Week 3: London

               Towards the middle of the week, my friend Matt Marsh asked me what I was doing this weekend. Having no plans, I told him probably nothing just sleeping. He said that he and some of our other Loyola friends had booked trains to London and that I should come. My travel-thirsty self jumped right on it and booked a round trip bus ticket for the weekend. I looked into trains which were about 120 pounds round trip and decided that 3 hours more each way would be worth saving 70 pounds. So, I woke up friday and walked to my 8:40 bus. Most people would probably be anxious about a 7 hour bus ride by themselves, but this was nothing compared to some of the bus rides i've made back in the states. I watched the Wolf of Wall Street on my computer (amazing movie) which killed 3 hours, and the next 4 hours was a combination of dozing off, looking out at the English countryside, and listening to music. Matt texted me saying that Nick Alvino was also taking an early bus and that he should be getting there around the same time as me. I texted Nick and we met up at the bus station when I arrived around 3:00 pm. We each bought a city bus ticket which would take us closer to the hostel. Nick and I checked in and waited for the arrival of the 7 others in the hostel. Everybody's trains got delayed so the next 4 people didn't get there until 6:00 and the next 3 until 7:30. My bus ended up pretty much being the same duration as their trains for a lot cheaper so I was secretly somewhat happy. Everyone got settled and then we walked downtown. We went to this really cool place called the Ministry of Sound although it was expensive everyone had a good time.
               We woke up early saturday morning after not getting much sleep, but everyone was anxious to go out and see all the sights and do all the touristy fun things. Nick, Sam B., Sam T., and Madison all left the room around 9:30, but Kevin, Matt Marsh, Kendall, Becks, and myself needed an extra hour to wake up. We left the room at around 10:30 and Kendall and Becks went to meet up with everyone else. Kevin, Matt and I went to McDonalds (so American of us), and then walked about 40 minutes towards the River Thames and the iconic Tower Bridge. We also had an awesome view of the Shard (tallest structure in the UK) and the view of the city across the river. We walked around a bit more and then stopped into a pub for lunch. There was a big rugby match on that everyone seemed to be watching. I didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, but I was rooting for Ireland because thats the homeland. We made the long walk back to the hostel and everyone went down for a nap as we were all very tired from all the walking and lack of sleep. We woke up around 7 in preparation for our pub crawl which we signed up for which started at 9. The pub crawl was fun and led us through 4 of the most famous pubs in the "Piccadilly Circus" district of London which seemed to be the hot spot for night life. We ended up going home early because Madison got her phone stolen or lost and she was all upset.
               Sunday, we had to be up and out of the hostel by 11 so we all woke up around 9:30 so everyone could shower and we could clean the place up. We packed up our bags and embarked on a looooong walk towards Harrods which is one of the most famous stores/malls in the world. It was massive. We got lost looking for their famous ice cream parlor, and when we finally found it, we turned right around when we saw that it cost 14 pounds per ice cream. It was still a cool experience. We walked pretty much back where we came from (ends of the earth) to go to Chipotle because everyone, including myself, loves it. We ate and sat there for about and hour and a half because we had nothing better to do and our legs were killing us from walking with all of our bags. I parted ways with everyone else because they were going to the train station, and I walked 2 miles to the bus station. It went by quickly though as I got to walk by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye, which I was glad to see as we didn't go on Saturday. If I didn't see those and just left I would have said that London was overrated, but after seeing that I would say it was magnificent. I was glad I got to experience it walking by myself, taking it all in it was pretty cool. My bus left at 4:30 and I quickly fell asleep as my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. I woke up and watched Pitch Perfect (my favorite movie), and then listened to music the rest of the way. I was back in my bed in Newcastle by 11:30pm. It was a long travel day, but I'm definitely glad I made the trip. #locals

Here are some pics: