london: part one

there is so much to tell..and since you are already here, you WILL sit and endure my ramblings!!

the canadian party was a smash, what with our pancakes and maple syrup, strawberries and blueberries, poutine, and red deer's own puffed wheat squares! we had quite a good turn out, too. poeple came for food and good company, and we had many an interesting conversation. while we were enjoying the festivities, the most random parade walked down our street for the second time that day. fit with several marching bands, burly men playing piccolos, and many supporters walking alongside, apparently this parade of "peaceful protestors" walks around the city every saturday, letting their protestant message of dislike for the catholic organization be known loud and clear. i hope i'm getting this right, as i had a few scots explain this fascist-like protest to me. how very odd..

at 10:50am the next day, dani and i set off on our train excursion with our sights set on london! i had never been on a train, and it did make me relatively queasy, but i powered through it. the passing landscape kept me company. there was a very.. let's say unkempt family sitting across the aisle from us, with a young boy who would not sit still. but aside from that everything went smoothly, and the ride itself seemed to go by quickly.
when we arrived at the youth hostel, there were four other girls sleeping in our room - keep in mind that it is 5pm..- so dani and i had to unpack and change in near silence. we walked our way around the metropolis and found a gorgeous little restaurant called sofra. we sat on the upstairs terrace, which was covered but let lots of light in. the food was grand, aside from the steak. steaks are just not the same here as at home: much less flavor. after dinner dani and i just walked and walked for a few hours, getting acquainted with the area. dani quickly found her bearings, but i kept getting all turned around. so we dubbed her the leader for the trip. we walked to trafalgar square where the portrait gallery is-which we regretably didn't get a chance to visit- and gave mom a quick call to let her know we had arrived safely. along our foot journey we discovered the most delectable, creamy gelato invented. such a heavenly treat. we basically just walked back to the hostel and slept that night.

as i was STILL jetlagged, i woke up at six that morning. with nothing else to do, i listened to my ipod and played sudoku until i got hungry and ventured down to the complimentary breakfast area down in the common room. there were SO many young people there, and it seemed NO ONE was speaking english! i heard french and german and some kind of netherlandish sounding language. everyone was with a group so i mainly kept to myself. i brought dani up some toast and waited for her to wake up so we could start the day. when we were both ready, we walked to starbucks for a pick-me-up and the free wi-fi so that we could look at a map on dani's ipod. we took our first doubledecker bus to hampstead heath, a huge park, and adventured our way around there for a while. it was a beautiful day. it took a long while to figure out how to catch the bus back to russel square, near our hostel, because the twat of a subway information man gave us phony information. after walking to and fro, we finally caught the right bus and headed towards familiarity.
we met carly, a girl from dani's class, and liam near russel square as they were going to join us on our explorations of london. we walked to the british museum where we poked around for a while. it is such a huge, impressive bulding itself. we mostly only had time to see the egyptian artifact displays before we all got too hungry to stand it anymore. we walked along the streets and found a quaint little courtyard tucked in behind the bustling streets. we then walked to buckingham palace to watch the guards do their excercises, and then.. i'm afraid this is where my memory fails me. the next thing i remember is going to the play 'war horse' with dani, which a very moving and well-executed performance. wow..that sounds a bit stuffy.. but i did enjoy it!

i think i will end this post here, as it seems to be getting far too long. plus, since i'm having troubles remembering, i'll go back into my notes while i eat this cold pizza for breakfast and ponder life's little mysteries. or something.