Sorry for the long delay. Let me tell you about LONDON!We left Dublin mid afternoon on Monday, and took a quick flight over to London. From the Airport we took a train to Westminster, where we wandered around aimlessly looking for our hotel. The people of London were not quite as friendly as those in Dublin, but it didn't matter because they had great accents. We eventually found our quaint little hotel, The Westminster House Hotel, down a lovely little road. We entered the front door and were greeted by one of the strangest men I have ever encountered. His name was Johnny, and he is one of the owners of the little hotel. He looked normal enough, with brown hair, average build, and a friendly face, dressed in a nice suit. What made Johnny unique was his voice. When he first started to speak his voice was at a normal octave, but as his sentence went on it increased an octave with each word until he was literally squealing instead of speaking real words. At first I was really thrown off and frightened, but after a while it just seemed funny and I was struggling to hold back my laughter.
Johnny brought us down to a little study in the basement where he had a fire blazing in the fireplace and books scattered about the room. He squealed to us a bit about the hotel's amenities and told us our two friends, Alyssa and Alexa, had not checked in yet. We all happened to be going to London the same days and decided to stay in the same hotel!
Johnnyasked if we would need help with our bags and we said no- a decision we would later regret. We had to lug our heavy suitcases up ninety-million flights of steep stairs. My arms were nearly severed from my body by the time we reached our room. At first glance it looked nice enough, but soon we realized everything was covered by a fine black powder. This hotel did not even COMPARE to the Grand Canal Hotel in Dublin. It was a shame we had to stay there first because it set our standards very high. Caroline and Amy reported the disgusting mess to Johnny before we left. He squealed that it must be left over from the artist who stayed there before us. What does that mean? Do they not clean the rooms between guests? It was strange, but it didn't matter because when we got back later that night everything was sparkling clean thanks to Johnny Boy.
We wandered around London for the evening; saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Portsmouth Abbey, all of which were very close to our hotel. We ate dinner at a strange little Pub with gross food, and then went back to the hotel. We briefly chatted with Alyssa and Alexa, and then we all passed out for the night.
We were woken up bright and early the next morning by a knock on our door. Alexa and Alyssa did not change their clocks when they arrived in London after going to Amsterdam, and they were an hour ahead. So, unfortunately for them, they had to hang around for a while and wait for us to get ready to go. We went out for a delicoius breakfast at a little organic tea shop down the road from our hotel. I got superb oatmeal with fresh sliced fruits like kiwi, peaches, pears, etc.
We then went out sightseeing for the day. We saw EVERYTHING. We started at Buckingham Palace and saw the changing of the gaurds. After that we found the Original Bus Tour of London, and bought tickets since we love the bus tours. We saw all the sights London has to offer- from Parliament to the London Bridge. We even saw where the interior scenes of Gringotts Bank were filmed for Harry Potter! We saw Fleet Street where the legendary Sweeney Todd sliced and diced the customers at his barber shop.
We all were in the mood for a good scaring, so we got off and took a tour of the London Dungeons. These weren’t actually real dungeons- it was a sort of fun house where there were tons of actors in costumes who scare us as we walk through. It also gave us a history of the gruesome London past from Sweeney Todd to Jack the Ripper. There were also two scary rides inside. It took us a total of three hours to make it the whole way through! Totally worth it.
Also on our first day there, Caroline, Alexa and I got hair cut. We thought London would be the ideal place to do this since they speak English so we wouldn’t risk ending up looking like Mr. Clean or Boy George or something because of a language barrier. I actually ended up getting a pretty drastic hair cut of short, choppy layers. The hair dresser didn’t like how thick my hair was so she thinned it out a lot and I really like it.
That night was St. Patrick’s Day. We went to a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Piccadilly Circus and I got my beloved Tacos for dinner. I did not speak for ten minutes while I INHALED the tacos and licked the sour cream dish clean. God I miss Mexican food. After that we wandered around looking for an Irish Pub. All the ones we had wanted to go to had lines out the door, so we ended up squeezing into a little tiny pub in some obscure place. We all got ciders after a lot of stress and waiting, and ended up leaving after just one drink. The place was over-crowded and rather boring. We had seen some great Pubs closer to our hotel and decided to head back and try those only to find that they were all closed!
So, we went to bed.
Perhaps the most disappointing St. Patty’s day I will ever encounter.
It worked out fine anyway because we woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, not hung over, and ready for another day of sightseeing in London.
We toured the Victoria and Albert Museum which was really cool. The last major thing we did in London was shopping at Herod’s, where we saw Kim Cattrall from Sex in the City. We finished off the night with a tasty dinner, and then headed off to bed early since the night life in London was disappointing. Plus we had to wake up early the next morning for Paris, the city of Love.
Overall, I ended up falling head over heals in love with London. It is somewhere I had been talking about visiting for as long as I can remember, and it did not disappoint. I will certainly be returning there sometime in the near future.
To be continued.,.,.,.,.,.
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