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London, part 2!

The next day, Tuesday, my class went to the Swedish embassy where we got to hear about how they deal with PR and all that jazz, and then Katie, Natalia, and Sarah and I went to a British pub for dinner. After that we went to see the play “Avenue Q.” Very good, I definitely recommend you see it.

Katie, Natalia, and Sarah

Wednesday my class went to Oxford. The train ride there consisted of  a nice conversation with the head of my department, Göran, who told me that I could apply to the masters program at Uppsala as a resident if I wanted to.

At Oxford we attended a lecture given by a Swedish guy who does research at the university. He mostly just told us about his research, and honestly, it was kind of boring. So boring, that I kid you not, Katie fell asleep and started breathing really loudly slash borderline snoring! Very funny.

After the lecture, the Swedish researcher took us on a tour of the city of Oxford. After being in Uppsala for so long, it’s hard for me to be amazed by old European cities, but let me tell you, Oxford is OLD and it is so beautiful. After the “tour” was over, my class planned to meet at the train station in two hours, so Katie, Sarah, Natalia and I wandered around Oxford and ended up at Christ Church, which is where they filmed the Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter. We wanted to go inside, but I got distracted by a book store (all books for two pounds! It was amazing!) and by the time we got out (I only left with one book, it was so sad) the church was closed. So all my fault.

Once we got back into London, Sarah and Katie headed back to Greenwich, where they made their host dinner for being so nice and allowing them to couchsurf there. Natalia and I headed toward London Bridge, took touristy pictures of it, then walked over it, and then went to the Tower of London because she hadn’t seen it yet.

Then we went to Oxford Circus in hopes of finding somewhere to eat. We were looking for a pub because Natalia wanted fish and chips, but unfortunately it was too late and all of the pubs we found had closed their kitchen for the night. So we ended up at a place called Bella Italia – which, by the way, there is a restaurant in my hometown by the same name, which is pretty much my favorite place to eat; this Bella Italia wasn’t quite as good though = ).

The following day, Thursday, my class was to meet up at the Waterloo station. I got there about 45 minutes early just because I was awake early, and thought it could be fun to walk around the area before meeting up with the class. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to see, however I did find a nice cafe called Smålands, which if you don’t know, Smålands is a region in Sweden. So I went inside and got coffee and breakfast. Funny how I found two different Swedish cafes while in London! Just can’t get away from Sweden I suppose!

Småland's Cafe

My class met up, and we were supposed to go to a museum, but then Göran decided that the National Gallery would be better to go to instead. So off we walked toward Trafalgar Square (do you know why this square has no pigeons? In the early 2000s they gave the pigeons birth control in the bird feed and so the pigeons couldn’t reproduce. Pretty cool, eh?).

After the National Gallery the official school tour was over, and my class split up. Me and Natalia decided we wanted to go to the London Eye, which was well worth the money. After that Natalia wanted to see the inside of Westminister Abbey (we had seen the outside some days before), but I did not (regret this now), so instead I walked to the Tate Modern, and all I have to say about this is “what the hell?” But I like art like that : ).

After I was looking at the map and realized that the Millennium Bridge was practically right there, so I decided to walk over it. The Millennium Bridge is the pedestrian bridge in the beginning of the Harry Potter 6 movie, so I totally geeked out over that.

I’m not really quite sure exactly what I did the rest of this day. I know I went to Primark, which was a nightmare; there were SO many people there.

I think I just walked around and took London in.

Friday was my last day in London, and I had made plans with Sarah to meet her at the Greenwich train station. We went to see the Prime Meridian, and we also saw some of the museums that were in the general area.

After this, we headed back toward London, the Victoria station, where we hopped on the Stansted Express (airport train).

We saw so many rainbows on the way to the airport!

Then, Sarah caught her plane back to Sweden, and I caught my plane to Dublin, Ireland.

xoxo.

(Look for my post about Dublin on Monday, 2pm Sweden time, 5am PST!)

London, part 1!

