LONDON

LONDON WAS AWESOME. We spent 3 days there, after a friggin 7 hour drive there. It was only supposed to take 3 hours, but we got stuck in traffic. Our hostel was a dump, and the guys lounging around the doorway literally sniffed us as we walked in. It was a little disconcerting and we were hella tired, but a quick walk down to the street to a diner for some hamburgers quickly made us feel more at home. Bright and early Saturday morning and accompanied by Costa coffee, we made it to 21 Baker Street for the Sherlock Holmes museum, took multiple pictures in fancy hats, and then headed to the Beatles store. Was unimpressed at the inflated prices, so we took the Tube to the park and joined a free tour group. The tour took us all over the place, including Buckingham Palace for changing of the guard, Big Ben, Westminster, Churchill's war room, Trefalgar Square, etc. After eating lunch across from Big Ben and signing up for the tour-led pub crawl, we split up and headed for The Globe Theatre and the Millennium Bridge, which was epic. Sarah and I ended up at St. Paul's Cathedral for evensong and managed to catch a glimpse of Occupy London camped outside. We rushed back through the Tube, stopped at Platform 9 and 3/4, and made it back in time for dinner and getting ready to go out. The night was shenanigans, most of which shouldn't be posted on this blog, though I'm pretty sure we ended up in a crack den at the end of it. Catching a taxi was impossible and the Tube was closed, so we didn't get back to the hostel until 4am. Most of us were too tired to get up in the morning like we were going to, so we only managed to fit in passing by Tower of London and London Bridge before catching the bus back to Carmarthen. The trip was really fun and really hectic, so I wish we could have stayed longer and seen more of the city. I really want to come back someday when I have more time (and money) to experience all the museums and sightseeing things. Everything costs way too much money for me to afford admission to all of them.