So I have finally made it back from my first big trip of the year...not counting actually coming to England. We had a week off of school for Reading Weekand anyone who knows me would never expect me to do work during that time. A big trip to Marseille, Barcelona, and London is a much better use of my time. So here goes the day by day recap of my trip:
10/18: Bradford to London
Thursdays are my busy days because I am basically on campus untill 5 so I had to do all of my packing the day before. Jasmine and I couldn't book our coach tickets online because our credit cards were being declined for absolutely no reason. Anyway, she went down to the station while I was in class and I got a text that the coach left at 5:30. This meant that I had to book it back to the flat for some last minute packing because of course I hadn't actually finished the day before. Thankfully we make it and the coach ended up being 15 minutes late anyway. The coach was quite nice. I am still getting used to having to buckle up on a bus, but the seats did lean back and that more than made up for it. I think we finally got to the airport after 12.
10/19: London to Marseille
So we had to wait in the airport for 6 hours! We were starving because neither one of us had eaten since lunch the previous day. I think we both just got some chips and ate these really disgusting eclairs. It was actually took effort to eat it because it was so bad. I eventually gave up, and tried to sleep.
Finally we got to France and it was actually warm! I got to wear shorts for the first time since I left Alabama. Just a short bus ride and then a ride in the metro before we were at our hostel (Hostel Sylvabelle). The best part about the hostel was probably how close it was to the metro. After dropping off our backpacks we did a bit of exploring. Our first mission was to find the Mediterranean Sea so we made our way to the harbor. There were tons of sailboats just chillin' in the water. I very much wanted to commandeer one and go for a bit of an excursion. Eventually we made our way down to the beach and I had a Merguez (sausage and fry sanwich) from this little vendor. Although it was warm outside the water was beyond chilly so I only got in up to my knees. People around us were swimming, but they were obviously crazy.
Unfortunately the day made a turn for the worse for Jasmine. Some guy threatened to back hand her at a park and then the strap to her bag broke. Clearly those two things aren't on the same level, but it was one after the other so the effects combined.
10/20: Day 2 of Marseille
We slept in today because we were both still tired from traveling. Well actually I woke up at 9, but I did lay in bed for a while. Marseille is kind of a small place so there wasn't much left for us to do. One could definitely do everything in a day. We headed up to Notre Dame de la Garde at the top of the hill. You have to walk up a bunch of stirs first, but the view is definitely worth it and it is free to enter. It was crazy windy up there so my face was blocked by my hair in a decent portion of the pictures. Then we hopped on the metro to get to the train station so we could buy our tickets to Barcelona. It ended up being like 82 Euros, but we had to get there. Also Jasmine was fed up with France. Sure she had had some bad experiences, but I also think she felt uneasy not understanding the language. Almost no one spoke English. After that we headed back for a nap and then went out to a bagel placeon the harbor for dinner. The guy there spoke English and I think that made her feel better. Overall Ithink Marseille is a nice stop, but definitely not a destination.
10/21: Marseille to Barcelona
Well we missed the train. I had forgotten to change the time on the clock and so we got up an hour later than we should have. Thankfully there was another train right after that still allowed us to make our connecting trins, and they only made us pay the difference between the two tickets. A bit of stress at first, but it all worked out. I knew I was eventually gonna miss a train or flight or coach or something. We finally made it to Barcelona in the afternoon, but then we had to figure out the confusing metro station. It all seemed to jumbled. We knew what train we needed to be on, but it took us forever to find the platform going in the right direction.
The hostel (Ole' Barcelona) that we were staying at was right next to La Sagrada Familia, which is this enormous basillica that can basically be seen from all over Barcelona. It is huge and ornate and under construction. Being this close to huge sight means that there were tons of tourists and guided walks. After checking-in we decided to walk away from the madness and explore the surrounding area. It was basically just a chill walk, but that is always nice when you first get to a new place. The roads are so much wider and more open than they were in Marseille. It felt like I could breathe again. We were going to go out that night to eat, but a storm rolled in so we just relaxed in the hostel.
10/22: Day 2 of Barcelona
The day started off with us heading to our next hostel (Sute Hostal). It was a quick metro trip to the area, but that meant we had some time to kill before we could check-in. Luckily the hostel is situated right next to a shopping/eating area that spans a coupleof blocks so there was definitely things to do. It reminded me of Homewood, but bigger. Also, there were tons of dogs out and it made me miss mine. You can't really Skype with a dog, although I have tried. For lunch we ate at this little restaurant and Jasmine got to show off her Spanish skills,which are quite impressive. I should really learn a language. Ten years of French and 3 1/2 years of Spanish and I still can only speak English. How very American. Anyway I was excited because I was finally gonna get to eat Spanish food, and it was a huge disappointment. I don't remember what I had, but it started with a "c". It was kind of like ground beef wrapped in a lasagna sheet, but it was undoubtedly the blandess thing I have ever tried. I got about halfway through it before I decided it wasn't worth it.
