A Trip to the U.K. (Final Photo Essay)

Travel Log Titles

A Happy Ending
Seeing London
Standing in Line to See the Show Tonight
Tea for Three
London Calling!
Liverpool/Last Night at the Manor
Punting in Cambridge
Au Revoir Paris!
PARIS
A Winter's Tale
One Ghost, Two Ghost/Today's Events
First day of class
The Haunting
First Day in England!

A Happy Ending

I spent the rest of my time in England visiting Greenwich, where I saw the Prime Meridian and the filming of Gulliver's Travels, a movie that will star Jack Black. I also took my picture walking across the famous Beatles' crosswalk on Abbey Road. There was a camera crew from Abbey Road Studios that filmed us. They said that we will be on t.v. in September for the show Abbey Road Live! Courtney took Meghan and me to meet her friend from BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). We ate lunch on her boat on the Thames River, and I enjoyed meeting her. Courtney, Meghan, Bivens and I also lucked out with a student discount on Mamma Mia tickets!

All in all, this trip was absolutely amazing. I feel like I made the most of my time. I have experienced so many "once-in-a-lifetime" moments, and I have met so many new people. Living in another country was definitely an eye opening experience. I feel like I am much more tolerant of other cultures, and that I have learned many things about different lifestyles as well as history. I am also a lot more appreciative of home, and I am glad to be back in the States.

Seeing London

London has been treating me extraordinarily well. I have been here for only a few days, but I have had so much fun. We decided to take this day to cover all of the “tourist attractions” of London. After a beautiful service at the magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral, Dakota, Meghan, James, Cory, Bivens and I followed Jeff as he took us on a tour of the city of London. We saw Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Speaker’s Square, Green Park, Buckingham Castle and many other sites. We ended our day with a delicious dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

Standing in Line to See the Show Tonight

We did it! Meghan, Dakota, Daniel, Stacey and I woke up early this morning and stood in line at the theater of Spring Awakening. Fortunately, we were able to purchase tickets to the hottest, sold out show in London..not to mention on closing day! After we retrieved our tickets, we went to the science museum and explored its exhibits for some time before we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the show tonight. We saw the play, and although I am glad I got to see this show, I was not extremely impressed. The actors had a lot of talent, but the storyline was kind of weak. I did enjoy myself and I think that the show was worth the wait.

Tea for Three

Afternoon tea was enjoyed by Courtney, Meghan and me this afternoon. After exploring the wonderful world of Harrods, a multi-level store that sells everything imaginable, we went to the Georgian Restaurant, which sits on the top floor of this shopper’s paradise. Sipping on tea and nibbling on scones, we had the pleasure of experience an English afternoon tea (simultaneously as the Queen was having hers!). After our delightful tea, we went to Leister Square to try to score some half price tickets. We really wanted to see Spring Awakening, but it was completely sold out, and tomorrow is the last show. Oh well, maybe we can see a different show another night. I would really love to see Mamma Mia.

London Calling!

Today we made the relatively short journey from Bath to London. We pulled up to the hotel, unloaded our luggage and checked into our rooms. We had our travel passes, and we used them to take the bus to Oxford Street. We walked around and checked out some of the stores. One of the stores in particular, Primark, was chaotically crowded. The masses of people in that one store possessed the caliber of five Black Friday shopping days. The line to try clothes on was at least 50 people long! Deciding to beat the crowd early the next day, we left and searched for a place to eat dinner. Eventually we found a Tex Mex restaurant and ate there. We walked back to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit while deciding what our evening plans should entail. Finally we agreed to check out the hookah bar located two blocks from our hotel. We met two French boys and three Dutch boys. They were all very friendly and fun. After they left, we met two English boys and played a game of cards with them. The night was coming to an end-or so we thought- and we decided to leave the hookah bar and go back to our hotel. On the way back, we met a group of people who were staying across the street from us. They invited us out to a club called Punk, so we joined them. We took the bus to Piccadilly Circus, and then walked the rest of the way to the club. As we were approaching the entrance, we saw that the line was extremely long, but Cameron, one of our newfound friends, walked right up to the bouncer and gave him his name, which was on the list for the night. We waited zero minutes and only had to pay half of the cover charge! We danced our first night in London away and had a fabulous time! We left the club when we started to get tired and surprisingly ran into Juanita and Chelsea at the bus stop. While waiting for our bus to pull up, we met an actor and an actress from one of London’s current plays, entitled Blood Brothers. I also had an interesting conversation with a man about prejudices in Europe. Finally getting back to our hotel, we went upstairs and fell asleep. London has proven to be an exhausting, yet exciting, town.