Belgium

London Called...

And I picked up the phone.

So, London trip from the 29-3. AMAZING. That trip was probably the funniest of my life. The first day, I arrived 5 hours earlier than Nic and Bri because if I took that one I would save 40 euros. I got there at 1130 and check in wasn't until 2 in the afternoon. I ended up carting around my huge suitcase for a couple of hours. I thought London would be like Brussels how the metro stops are only like 2 blocks away and I could walk to the hostel from the train station because I had five hours to waste. So I start walking and I figured I'd just find a metro station and go from there. So I start walking and I got amazingly lost and asked for directions and this guy was like "That isn't doable on foot." So I caught the closest tube and it ended up taking me 20 minutes on the tube. London is not a walking city, unfortunately i learned that the hard way.

Nic happened to have some friends, Henry and Brendon, from Australia who live in Belgium and we went to visit them at work in a pub. We hung out with them until about midnight then went back to the hostel.

The next day we got up and headed to Oxford Street for a little shopping, ate some Subway and went to the British Musuem. It was really cool but we were a little tired and it made our brains hurt so we stayed for about two and a half hours then left. Then we met up with Henry and Bren again and went out for asian food. Henry also happens to be a musician and works in a piano bar. His boss, Bazz, is in love with him so we just walked in and then he heard my name. Chelsea Bentley. He just happens to love the Chelsea soccer team and Bentleys. He then decided to give us drinks for half price. We stayed there until about 0130 then caught a night bus back to the hostel. Or so we thought. We asked the bus driver to drop us off at the Stamford Brook station because that's where our hostel is. Appearantly the Stamford Brook bus station and the Stamford Brook tube station are two completely different things. We thought we had just gotten off the bus too early so we started walking in the general direction the bus went. We walked for about 15 minutes, realized we had no idea where we were and then we just happened to come across our number bus sitting on the side of the road. I knocked on the door and asked him for directions to the station and he just told us to get on and he'd drive us right there. We pretty much had a private chauffeur, he didn't even make us pay.

We had to wake up too early the next morning because we wanted to catch a free walking tour of London at 11. We got lost again, missed the tour but did one ourselves of pretty much the same thing. We did the walking thing pretty much all day then we picked up Niha and went over to another place some other exchange students were staying to have burritos. We chilled there until about 9 then went out to the center to see the fireworks. We were on some bridge, and this old guy next to us really liked us so he gave us free party sausages and drinks. That was fun. The fireworks were beautiful, some bisous were given and that was about it for that. All public transportation that night was free but there were SO MANY PEOPLE. It took us about an hour to get probably 100 yards to get into the tube station. It was pretty much a mosh pit only no music and not AS MUCH pushing. We told Henry we'd meet him at the piano bar so we finally got there around 3 and he was playing. We stayed until 6 and then went back to the hostel and passed out.

Me and Bri woke up around 12 and couldn't go back to sleep so we met up with Henry while Nic and Niha slept. We were starving and happened to walk by Harrod's, which happens to have Krispy Kremes. We got some of those and hats and decided to wear them around all day. We started walking around and Henry was all "Hey, we're right by Notting Hill" and Bri wanted to find the house with the blue door but they've repainted it because they were getting too many tourists. So we were just walking down Portebello Road and honestly it was kinda boring. We stopped at a random street corner and were about to turn around and I was just like "Wait. A. Minute." Just around the corner, The Travel Bookshop. Yes, THE Travel Bookshop. I was so excited. We got pictures in our Krispy Kreme hats and it was pretty fun. Then we were just walking around and we found the "oopsie daisy gate." Got a picture there too, just for mom. Ok maybe Bailey too. Then in all honesty we forgot about our hats then some guy came up to us and was like "Where did you get Krispy Kremes?!" and we were kinda like how did he know? are we carrying a bag or something??

Quiet dinner and night at the hostel that night, went to bed early. It was pretty nice.

The next morning we decided we were going to go to a West End show. We went to the ticket box office with hopes of Spamalot or Avenue Q but neither of them were playing that night. So we decided the Rocky Horror Show because it was a little cheaper than Phantom or Les Mis and I had always heard about it but pretty much had no idea what it was so I just went along. During the day we went to Abbey Road. I was elated. We got a picture of the four girls walking across. Then we went to Platform 9 3/4 too. Elated again. Then we went to Camden Markets, which is pretty much the punk/indie rock capital of the world. That was so fun. After all that we headed to the show. All I have to say is WOW. I really had no clue what it was about but now... just WOW. And that's all I have to say about that.

After the show we were too tired to do anything really, except there was a fair in Leicster Square (or however you spell it) and everyone minus Bri decided to go on this huge ride. We got to the top and had the best view of London and it was amazing. Then we went flying and screamed our heads off. We went back to the hostel after that.

The last morning, we did pretty much nothing. The girls left earlier than I did so me and Henry hung out in a Starbucks for an hour and a half then I caught my train. So that's about it. Sorry there aren't any pictures yet, I'm about to change families and I don't wanna put them on the computer just to take them off tomorrow. I'll put them up asap. So pretty much a big shout out thanks to mom and dad for letting me go! It was amazing!

Bisous,
Chelsea

posted by Chelsea @ 11:25 AM