July 10-12: Cierra Sauls

I must say that I have had a very eventful weekend!! I got the opportunity to travel to London, England. I went with five other girls and we took a bus all the way there. It took a total of 8 hours and 40 minutes to get there. I tried to sleep on the way there but because I was sitting next to a stranger and not one of the girls I could not sleep comfortably. The guy was nice and friendly but I still don’t “know” him. So I was constantly trying not to hit him with my leg or shoulder. Also, you know how people’s heads do this like bop thing where as soon as they start to fall into a deep sleep their head moves in different directions? Well I was trying to avoid that as well!

I was so happy when we finally reached London, but the only draw back was that it was 7a.m.! We still had a whole day ahead of us, and really none of us got any good rest on the bus. First thing we did was head toward Buckingham Palace. Since we was there so early there we was pretty much the only people there. It was beautiful. The architecture of this Palace was different from the Palace I saw in Edinburgh. None of its roofs came to a point; it looked more like a mansion than a palace to me. It was more like the White House whereas the castle in Edinburgh was like Cinderella’s castle. We also got to watch the changing of the guards, which apparently in London is a huge thing! I could not believe the amount of people that were there to see this everyday event. There was hundreds up on thousands of spectators.

After the Palace we got on an open-top bus tour of the city. This was interesting because it allowed us to see the whole city and know how to get to each monument we were all interested in going. It was also convenient because it dropped us off less than two minutes from our hostel. Wow… our hostel! Besides Inverness, this was my first hostel experience. This hostel was nothing like Inverness. To start off, I booked the hostel for all of us on my credit card on the Internet with them quoting me at a certain price. When I got to the hostel they added a 5% fee for using my card, taxes, and $60 deposit for all our linen! This is on top of the fee my bank charges me, so I was livid! Anyone who knows me knows I do not like being taken advantage off. I was ready to give them some harsh words. But I resisted and kept my cool, but I totally felt like we/I got ripped off. After all the monies were taken care of we all headed to our 16-mixed sexed person room (I say it like that because it was all just so new to me!). We put our belongings in the locker and headed out for our day plans.

We took a boat tour along the River Thames and were able to see many important buildings and monuments like Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. Afterward we walked over to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and took pictures in front of them. I really didn’t know much at all about the city so it was interesting to learn. Unfortunately, it made us have to do a lot of walking!

Saturday morning we had to switch to a 10-person room so I got in the long line to checkout and check back in. As if it wasn’t hectic enough with all the people waiting, this guy goes off on me(gets in my face and yells at me) because I guess I “cut” his girlfriend in line! Turns out that his girlfriend had walked off from the line, me not really paying attention just stood there assuming she left or something. Well she comes back and gets behind me, and then I hear her boyfriend say, “Get in line”. So she presumes to push on me so that she could get in front of me! Kat is watching her the whole time too. Her boyfriend gets in front of me and says this is her spot in line (at this time I’m thinking he can not be serious)! But I say, “I’m sorry, I assumed she was gone so I stayed in line, I can not read minds how was I suppose to know she would come back”. It is now my turn to step up to the desk; with his hip he pushes me to the side saying, “Now you stepped out of line”. By this time the employees of the Hostel see his rude behavior and ask me to step forward and to explain what happened. I tell them but the whole time I’m telling them the boyfriend is yelling at the other girls I came with including Kat! The employee apologizes for the man’s immature behavior and gives us our keys, and because he felt bad he gave us free lockers. He felt bad because of the mix up fees and things from Friday and now the disruptive behavior. I was in such shock that the guy screamed at me, I really was not expecting that. I got so mad inside that I was shaking and my words were almost slurring because I had so much adrenaline in me that I wanted to shut him up with my fist! Mind you that I have never been in a fist fight my whole life but he was tempting me! The girls finally got me calmed down and we came to the conclusion that the girl and her boyfriend should have had a V8!

After the fiasco, we finally made it down to the waterloo area and Kat and me went to the Movieum. It displayed costumes, props, and special effects from various movies. I loved the prop exhibit that had props from the movie The Borrowers. In the movie, the main characters are very small people that are the size of an adult pinky. So all the props were extra large to make the actors look small. I got to sit on a couch the size of a SUV and saw a power outlet the size of mini cooper. I also got to see the original Joker costume Jack Nicholson wore in Batman! The Movium also had original sketches of cartoons like Dora the Explorer, Spongebob, and Ren and Stimpy for sale. The newest addition to the Movieum was their Beatles exhibit. It had many unseen photos of the guys and even some of their instruments. It was definitely impressive. My next stop for the day was at the Ripley’s Believe it of Not Museum. I loved it! It had so many random interesting things in it, like a photo of President Kennedy made of actual butterflies. I watched a video on a high school aged boy that has no legs and he plays high school football! It was amazing because the guy was really good and really had a passion for football. He tackled a quarterback on the first day of practice! There was also this lady that didn’t have any legs. The video talked about her life, how she found love and conceived a child! Her baby boy was born with both legs and arms, and with all fingers and toes. It was a remarkable story.

Sunday we checked out of our Hostel and went souvenir shopping. Realizing we had the whole day ahead of us, we decide to get in line to ride the London Eye. The Eye is the tallest structure in London overlooking the city at 135 meters. It is an observation wheel that allows 20 people in each of its domes to stand up and observe and take pictures of the huge city. I am kind of afraid of heights but I did a full rotation of the wheel and did fine. It was like we were floating in the air because it barely seemed like our dome was even moving and before we knew it we were on top of the city!

I had a blast in London! I am a city girl so I enjoyed the attractions as well as all the people. London attracts people all over the globe so it was interesting to be surrounded with so much culture. My feet and ankles are sore and swollen from all the walking and long bus rides but hopefully they will heal and I will have fun memories of London.