Blimey! I'm in London!

Last Sunday our entire group left for London. Before we even got onto the first train, I had my first adventure. Let me explain. When I packed my stuff for the trip, I tricked myself into thinking I had packed my Eurorail and other train tickets. When we got onto the bus for the train station, I unfortunately realized too late that I didn't have my ticket on me. It takes about 20 minutes for the bus to get from the train station to the Teikyo Building (our guest house). The train was going to leave at 9:10 and it was already around 8:30. I ended up having to take a cab back to the Teikyo. The Dutchman who drove the taxi got confused as to where I wanted to go twice. I nearly panicked. Thank God he finally got the right place and we got back to the train station with plenty time to spare (around 10 minutes to be exact). This type of excursion--what I now call "mini adventures"--made me realize that I would be able to hold my own in Amazing Race.

The train ride from Maastricht to Liege, Belgium wasn't too eventful. Most people were catching up on sleep since jet lag was still common. From Liege, Belgium we took another train to Brussels. On this train, I met a high school kid named Roland who spoke a little English. We talked about several things, mainly about the culture in Belgium and the Netherlands as opposed to the US. He was a big fan of American comedy and especially loved movies like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and Dude, Where's My Car. We stopped in Brussels for about an hour or so as we waited for the Eurostar, which was the train which would take us through the Chunnel.

When we first arrived in London, it was like nothing else. The station was jam-packed with people and taking the Tube was the first time I've traveled by subway anywhere. It was exciting and a little nerve-racking as we raced from one subway train to the next in order to make it to the right location. The hotel we stayed at was the Hilton and it was pretty nice. The only thing I had a problem with was the lack of variety of TV channels like they have in the US, but I didn't stay in my room for long so it didn't really matter. We were assigned rooms with our roommates so Derek was my hotel roommate as well. Sunday afternoon, around 3ish, a group of us decided we wanted to grab dinner (our stomachs were not in sync yet). We searched for a Pizza Express, which we heard had decent pizza at affordable prices. We got lost for a bit but finally found it. It was delicious pizza. I split mine with a guy from the trip named Quentin. When we left, it had already turned dark and it was only 5:30! We decided to do some sightseeing and traveled to Westminster via Tube. There, we saw the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. By this time, I wanted to buy some cheap dress pants because the group was going to a club later that night. I asked Quentin to go with me because he wanted to buy some dress shoes. By this time it was 6:45ish and we found out later that the shops close around 6:30 in London on Sundays. We also heard that the Tube was closing and reasoned that we couldn't use it anymore. We ended up trying to walk to the hotel and got miserably lost. At the time, we didn't know that our travel cards also worked for buses as well and ended up spending 3 pounds to buy a bus ticket for a bus that took us about 2 miles from where we needed to be. Let's just say, we walked a lot. My feet were tired and when we came back to the hotel, I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was only 9:00. Apparently the group was going to a different club--one that didn't require dress pants--and I was all in. We left for Piccadilly Circus and got utterly confused as to where we were going because we were looking for a club called Tiger Tiger and people were giving us confusing directions. Also  several sketch people kept wanting us to go to their clubs instead. We ended up giving up and not going. What an eventful first night.

The second day was more exciting than the first. We took a bus tour of the city and saw lots of famous landmarks and tourist sites. Among those sites were the Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and other cool London places. After the tour was over, we had lots of time to rest and do some exploring. I went with several people to a local pub called the Chapel to eat lunch. After lunch was nap time and then off to Platform 9 3/4!! That was fun and trying to find it was more fun. Turns out that the platform is between 8 and 9 rather than between 9 and 10. There was a 7:30 showing of Billy Elliot that our entire Maastricht group had tickets for. It was an interesting show. Lots of laughs. The musical is about a young boy living in a poor coal-mining district who wants to dance, even though his father wants him to take up boxing. It's a story that challenges and questions a lot of things. That night we tried to go clubbing again. Fail.

On Tuesday, we took a trip to Stonehenge and the lovely city of Bath. Stonehenge is about two hours from London. It was weird being so close to something that was several thousand years older than the birth of Christ. But the ingenuity and skill needed to pull off the monumental feat of Stonehenge was amazing to behold. After seeing Stonehenge, we went to Bath. It started raining again like it did almost every day in London while we were there. In Bath, my friend Bianca and I found an interesting tea house that had some amazing tea and some very delicious Shepherd's Pie. We toured the Roman Baths and also the Abbey of Bath while we were in town. The hot springs smelled of something fierce. They haven't been treated so it was dangerous to touch much more drink the water. That evening I decided to do some exploring of my own. I tried to find a very unique place to eat dinner and ended up buying a chicken sandwich from a roadside stand for only 2 pounds 80 pence! That's a deal in London, even though that's about 4 dollars in America. :/   

The next day was a free day. I had nothing planned. I went to the lobby and found a group that was going to see Wicked in London. I decided to join. We went to buy tickets and then I tagged along with a few that wanted to see the free museums in London. I saw the Victoria and Albert museum as well as the Tate Modern Art museum. Later that day, I visited Abbey Road with two other kids. Abbey Road is the famous road that the Beatles walked on for one of their album covers. It gets quite a few tourists. Around 5:45, I hurried to Westminster Abbey to catch a Wednesday night service. After that, it was time to get ready for Wicked at 7:30! The show was phenomenal. I would watch it again if given the chance and more money.  After the show, we headed back to the hotel. At the hotel, a big group of us decided to finally go clubbing for real this time--it was our last night in London. The club we went to was a little sketch but we had a blast anyway.

Overall, it was an amazing four days. By the time we left for Belgium, I felt like I was a Londoner. London will be sorely missed and I wish to go back there someday. Probably not while I'm abroad but when I have a job someday and more money to spend. While London was fun, I am certain that equally and possibly more exciting adventures await me in other parts of Europe.