London

Left my parents in London. The line for customs was ridiculously long. So many asians! I played monkey flight.. Beat all the levels!!!  Anyways, the line was about an hour. Then took the underground towards London bridge, near where our hostel was.   Took a while as well but it was really cool. It was colorful and really little. Got out, found my way pretty easily to the hostel. The guy at the front desk gave me a white key card and was like "your room is on the first floor, door on the left". So of course I got lost. Went up three floors, called down to the desk and they sent me to a room that wasn't mine. Left my stuff with some girl in there and went down to figure it out. Found my room. I was confused because I didn't get assigned a bed and everyone else had. Some kid in there asked me if I was confused and I told him I was looking for my friends but apparently they were  not there. Great. No idea how I would find them. Then Nicole pops up from a deep sleep over in the corner and says hey! So thankfully I found them pretty easily. The room we were in had 22 people.  Didn't look as bad as I had imagined. Just a big room full of bunk beds. You get a metal crate underneath to put your stuff.  The room was actually pretty spacious. Met a couple from Madrid and two girls sleeping underneath us were studying abroad in Sevilla too. We walked around the hostel and checked it out. It was fucking sweet. Main lobby with computers, then a bar, a downstairs bar, the "chill out" room, a movie theater room, a roof deck. And everyone you walk by is friendly and says hi. We went across the street and got some food at the grocery store. I got this amazing noodle dish with ginger garlic dressing and carrots and stuff. So good. Went and hung out in the chill room and drank some vodka lemonades. We got really drunk, just the three of us, sitting there cracking up about stupid stuff. It was fun. We then decided to try and find some bar.  We took a taxi there. First of all, it is realllly hard not to get hit by a car in London. I know I was always taught to look both ways, but I'm used to just looking where the cars are coming from. Well obviously here they come from the opposite way. Not safe. It's weird because it didn't even look weird to me unless I thought about it. What did look weird was seeing drivers sitting on the right side of the car.  I laughed for about ten minutes in the taxi because I couldn't see the driver I could only see the empty seat on the left side. It just looked so funny! Well anyways, we took a taxi to soho. When we went to get out I freaked out because I had lost my phone.  Turned out to be in my back pocket. Got out and walked around. We were partly looking for the bar partly just dancing in the streets and practicing rolling our r's. Fast forward 30 minutes and we realize everything is closed. We ended up down some side street and some guys standing by a building ask us if we need a taxi. We proceed to ask them how much and talk it over with them. The strange russian guy asked us how much we wanted to pay. Then the creepy Indian guy was like 10 pounds we'll drive you. As I was thinking it over Nicole called the guy out on the taxi being an unmarked black van. It was like a horror movie. I looked at the van in horror, then at the guys face as he was laughing like a villain and lighting and thunder were striking in the background. Nicole had saved my life. (Okay this part may be slightly exaggerated, but seriously wtf.. Creepy). We did find a real cab. So we basically paid for two cabs just to go walk around some streets for a bit and go back home. When we got back we went to the chill room. There was a brazilian kid playing guitar and a Spanish kid with him. We started talking to the Spanish kid because we need all the practice we can get. There were probably other people in the room but I didn't pay attention to them because I was too preoccupied with showing off my superb Spanish speaking, which I feel much better at when I'm drunk. Next thing I know we're having a song along with the Brazilian kid playing the guitar. Sang some sweet 90s songs. Somehow I ended up with a percussion egg playing the drums. Everyone was impressed by my skills. Didn't know you could be so good at egg shaking but I really rocked it. Ended up being a really fun night. Went to bed around 430. The next day we had breakfast in the bar of the hostel. Cereal and toast, typical breakfast of hostels. We took the underground to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. There were a ton of people waiting outside. We saw the new guards march in, the old ones march out. The palace was surprisingly unimpressive. Wasn't very pretty. We walked through a beautiful park and headed towards the river. We saw Big Ben and some other cool buildings.  I love London because I've seen it in so many pictures and movies so it was really cool seeing it in real life.  Got some pictures in telephone booths like typical tourists. We got some lunch at a grocery store. All of the grocery stores have cheap meal deals with a sandwich, drink, and a snack. I got a chicken salad sandwich with mango and a drink. We sat in a really pretty little park across from the river and ate. Then we napped. Glad my friends share the love of napping like a homeless person in a park. It was a solid nap. We then did the London eye. It's a huge ferris wheel-two ferris wheels in two days. Before you go in you watch a 4d experience thing. It's so cool it was a bird flying to different counties and seeing different cultures. The ferris wheel was cool too, seeing the whole city.  