London, England

4 days of site seeing, but Michael Jackson took our trip of Parliament instead of us.

I decided to do the touristy stuff in London. The first day in town was a pretty relaxed one. Cydney and I went to eat with Bailey, Lance, and Allison. We ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken. We wanted something familiar. Sadly we were dissapointed. They don't have mashed potatoes or biscuits in the UK and their coleslaw isn't as good as it is back at home. But the chicken was the same, so we were happy. That night we didn't do much. We went down to the hotel bar and had some drinks and just sat and chatted. The next day Erin and I started our sightseeing adventure. We hoped on one of the big red tour busses and traveled around London. We got off at the Buckingham Palace sight. We saw where the princes lived and then went to the Palace. We got there just in time to get a great spot for the changing of the guards. We were right by the gate so we saw them all as they passed in and out. It was pretty neat. After Buckingham we caught the bus again. We stopped in Trafalgar Square for some lunch. After lunch we hopped back on the bus and then got off at the next stop. Sadly, didn't really know what stop that was, so we began to wander around aimlessly. I was reading street signs and I saw a name that looked familiar from a book we had read for our government class. Sure enough, the next street over was Downing Street. To some people this wouldn't be exciting, but to us it was. We'd been hearing about Parliament and Downig Street for the past two weeks in class. We took a picture of the street sign, then caught the bus again.

I really wanted to go see Phantom of the Opera while in London. So I did. I got the best ticket I could get. I was on the first balcony with a great view of the stage. It was so great to see the show. I had seen it once before at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio. Even with binoculars the faces were tiny. In my seat in London I didn't even need binoculars to see the faces. I absolutley loved it. I wish I could have seen more plays while in London, but time and money were short. Phantom was great though. After the play I met up with Cydney and her friend Greg and his friends Chris and Ross. We all went into town and had some drinks at a bar. It was fun, but the bar was really loud and the drinks were WAY over priced.

While Erin and I were touring the city, we made a stop in Covent Garden. We had a lot of fun here. We saw a street performer who rode a 14 foot unicycle and juggled. It was really neat. He was a lot of fun to watch. We also made a visit to the origional Dr. Marten store. Erin and I each bought the same shoes. I wanted blue ones, but they were out in my size, so I got the black ones. They are the best shoes. After that we had a little lunch. They are big on jacket potatoes there. You can get a baked potato on the side of the street all over London, with toppings like corn, and other odd things. I stuck with the basics: lots of butter, lots of sour cream, and lots of cheese. After the potatoes erin and I shared a dessert waffel with strawberry ice cream and chocolate syrup. It was really yummy.

While in London, our class was scheduled to take a trip to Parliament. We were all excited to see Parliament since we had been learning so much about it. However, when we got off the underground to meet our tour guide, we were told that our trip had been canceled and that we would be going on a tour guide bus. We were dissapointed. Not only were we dressed in hot business attire, but most of us had already taken the bus tour. Erin and I stopped off at the Hard Rock Cafe store to get some gifts and was that ever a good idea. We found out that because of the 30 year anniversary they were opening the vault and taking tours of it for free. So Erin and I decided we'd go to the hotel and change into comfy clothes, then head back to the vault. Once changed we made our way back to the Hard Rock. Easier said than done. We searched for an hour and could not find the thing. I was so dissapointed. We decided to go to Pizza Hut and have some dinner and call it a night. However...Erin, being the good friend she is, agreed to try to find it once more. We went to get on the tour bus (since we did have the free passes). Of course nothing works out for me. I'd left my ticket in my other pants. No worries, the bus guide told us it was just down the road, walk until you get to the Ritz, then turn left, its about a 10 minute walk. So we started walking. I think 10 minutes converted to the metric system really equals 30, because we walked forever. BUT, we finally found it. So with joy in my eyes I went to the vault. I was so happy. I got to see guitars of great rock and roll people. I even got to hold Jimi Hendrix's guitar and sit on his furniture. It was really neat.

Our last day in London was fun. I slept in while Erin went out with Ashley, then Erin and I met up for a quick lunch, then off to Madame Tusaud's Wax Palace. This place was really neat. So many was figures of famous people and they were so realistic. It was a lot of fun taking pictures with our favorite characters. Madame Tusaud's has over 400 wax figures, but not at this one location. It was still a really neat thing to see.

Our last night in London was fun too. We went to a resturant kind of like Outback. It was an Australian steak house, but they actually had some Australians working there. Our bartender was Australian and very nice. We bought our drinks through him instead of the waitress because he was giving us a discount. We stayed there a for a long time, drinking the different drinks he made us. We got about 6 drinks/shots for about 10 pounds. That's a heck of a deal. The last night was a lot of fun, but it was also our last night in an English speaking country.