I have been in the best mood for the last few days. All due to the
two awesome people I traveled with! We had an amazing time!
The first day we had been up for hours because we had to be at the
airport uber early. I think we ended up staying up for 36-48 hours. When we got
off the airplane I was in a glaze to just get to our hostel. We had to take a
taxi all the way from Birmingham International to Nottingham. We were all so
tired we slept and put our lives in the hands of the cabby. It was a little over
an hour cab ride and he dropped us off right in front of the hostel. Nottingham
was so cute, like adorable cute. The quaintest little big town I have ever
seen!
We went to the Hostel reception and found out we can't check in
until 3pm. We had gotten in at 9am and were dead! I wanted to just lay down and
sleep for years! Not gonna happen apparently, we had to walk around until 3pm.
We went to a cafe to get some caffeine and I sat down and just nodded off for
over an hour.
Once I finally decided to get up we all decided to just walk. We
followed some signs and ended up at the Nottingham Castle! It was a museum and
there was some awesome Robin Hood stuff in the gift shops. Sad news, we
didn’t get a picture with the Robin Hood statue, there was people all over the
place and we were bushed! The night in the hostel was probably the best sleep I
had in months. The bed was sooo much nicer than the bed I sleep in now in my
apartment. I’m pretty sure that it was the second best bed on the whole trip.
When we finally caught our bus to London, it was over an hour
late, we had a little adventure in the tubes. Lauren and I were staying at one
hostel while Virginia stayed at a different one all the way across town! Lauren
and I have been so excited about staying in this particular hostel because it
looked awesome from the pictures. So Lauren and I separated from Virginia and
ventured into the depths of London’s famous underground Tubes!
Now think about this, 2 girls from the
States that have no idea how anything works or where anything is in the UK walking
down at least 50 ft underground jumping on a colored train going go knows
where. We looked like massive deer caught in headlights just standing there
staring at a map. Colors and lines everywhere and we didn’t have any idea where
we needed to get off. On top of all that there was a lot of construction going
on so we had to get off at weird places, make connections and go up and down so
many escalators. I felt like I never wanted to ride one again. Lauren and I
literally were yelling at each other because we didn’t know where to go, and we
were tired, and we were lugging around a suitcase and duffels and backpacks.
By the time we got to our hostel (that we were really looking
forward to) we were so dead. To top it off our hostel was SO gross. Really,
really gross! Lauren and I agreed that we would get out of there in the
morning. We lugged all our stuff close to 20 blocks to find a new place to
stay. We are total Americans finding something familiar, a Holiday Inn! Those 5
days in the Holiday Inn were better than in my apt on campus.
The first time actually going out to explore London was surreal!
Again we took forever in the tubes finding our way around. Virginia and I ended
up at a stop some random place in London. I wanted to go one way and Virginia
said no lets go this way. So I, being the nice guy that I am, followed her. We
ended up in the business district where the (drumroll please) The BULLET of
London was! Or the Gherkin building. I remember writing papers and doing
research on it in HS. I have wanted to see it so badly! I totally geeked out by
it, taking pictures and walking around the whole base! Virginia kept calling it
a Faberge Egg. There is a mini sculpture of it made out of Lego’s! So Coooool!
Then after that little adventure we ended up back at the station
and went my way and ended up where we really wanted to be. The London Bridge
and the Tower of London. There were a lot of people all gathered around the
Tower and we tried to squeeze in and see what was going on but we just ended up
asking. It was a ceremony commemorating the fallen soldiers of London.
Remembrance Day or Poppy Day. Where they have one poppy flower per soldier and
list off their names as they place them around the tower. It was pretty special
to get to witness.
Virginia and I headed to the London Bridge next and walked across
it. It was kinda a cool feeling. We took many pictures as well. Once we got
across it was getting later and we knew it would take us forever to find out
how to get back to the room, so we headed back. I’ll stop here just so that I
have multiple posts and not just one massive post. J So more
to come! J
