We had planned to go on a free walking tour of London, but when we got held up at the Royal Albert Hall because the kids who had arrived later wanted to see Quidam and so we had to go get tickets for them. When we arrived at Hyde Park Circle where the tour was supposed to meet we couldn't find the "people". To be fair we were a little late, but there were alot of other people there standing around, looking like they were waiting for a tour, but no tour guide appeared. So we decided that we would make our own tour and started walking towards Buckingham Palace. It was FREEZING, but the park we walked through was quite pretty. When we arrived at the Palace they just happened to be doing a changing of the guard, we had no idea this would be happening, and so we stopped and watched for awhile. It was a MESS, to put it mildly. There were so many people you couldn't see a thing and there was security all over the place, obviously, so you could barely lift a finger without someone giving you the glare. So, sadly I don't really have that many pictures because as you all know I am vertically challenged and I wasn't willing to shove people around to get a good view of men in skirts marching around like pompous knights of the round table. The palace is surprisingly bare and plain looking and I think my own home, Harlaxton, is much prettier than the palace The Queen lives in. We stayed there longer than I wanted because one of our friends felt she needed to record everything and in case you didn't know after they change the guard they march around the courtyard while the band plays dramatic music. It is not all its cracked up to be, so if you are ever in London... Skip it! Finally we managed to tear her away from the gates and we continued on towards Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We walked down past the infantry palace where there were more marching exercises going on and it was alot funnier to watch these guys who I'm guessing haven't graduate to the status of being able to march in the public displays.
So we walked and walked and walked and eventually got down to the Westminster area. First: Big Ben is alot smaller than you think, but is still beautiful and awesome to look at. Second: Westminster Abbey is not Catholic. All my friends make the incorrect assumption thinking it was and I informed them that we couldn't go to mass there on Sunday because the church is Anglican. Am I the only one that studied history in high school? Geez. Westminster is beautiful on the outside, but I wasn't overwhelmed by it's beauty, just it's size. We didn't go inside because it cost lots of money, but perhaps I will on another visit to London. Then we crossed the street to see Parliament, which was closed because none of the dudes were there. Sad day! I will have to come back on a day where it will actually be in session so I can go inside. The Parliament building is amazing. The sheer number of windows it has is crazy and the architecture of the building is awe-inspiring. After mulling around Parliament for awhile we walked along the Thames trying to decide where to go for lunch. We wanted to stay close to the Westminster tube stop because we had to catch the tube to get back to Hyde Park for the Cirque show. We had lunch in a tiny burn and turn restaurant (for those of you who don't know what a burn and turn restaurant is it's a place that just likes to get you in and feed you and get you out as soon as possible to get other people in). Despite its atmosphere I had the best sandwich I think I have ever had in my life: Brie, Avocado, Lettuce and Bacon. It was delicious. After lunch we had some time so we walked towards Trafalger Square but never made it all the way there because we had to turn back to get back to the Tube in time.
So here is probably our biggest adventure of the whole trip!!!! So those of us that were going to see Quidam went down under the ground to the tube platform. We knew what train we were supposed to get on and we were shocked to see that it was insanely crowded on the platform. Apparently there was extra traffic and line closers/ problems so they were asking people to seek alternate routes. Well for us there was no alternate route, it was this station or a taxi or walking and we definitely didn't have enough time to walk. Well the train was late and it was already packed to the gills, like sardines, when it arrived and so only 2 of us could get on. We made the mistake of separating because we thought that the next train would be along in a minute or two but it wasn't. It was now 2:25 and the show started at 3pm. ahhh! We waited as long as we thought we could and no train showed up so we ran. Yes, we ran. We ran through the tub station and we ran up the longest escalator I have ever seen and we ran out into the streets of downtown London praying to God that we would be able to find a taxi. It was so scary and exciting at the same time. We must have good Karma because we emerged from the tube station and just by sheer luck we were able to hail a taxi from across the street by having all 6 of us wave our arms frantically in the air. We all piled in out of breath and high off of our crazy adventure. Our lovely taxi driver took us right to the theatre and bid us farewell by telling us to enjoy the show. Now this whole taxi ride we were praying that the 2 kids who had made in on the tube wouldn't wait for us in the station and just start walking because by this time it was almost 2:50pm. We decided it would do no good to wait for them outside the theatre and so we all just went in and found our seats. Miraculously they showed up a few minutes before curtain saying that when we didn't arrive a few minutes later they assumed we would just fend for ourselves and they weren't going to miss the show on our account. So all of this craziness led up to the best theatrical show I have ever seen in my life. It was spectacle with feats unimaginable and music that hit you right in the heart. It had a story and plot and it's hard to explain so if you are interested just look it up online. But anyway, after the show we were all left stunned and couldn't stop talking about it as we walked to Harrods. Upon arrival there we learned that Harrods didn't like the unwashed masses such as us and we ate dinner at a little place across the street. Afterwards we walked around Harrods under the watchful eye of lots of men in black tuxes and funny hats. I have never felt so poor in all my life. We were surrounded by Oscar De La Renta dresses (google it), diamonds that cost more than a year of my education. There was children's Dior and Prada shows that cost upwards of $14,000. They have EVERYTHING there. It's like Wal-Mart except for the richest people in the world. They were having their once a year sale and so a pair of jeans that is normally 800 pounds was only 200. Big whoop!
We left Harrods at 8 and headed back to the hostel. We picked up our other friends and headed back towards SoHo, for what purpose I know not. Some people wanted to go clubbing but a few of us just wanted to find a quiet pub to sit in because we had been walking ALL DAY and our feet hurt and we were tired. Well, let me tell you that quiet pubs with places to sit don't exist in SoHo, and I'm not sure if they exist in London as a whole. We left the rest of our friends in SoHo and walked around London just trying to find a pub that would have a place to sit and we couldn't find anywhere. We walked for 2 HOURS and found nothing. At one point we were just going to get on the next bus we saw and go wherever it took us. We ended up walking from Tottenham Court Road all the way to the Leicester Square tube station and at that point we boarded the tube to go in search of a pub somewhere else. We finally found one, but it was closing in half an hour so we said forget it and tried to find our way back to our hostel walking. We were in place that wasn't on any of our maps, but fortunately I knew what direction we needed to walk and another girl had a compass so we were able to find our way back to the hostel. We got home and almost immediately went to bed because we were all exhausted.
End of day 2.
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