We went and hung out in a cafe for a bit then headed back to the hostel.  We stopped and got food. Sarah and Nicole got fish and chips and I got a falafel wrap. Really good. We went back to the hotel and started pregaming with our 3 pound (as in the money) bottle of wine. We were pretty dead. So exhausted. We almost called it quits- on karaoke night! But I couldn't let that happen. The world needed to hear my beautiful gift. Two Canadian kids say down near us and we started talking. They were studying abroad in Vienna. So we talked about that and Canadian accents and stuff and how everyone hates Americans. Apparently people will ask them where they're from and when they say Canada people breathe a sigh of relief and say how they hate Americans. Then the Brazilian kid and some girls we had met the night before started a game of kings. It was a lot of fun. It was nice preparation for karaoke. By the time we entered the bar I had acquired an uncle Sam hat and an American flag ruta the brazilian kid who works at the hostel had gone to the bar downstairs and gotten. I was so ready. Sarah the Brazilian and I sang wonder wall as a warm up. Spent the rest of the time dancing around looking like a foolish American with my flag and hat and listening to the real singers show off on stage. Whatever I was good too. Sarah and I sang I love Rock n roll - Britney Spears style. Everything was going great - the crowd was lovin it and we were in perfect harmony dancing along with the song.  However, in retrospect it was more that Sarah had me in a chokehold and we were rocking back and forth.  Mid song the dj shut it off!!! He was a jerk first of all. He got mad at me twice because I went over and asked him when we were up with a drink in my hand. I was holding it perfectly fine! Or maybe not but either way I wasnt gonna spill it. He was just mad that everyone loved us. Sarah stepped down in defeat, but I couldn't disappoint the fans like that. So I continuted in acapella. It was actually quite beautiful. Allowed me to really showcase my voice without the recording drowning me out. Thanks to the cheers of the crowd, or maybe he just realized I wasn't gonna quit, the dj turned it back on. Back at the beginning! Didn't phase us. Sarah jumped back up and we sang it again.   It was a stellar performance and don't worry there are videos. So that sums up our night. Probably the most fun I've had in Europe so far. The next day we were dead. Unfortunately in a hostel with 22 people per room, when one person wakes up, everyone wakes up.  So we were up and at breakfast by 930. We dragged around getting ready til 1130 then went to the London Dungeon. The line was so long so we went to get food. I got a chicken chorizo and chipotle mayo sandwich. It was good but could've been better. I had a mini panic attack because I thought I lost my cellphone. Sarah and Nicole got in the London dungeon line. I went back to the hostel to get our umbrellas as it looked like it was going to rain, find my phone, and figure out where Ben and Jerry's was as it was free cone day.  My phone was on my bed of course. Thank god. On my way back to the dungeon it started pouring.  We stood in line for maybe an hour. So the Dungeon tells the history of London's creepy stories. We learned about the plague, Jack the Ripper, Bloody Mary, Sweeney Todd, the London Fire.  You enter one room after another and there are actors dressed up in old clothing with cuts all over them. They act out the history and try to scare you and stuff. There were also nine different rides. One where we had to shoot zombies, another you just go straight up and there was one big drop, one with water boats.  It was an hour and a half long and it was really cool because we learned a lot and enjoyed it. The London fire was interesting - the whole city got burnt down from a bakery catching on fire. Sweeney Todd was crazy - the barber who killed his clients and sold them to a pie shop. I was disappointed when I googled that later and found out it wasn't true. After the London Dungeon we walked to Ben and Jerry's. It was raining and took us a half hour but we made it. And turns out it really was free cone day! We got in line which was about a half hour long. I got phish food.. The first time around. We got in line again and I got fudge brownie yogurt. We then went on a search for crab rangoon as we were in Chinatown. Well we're unsuccessful because crab rangoon does not exist in Europe!!!! Ridiculous! We were about to leave when we passed Ben and Jerry's. No line. We had to. So we went for thirds. I got phish food again. It was delicious.  We walked to Trafalgar square and looked around then took a bus home.. A  red double decker bus!! Of course we were obnoxious tourists and took a ton of pictures on the second floor. It was so cool. A little rocky though - almost got kinda sea sick. Went back to the hotel and relaxed. Some of the kids who worked there showed us how to get up on the roof so we climbed up in the rain and looked out over the city. It was really pretty all lit up. Went to bed. Some older lady was sleeping under Sarah's bed, which was right next to mine. (Sarah and Nicole's beds were next to each other and mine was in front of Sarah's).  When I was going to bed some guy with a flashlight came looking for a mouse. The lady underneath the bed freaked. There was a mouse rustling around but we didn't care. She did. She made a big fuss and didn't speak English well. The guy ended up switching beds with her. We only got a few hours of sleep before we had to be up for the airport.