Saturday (March 20) I got into my hostel and went to a nearby Indian food restaurant for dinner. I went alone because everyone else had gotten into London earlier in the day and were going to sleep early. I wasn’t as tired as them because my flight left at 6pm, so I was able to sleep in and leisurely make my way to the airport. This I definitely prefer, opposed to waking up at 5am and rushing to Skavsta airport, and then being tired all day.

Sunday I woke up and had the free breakfast my hostel provided. I went to Tower Hill station and waited a half hour for Katie and Sarah to meet me. We checked out the tower, and then walked to Brick Lane Market. While there we saw a place called Fika, and were very excited and went inside. We didn’t eat there, and we all ended up getting different food from the stands.

Then we walked to St. Pauls Cathedral, took pictures of the outside and went inside. Then we went to Picadilly Circus and that general area and walked around.

Then we hopped on the tube and then a train to Greenwich (where Katie and Sarah are couchsurfing) to see a comedy show. I only stayed for the first three comedians because I had to catch one of the last trains back to London, but the first three I saw were very funny. The first screamed a lot (quite literally), but other than that hilarious. The second was my favorite (cute too!), and the third was an American – an older man, most of his jokes made fun of Americans, funny.

When I got back to Holborn station it was around midnight and I needed to find someplace open so that I could buy shampoo and conditioner… luckily I did find a place. I got back to my hostel and showered, and then chatted with the three German girls staying in my room. I’m in a four person, female only dorm, and the three Germans are traveling together. We ended up talking for quite a bit, and I didn’t sleep until 2am.

Monday I woke up at 8am, rushed and got dressed, and ran out the door. I was meeting Katie and Sarah at Hyde Park Corner station. I didn’t catch the free breakfast at the hostel, but it wasn’t very good anyway, so I stopped at a convenience store and bought a BLT for two pounds. When I got to the station I ate  the sandwich on a park bench while waiting for Sarah and Katie… they were a half hour late again. When I was done with my sandwich I went to find a trash can to throw the packaging away, and ended up walking pretty far trying to find one. When I got back to my original bench I happened to notice them crossing the street into Hyde Park… I was fairly irritated because I had just waited a half hour for them, and they must have looked around, waited a minute and then decided to leave without me. So I ran to catch up with them, and they said that they had walked around, didn’t see me, and figured I got tired of waiting for them and left.

We walked through Hyde Park and saw the Peter Pan statue, the Prince Albert memorial, and the Princess Diana memorial. At that point it was 11am and we had to speedwalk back to the Hyde Park station to meet the free tour.

Buckingham Palace

Free tour let out at 1:30, and after the guide invited us to a pub to eat. 27 of us from the tour decided to go. We got to the pub, sat down, and by the time it was our turn to order we realized that it was somehow 2:30 … so we didn’t order, and left and walked to Oxford Circus where we were supposed to meet our class. At 3 we left Oxford Circus with our classmates and two professors on the tube toward the BBC. The BBC tour was really good. They gave us an overview of how the BBC runs, the history, etc. Then we got to see an empty filming room (what’s the word for that?), and then one that is already made up. They were strict about no photography in a lot of areas, so I don’t have many pictures.

After the tour me and Natalia were starving, as neither of us had eaten since 9am. So her and I, plus Sarah and Katie headed to Holborn station where I knew there was a Pizza Hut. It was a sit down restaurant, something I’ve never seen before. Natalia said that in Canada almost all Pizza Hut’s are sit down restaurants. I thought this was amazing, that the rest of the world gets sit down Pizza Huts, but then I talked to my mom and apparently she’s seen them in California before. So whatever.

After a delicious pepperoni pizza and bruschetta, all four of us walked to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4. It was a fifteen minute walk, and get THIS, I totally slipped and FELL. I make it through a whole Swedish winter without falling once,  but I’m in London for three days and slip and fall for basically no reason.

I was okay though, so no worries ; ).

(TO BE CONTINUED, part 2 is already written, and will be posted tomorrow at 2pm Sweden time, or 5am PST.)