London Day Three

The pub last night was not quite the atmosphere we expected. John, Jackie, Laura, Emily and I headed up the street in Bloomsbury to find a pub nearby, and we ended up at the London Pub (wow, original name). John practised getting a round for everyone (as is the social norm here) but we all paid him back haha. We ended up sitting and chatting for a few hours, which was quite nice. On the way back, we encountered a few good-hearted weirdos. "What's this guy's philosophy?? Sorry, just creeping." I have no idea what on earth he meant as we were discussing ferret laws in New York state.

We passed out by midnight, but I woke up at 3:50 to the sound of a parade of drunkards stumbling like elephants down the hall, knocking into our door and the wall and everything in their way and shouting. Somehow Emily slept through everything, but they were being ridiculously loud until 5:30 am. I tried putting headphones in and I could still hear them, and I knew they were Americans, but I wasn't sure how best to tell them to shut up so I just tried my best to continue sleeping.

Needless to say, I started out my day a bit sleepy. Emily and I had our first full English breakfast this morning at the hotel! I love the beans haha. And they had lovely tea and pomegranate juice, and of course, most importantly, nutella toast. There were tons of other things- fried tomatoes, sausage, bacon, eggs, fruits, cereals, and fried bread (???).

After lunch we went to a post office so Laura could exchange her money- that's something that's different here, post offices do way more than just send mail. We also went on an excursion to find the nearest Boots, which is like a supermarket type pharmacy thing all over England so Emily could get an adapter (turns out she bought the wrong kind). And then we stopped in Primark. Oh goodness I am in love. IN LOVE. With Primark. It is the most wonderful, fantastic, perfect shop and everything is inexpensive full-price and since January is sale month in the UK it's even better. We had to get back to a meeting so we just poked around, but we're going back tomorrow to spend some quality time with the clothes haha.

Our first meeting was a program-specific meeting so the four York students met with David Crout about some basics of York, most of which we already knew. We're leaving at 9:30 am on Sunday by taxi to the train station and then taking a train up to York. I'm very displeased at having to lug my luggage around Kings Cross, but maybe if I pretend I'm actually going to Hogwarts it won't be so painful? We'll have a two hour train ride and then a hired taxi will pick us up and take us to our accommodation at York so we can check in and get settled there.

Next I met with the HOST UK representative about applying for a homestay. He was a lovely fellow and we ended up chatting with him about York and the north and the music scene in London, and it was quite a nice talk. We learned some very interesting things! (Definitely check out HOST UK if you're considering studying in England!!)

There were a few small group meetings about traveling in the UK and Europe, living on a budget, and British pop culture that we went to, most of which I didn't learn anything interesting because they're directed to students staying in London. The travel one was definitely helpful though. We returned to the hotel and took a break, then headed out for lunch at Caffe Nero. There are all these lovely little cafes and sandwich shops with soups and sandwiches and snacks for very inexpensive prices (£3-5 for a meal). I got potato leek soup with ciabatta bread, and then we headed off in search for the cupcake shop in the neighborhood, Bee's in Bloomsbury. I didn't get anything (£2.50 for a cupcake was a bit steep) but you can get a nice afternoon tea with cupcakes there!

We wanted to go to Abbey Road, but it was outside the zones our travel cards are in, so we ended up heading over to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It was lovely at night with everything lit up! There is ice skating at the Tower until January 6, which is such a cool idea, although we didn't try it out. The bridge is so gorgeous at night as well, I've only ever seen it by day. I started to feel a bit more like I was in London, finally (it still hasn't hit me I'm here yet?), since the Tower was one of the first things I ever saw the first time I was in London.

The Tower of London

The city skyline across the Thames

Tower Bridge!!!

Ice skating at the Tower

Megan, Emily, Laura, Jackie, and I at the Tower Bridge

Megan, John, Laura, myself, and Jackie (ignore my blinking)

There was a really cool lit-up barge on the Thames!

After we finished up at the Tower Bridge, it was getting a bit chilly, so we headed back for a break in the hotel. We were going to go to the British Museum with the Arcadia group, but we decided instead to go over to Camden and check out the live music scene over there since we're in London on a Friday evening! (We'll head over to the Museum tomorrow afternoon)

After navigating our way through the Underground, we arrived at Camden Town, which is seriously now one of my favourite places. The old stables have been turned into a market, and it reminds me a lot of the Old City in Jerusalem, with the winding alleys and shops pouring out into the walkway. There are a lot of different ethnicities in the neighborhood, so there were all kinds of interesting restaurants all over, including many Middle Eastern ones and TONS of creperies! I would love to go back there during the day when more of the shops are open. It's a very eclectic neighborhood, and there's a good reason the Arcadia people suggested students explore the area.

It's also Hipster Land, UK. I swear. But there were a ton of pubs with live music and we just wandered around from one to another. It was a little weird because they all had bouncers, I've never had my ID checked so often! Since we were all Americans, we would hold up the line as the bouncers talked to us about the US and our states (usually where on earth they were on the map- Emily made a joke about Iowa and growing potatoes and the guy found it hilarious haha). It was a really good night out, we just sat around and talked and enjoyed the atmosphere of the different pubs. Since Laura and Jackie move in to Westminster tomorrow while we're on a river tour, this was our last night with them and we made sure to have fun! There was a place called Barfly that internet reviews called super sketchy, but it was actually really nice, with great music and a decent selection of ciders. We went to another pub called the Monarch, which was very traditional, British pub-like, and got an order of chips with cheese sauce, and they were so delicious we all nearly died and went to heaven.

We made our way back on the tube early because the trains stop running around midnight, and figured out that we had been taking the really long way round to the tube stop near our hotel, which was embarrassing. Then it was time to say goodbye to Laura and Jackie, and head off to bed (or rather, to blog, shower, and then sleep).