London!

On my trip there were a few countries I was going to that required my passport to be valid for more than 3 months. It was expiring in August so I got it renewed. I told them I’d pick it up b/c I didn’t want to worry about trouble with the mail. The planning was tight though. The pick-up date was the 15th. I was flying out the night of the 15th. Yes, I have tight schedules hehe. So I go to pick it up and the girl goes into the back to look for it. And then comes back sans passport and says…I can’t find it. Ack, my heart stops. She checks her computer. It should be here she says. I start to breath deeply. She goes and comes back, hmm can’t find it. Omg this is not happening. I start to pray. Another guy comes and goes to look for it. He finds it! Oh thank goodness! Phew….I can go! And man, my parents would never let me hear the end of it if my last minute/tight schedule didn’t work out.

Anyhow. I started my trip but just hopping across the pond and visit Great Britain and the wonderful city of London. The flight was quite pleasant, the movies were good, and I made some friends on it. The girl beside me was from UoT traveling to London and Spain.

I got to London and I was like wow, this is very British! I got to the hostel and was exhausted. Setting out for a short walk and to get some food I ended up walking for hours just looking at stuff.

My first picture in London

St. Pauls Cathedral

Front of the Cathedral

Cleopatra's Needle

After walking around for hours, I was like I dont’ want to go to sleep now. If I do I’ll end up waking up in the middle of the night. What to do, what to do. And then I saw tickets on sale for Wicked! A theatre show on the Westend! Awesome!

Wicked!

My seats were good, but for 50 pence you could use these and I just had to try it out and get a pic hehe

I have to say the show is just awesome. I particularly like the Defying Gravity song! It was excellently done and I like the idea behind it as well. That is, not letting ppl dictating the limits of what you’re capable of.

The next day I set off for a full day of sightseeing starting with…

The British Museum!

The Rosetta Stone!

I learned they used this to figure out how to read Egyptian Hieroglyphics. I.e if Egptians wrote the word ‘cat’ they would write the symbols for c, a, t, and then a 4th symbol which is the picture of a cat. Interesting eh!

London Bridge is nothing like I imagined...

Tower Bridge is so much cooler!

Entering the Tower of London

One of the buildings within the Tower of London compound

Queen Victoria's old crown

They wouldn't let me try the crown....so I tried this

Typical London pic

Tower Bridge letting a ship through

While in London I made plans to meet up with a fellow blogger, Sofi. Unfortunately she wasn’t feeling well but she reminded me there was another blogger there, Mash. I met up with Mash and 5mins later, I was at a house party haha. It was cool meeting a bunch of local Londoners and they were all really cool people. It was fun, but I have to admit, as much as I love the British accent, it did make me feel slow. Someone would say something and it’d take a sec for me to register what they said b/c of the accent and by that time someone else had said something and…ah well. It was fun

Fuad, Lily, Mash, Rachel

Lily, Osman, Pete, and....can't remember

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

London Eye

Just a pic that I like

Tate Museum

Tate Museum had some awesome works of art!

Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park

Another from Hyde Park

The Londoners introduced me to this cool Turkish restaurant. It was far from downtown and I'd never have discovered it within out them

The Hostel I was at. Well technically its the building behind this one.

I stumbled upon some red carpet movie premiere...no idea who these ppl were though or even what movie

Leicester Square at Night

Alright, I think thats enough pics for now. For more pics you check out my London album on facebook

Overall, I really enjoyed London. It was soooo much bigger of a city than I thought. Theres a ton to do and see. Theres a lot of really cool chill spots to just sit down and relax. The weather was I guess typical London weather but it was weird! Like 1 min I’m hot and need to take my jacket off, the next its raining, then its super windy, then its cold. Seriously, I felt I had to take off/put on my jacket every 20mins. Theres also a ton of stuff flying around in the air, thank goodness I don’t have allergies! Indian restaurants are all over the place AND they’re really good! Of course its freaking pricy! Like I knew it was going to be expensive, but oh man, was it ever! I did soooo soo much in my few days there but I will definitely have to return b/c theres still so much more. And yes, the ppl there are pretty cool I did end up meeting with Sofi finally as well as Mash once more before leaving and it was cool. They’re both really nice and helped make my London trip an awesome experience!

Next stop, Edinburgh Scotland!