Tour of the Old City

Today I woke up expecting the same hot, beautiful weather we experienced yesterday for our bus tour we were taking of the City. Well God and the City had other plans. Today was a bank holiday and there was a marathon being run through the city so streets were blocked off and we couldn't get a bus to go to all the intended stops on the tour. So we had a walking tour of the Old City...in the rain. It wasn't too bad though. The stuff that we saw was so beautiful. I saw Roman ruins still standing right next to steel and glass buildings--it was absolutely breathtaking. I wish America had such history! We stood where gladiators fought to the death, walked past the Lord Mayor of London's official home, and sat in a churchyard that was raised to cover bodies from the Black Death. It is already becoming clear to me that this city is so much richer than I ever could have imagined. After our tour (that lasted 5 hours!) we went to the Museum of London and got to go through a time machine of London evolution. So neat!



We walked around for a while until we got on the tube again. We got off at King's Cross-St. Pancreas to buy train tickets for Paris next weekend. Well...it's turned out to be a lot more pricey than I thought. Over £100 (roughly $180.00) for the tickets alone, plus another probably £100 for a hostel to stay in, not counting food and museum tickets etc. Not sure if it's going to be possible...maybe I'll just explore different parts of England with some people, or see how cheap Scotland can be. Who knows.

We went to this pub called The York for lunch and I got my first British Cast Ale and my first fish and chips. Very good! Then we went and got international cell phones at the Carphone Warehouse. I got a phone for £4.95 and £10 worth of minutes...but surprisingly enough, it's cheaper to call home than it is for me to call someone in London. Go figure. The guys that worked at the store were absolutely hilarious though. They made fun of my accent and asked me to do my best British accent impression. I told him that I wouldn't because I didn't want to offend him--so instead he proceeded to imitate my accent by saying "howdy, y'all." Ridiculous!!

We went to the grocery store after that and everything is packaged SO differently and the carts are like laundry baskets with rolling luggage handles! It was so packed that we just kind of went through and grabbed some things to take back. I got some really good pasta that I'm excited about though!

After that we kind of hung out for a while and made plans with some other people to go to a few pubs. (I actually just got back from being out with everyone.) We started back at The York where I tried another Cast Ale: Fuller's London Pride. Very tasty--but they drink this cast ale at almost room temperature and it's pretty flat. An acquired taste, I guess. Then we went to The Nag's Head where we got more drinks and talked for hours! It was so much fun finally really getting to know some people. There are only three guys with our group of 23 and two of them were with us tonight. They are so nice--everyone seems really nice though! We met some English fellas who chatted us up and bought us a drink. One of them said he was a PhD student in Experimental Neuro-science...I think he was just making it up though. Somehow some of the girls ended up with a cricket bat/paddle thingy...a mystery for sure. But I did get schooled on how to properly say "cheers" here.


I'm getting used to walking around a lot, and I think I may have already mastered the London Underground! The tube isn't so bad, actually. Well check out my pictures on Facebook--the name's Whitney Webb if you don't know.

Until next time!
Cheers!

-Whitney