My friend Amanda who is currently studying in Sweden came to visit this last week. Her plane arrived in London late wednesday night. From there she had to take a train into the city and I picked her up from the terminal at Liverpool St. Station. This was a somewhat of a chore because her phone doesnt work in the UK so I had to stand around for a while and hope for the best. I was so excited to finally see a familiar face! We hoped on the last tube of the night and I dropped them off at their stop. Thursday, I took on the role of tour guide and spent the day showing Amanda around. I love fun facts so I definitely felt in my element. We started off the day with a jaunt through Hyde Park where Dani and I showed her the famous Peter Pan statue and the Princess Di Memorial. It was a gorgeous sunny/ warm day so she had some luck on her side when she came. After there we walked up back to Wellington Place where the famous Wellington Arch is placed along with several other memorials. From here we walked up to Buckingham Palace. I would like to say I timed out the day perfectly because when we got there they were about to start the changing of the guard but, it was luck. From there we thought we would walk to the nearest tube station to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. But before we knew it we could see the square so just walked up the couple of blocks. We didn't have enough time to see everything in there but Dani and I, as art students, gave her the cliffnotes version. We pointed out some famous paintings and I tried to add in my knowledge about them here and there. From here we decided to grab some lunch. We found a cafe that was still serving breakfast. Full English breakfast is to die for so we made her try it out; delicious. Moving on we headed to the British Museum. Here we had to also do a shortened tour. We pointed out the Rosetta Stone, crystal skull, Egyptian mummies, Roman architecture/ sculptures and ended with the Asia sectioned. Amanda loves Japanese culture so we gave her as much tie as wanted in this section. Then we headed back to NIDO where we showed Amanda "our hood" and building. We took a little rest here since we just walked end to end of london. Around dinner tine we took her to my favortie fish n' chips joint. It is this little hole in the wall diner on Chapel Market Rd. called Crown fish n' chips bar. Very classy. Amanda and her friend that came along, Caitlin, had tickets to see the Lion King at 7:30 so we hopped on the tube and took Amanda down to Covent Garden (Theatre Land). When we arrived her friend wasn't their yet so we waited and waited. At 8:00, the play had started 30 min. ago, her friend finally showed up. I was pretty mad for Amanda when her friend bearly gave an apology for her tardiness--I know I would have been mad if I paid for a show and missed the first half an hour. So, Dani and I went back to our room to rest and when the play was done we went to pick Amanda up from the theatre. From their we took the tube to Tower Hill. This is where we walked the Thames Path which runs from Tower Bridge to Parliament. Along the way you see the Tower of London, Globe theatre, Tate Modern, Dali Museum, Millenium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and many other historic sights. At night this city is gorgeous so it felt great to share that with Amanda. After our 2 hour walk we had to find a night bus to get back home which was practially impossible. Why? I don't know. We eventually had to get a taxi for part of the way but got her home in the end. the next morning she headed off to Glasgow to stay with my friend Alyssa before she headed back to Sweden.
Friday me and the gang went to a comedy club called The Funnyside. Here we saw three acts that were frickin' hilarious. I love British humor. Afterwards we stepped outside to see this huge swarm of people up the way with a ton of paprazzi snapping off pictures.So we walked up the block to see what or who the commotion was for. Come to find out the Michael Jackson was coming out of Oliver at that time. I didn't actually see him just the mini bus her got into. People were going crazy! One girl actually chased after his van too. I was worried for her because she didn't look very old and with his track record she probably should have been doing the opposite.
Saturday and Sunday were uneventful because I had homework and now have a cold of some sort. I think Amanda brought some Swedish plague with her that got me sick. And today I just had class, pretty exciting eh?
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