 on my flight.  Not trying to be stereotypical, but they were practicing their routine in the terminal.  That's where my patience began to run thin.

As soon as I sat on the plane a huge sigh of relief came.  Lucky me, didn't get have to sit by a creepy old guy.  It was a 15 year old freshman in high school named Diego (I found this out through talking to him of course.)  Across the isle was another friendly face.  Later learned his name was Philip (Phil for short.)  He is originally from England, and was returning home to visit his family.  Dun dun dun, first british accent to swoon over.  Hah.  Diego had a really bad migraine, so we came up with a plan to ask Phil to switch seats with him since he had no neighbor and Diego could lay down.  Phil shot back with the idea of me sitting in the empty middle seat next to him instead so Diego could lay in the corner and sleep.  Don't ask how I was convinced to give up my beloved window seat for a middle seat... but I did.  There was no compromising for the isle seat with him... wanker!  Anywho, flight went very smoothly.  I was really anxious and enjoyed listening to Phil talk far too much to sleep, regardless if he wanted to or not... haha... I think I slept only an hour on the 10 1/2 hour flight.  Watched 500 Days of Summer... yada yada.. less about the flight, more about the city!

*You can click on any of the photos to see a bigger size*

Getting through customs was a drag.. so many redundant questions.  Finding my way around the airport and to the tube was a bit tricky. I opted for taking the underground rather than the Heathrow Express because it was far cheaper.  People were really willing to help which made it nice and simple.  Bought and Oyster Pass so I have free roam in zones 1 and 2.  Don't really need to go further than those anyways.  I can't believe how simple it is to get around here.  I'd move here for the public transportation alone!  Its amazing, and so fast to get around.  By the time I got to my hotel it was 9pm.. I was exhausted from staying up for over 24 hours so I stayed in.  I'm really happy with my hotel accommodations.  I was really worried I would be far from things  I wanted to do or see, but I'm not.  Yay!



As exhausted as I was I still slept horrible the first night.  I woke up a bunch and couldn't fall asleep for long periods of time.  I feel like I was laying in bed watching the clock.   I finally got out of my hotel around 10:30/11:00am, just enough time to make it to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of Guards.  Woohoo!  I got off the underground and walked through Green Park... my first day time sights in London.. absolutely gorgeous.  Lucky me, it was really sunny.  Didn't know sunglasses would have came in handy here.  Buckingham Palace was stunning,  even just the gates around it.  So much detail put into everything.  Changing of the Guards was an awesome experience.  I think I may try to go back tomorrow to see it again now knowing where the best place to stand would be.  The only thing I could see with clear view was the march into the palace gates.

After gawking over Buckingham Palace I took a stroll down the long road directly in front of it.  St James park was on the right where I had a clear view for Big Ben... gorgeous.  Probably my favorite tourist attraction.  I love clocks.  I stopped by Trafalgar square before I went on the Big Ben hunt.  The Christmas tree was still up.  I'm going to try to go back at night so I can snap photos with all of the lights on.

After Trafalgar Square I started walking down what seemed to be the way to Big Ben.   I turned a corner, and had my breath literally taken away.  Big Ben.  I was expecting it to be to my right, and to my surprise it was on my left.  Hence why it caught me off guard so much.  Not until I sat on a bench to bask in the glory of the clock bells did I realize how cold it was.  I felt like my nose was going to fall off.  I saw on a bench right in between Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral.  Couldn’t think of a more gorgeous place to sit or be.  After nearly freezing to death I figured it would be in my best interest to start walking again to warm myself up.  I found two guys who seemed to know where they were going so I asked if I could tag along.  The outcome was nowhere near as good as the outcome I had with Phil.  After all, Phil would be in London on Tuesday (today) and had a possibility of meeting up with me.  Their names were Sam and James.  Sam flew in from Australia, and James lived around the corner in London.  They lead me to the Tate Modern Museum and left after awhile of walking around with me.  After venturing around the art museum I headed across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Stunned once again.  The architecture here is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  After sitting on a bench in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral for a bit I decided it was time to head back to my hotel.  I think my feet and nose took in as much cold as possible for one day.  I found a cute coffee shop called Tiki Café across the street from my hotel that has free wifi.  Enjoyed some chai tea and caught up on emails and such.  Went to sleep fairly early… boring, boring, I know.