Thursday we went out to a place called O'Neils which was a three story bar near Piccadilly. They had a live band that played cover songs. Bonus: we did not get lost coming home (finally) On Friday, Zack's friend from high school flew in around 11 and we took the tube to the Tower of London. The Tower of London is one of the oldest buildings in London built around 1050. It was very interesting, they had pieces of armor and old swords that were used in battle. The Tower of London also is home to the crown jewels (Also the most protected area of London). This is really interesting to see, I just wished that I had known more about the British Monarchy. We were literally standing inches from millions of dollars of jewelry and crowns. This was also the first time that we witnessed the famous "Coldstream Guards" which are the guards that show no emotion and stand guard 24 hours a day. What was funny about this is that it mnust have been one of the guards first day of the job because we saw some off duty guards poking fun of him and taking pictures of him. Pretty funny. After the Tower of London it was a hop, skip, and jump to the Tower Bridge (self proclaimed most famous bridge in the world) We walked across and then went to a pub. We took the tube back and I ended up just staying at Regent's and I learned how to play Rummy.
On Saturday, we woke up to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Probably the most touristy thing we have done so far, Buckingham Palace was packed with people and they were ALL tourists (tons of Asians taking pictures) It was cool to see the guards and it was good to witness all the history that the guards represent. After finding our way through the maze that was the crowd in front of Buckingham Palace, we went back to Big Ben and Wesminster Abbey. We went inside the Abbey and it was really beautiful. We crossed the river and went undernearth the Eye of London (Huge Ferris Wheel near the River Thames) There were street preformers and a lot of tourists but the London eye is spectacular. We walked across the Millennium Bridge (AKA the Wobley Bridge) and witnessed a man proposing to his girlfriend on the bridge with Big Ben and The Eye of London in the background. One of the coolest things that I have seen here (the girl that we were with almost started crying). We took their picture for them and e-mailed it to them later that night. After crossing the bridge, we went back to Gordon's Wine bar (see previous post for explaination) and had a glass of wine. We walked to Trfalgar Square and went to the National Gallery Museum. There we saw hundreds of paintings including Picasso, Michaelangelo, Rafael, and Van Goths. We went to pub because we had heard that around 4 there was going to be a political demonstration at Trafalger Square. We got to see the tail end of the rally in which we heard chants of "Free Gaza." It was interesting to see, and really safe (tons of bobbies) but it was not our style. We took the tube to the grocery store and then went back to campus. That night we went to Piccadilly again and had fun.
Today (Sunday) I walked down to Oxford Street and looked around shops and people watched. There are all types of people everywhere.
Until next time,
Paul
P.S. We have booked trips to Prague, The Netherlands, and Scotland with many more to come
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