Thursday, January 29, 2009

Today was the best day of orientation that I will ever have. We had an informational meeting where a few representatives came from some local organizations that can help us "get the best out of [our] stay." I was informed on a weekend trip that I have the opportunity to take this weekend eco trip to Wales. It sounds amazing where I will get to go hiking, kayaking and things like that. Then a man from STA Travel came to try and bribe us into using them for journey planning. Blah Blah Blah
Then came the exciting part. We went to a local diner down the street for lunch where I ate breakfast--which was borderline amazing! Oh, and breakfast is served all day here, so I was overjoyed to find out that fun fact. :)
Then we were led on a bus/ boat tour through London, Westminister, and Greenwich. On the bus we had a tour guide, Andrew, who told all sorts of historical facts about the buildings we saw. As you may know, I love fun facts! I think I was a tour guide in another lifetime. So went all through the city by bus and took our first stop at St. James Place/ Buckingham Palace. Here, I saw where Prince Charles lives, Green Park (Where the story goes the the wife of King Charles II ripped out all of the flowers on the ground after she found out he had given some to another woman--true or not there are still no flowers today, hence the name.) and Buckingham Palace (no queen today). We then hoped back onto our bus and drove all throughout the city. One of my favorite moments was when we turned onto Fleet Street! As you guys may know Fleet Street was helped made famous in the U.S. by Stephen Sondheim's musical, Sweeney Todd. I love Sweeney Todd. :) Yup. We then made our way through Westminister and then to Greenwich. Here we boarded our boat for our river tour on the Thames. From the river I saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, The London Eye, Parliament, and whole bunch of other places. It was great to see these during the day since I saw most lat night when we walked Thames Path. We got off the boat and were dropped off in front of Parliament. From here, we were to fend for our selves and find our own way home. It was sort of like army training where they drop you in the the middle of a foreign field and you have to find your way back to base camp. This turned out well because we were able to walk around and see Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, The National Portrait Gallery and many other locations. We then took the Tube back to Nido and relaxed for a bit. The Dani, Kyle, Jack and I decided we would go out for a pint. We headed off with no destination in mind and ended up stopping at London Pub. After there we wandered down the streets all the way to Soho, the neighborhood where the West End theatres are--pretty much back by Piccadilly. After walking about many streets we walked back to Nido to end the night.

1 comment:

  1. i went on that wales trip and it was super fun!! a little expensive, but i recommend it.

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