However, despite that disappointment the day was good. The hostel we stayed at this time was the first one that actually felt like a hostel. There were a bunch of people just socializing in the common area and some were staying for lengthy periods. We ended up chatting with Ed from Australia who is taking Spanish classes during the day. He is waiting for visa approval so he can go back to teaching English in Northern Japan. I was pretty thrilled to get to talk to travelers and hear about what they are up to.
10/23: Day 3 of Barcelona
Jasmine's hair was really bothering her so we went to a salon so she could get it dyed. Boring for me, but it gave me time to do some writing. I had just purchased a bunch of postcards and this gave me plenty of time to fill them out. Of course I left everyone's addresses on my desk in Bradford so I couldn't send them from Spain. It wouldn't be me if I didn't forget something. After that period sitting we took the metro to Cataluyna. We got to walk through these narrow streets and I finally felt like I was in a different country. The problem with cities is that they all sort of feel the same, and that was not what I was looking for. Through the streets we made our way to the beach. The temperature here is about the same as in Marseille, but the water was noticeably warmer. It was still chilly, but it took much less time to get used to it. We also walked along the boardwalk area and then took one of those gondola things up to the top of a mountain. We ended up just grabbing a bite there and enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean and the city. On the way back down the sun was starting to set so it got even better.
10/24: Day 4 of Barcelona
Since we had such an amazing time yesterday, we decided to head back to Cataluyna and go down La Ramba, which is a famous market/shopping street. I think it used to be a sewer at one point, but I could be making that up. I just feel like I read that somewhere. After walking for a bit we decided to go into the courtyard area and have a bite to eat. First of all I got to have paella! Even better was the group of older Irish guys we were sitting next to. They were hilarious! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The other people around us seemed kind of annoyed, but they were so entertaining. They had clearly known each other for years and they would randomly burst out in Irish ballads. Eventually we tore ourselves away from them and made our way tothe beach. We just hungout there all day, but on our way back to the metro we passed by the same group of guys, clearly more inebriated, but still singing and having a grand time.
When we got back to the hostel I passed out, but I had to getup that night so we could head to the airport because our flight was at 6AM and Jasmine did't want to head to the train station in the middleof the night. Honestly Jasmine is very fearful. She never wants to be out at night which kind of sucks, but oh well.
10/25: Barcelona to London
I didn't sleep at all in the airport. I tried but the benches were metal and they all had arm rests so you couldn't stretch out. I tried to sleep on the floor but it was stone so I just got really cold. It was a verylong night, and the granola bars were doing nothing to fill my belly. Hopefully I will get better at this sleeping in airports thing. I did zonk out on the flight though so that was nice.
Since our flight was so early we had hours to kill once we got to London before we could go to the hostel. We arrived at Victoria Station, which is right next to Westminster Abbey, so we decided to walk around Battersea park. It was nice to finally be in a park because those are seriously missing in Bradford and in Barcelona they are all sand. For some reason Jasmine packed these super uncomfortable boots and she was getting blisters all over her feet. We headed to the hostel, but the directions were rubbish and it took way too long to find the street. It wouldn't have been bad, but Jasmine was all crabby because of her feet. We did finally find the place and after we dropped our bags we went off the find food because we hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. Down the street was this BBQ place and it honestly felt like home...except for the football on TV. The BBQ was pretty good and we had a nice long meal.
Jasmine passed out when we got back, but I stayed up because Michelle was suppossed to arrive at the hostel that night. Since we had so much trouble finding the place I was afraid that she would too. To make matters worse neither mine nor Jasmine's phones were working because we needed to TopUp our accounts. Michelle just ended up taking a cab, which I'm sure was expensive, but may have been the best option since she was traveling alone.
10/26: Day 2 of London
I assumed I would wake up at around 9 because I hadn't really slept well the entire trip. However I ended up sleeping until 10:30 and waking up super rested. It was glorious! Because of that we got off to a late start, but whatever. We headed back on the 11 bus to Westminster and did the major sightseeing things like Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Thankfully they are all right net to each other so it took no time. Then it was off to Comic Con!!
We got there before it opened and it seemed like we were queued for an eternity, but we were in line next to a Dalek and Captain Jack so that was pretty awesome. Once the door finally opened there was so much to see. I bought 10's sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS because I just couldn't help myself. Then we queued for the panel with Matt Smith, but we never got in. I could hear his voice in the room next to me and I help sing "Happy Birthday" to him, but I never got to see his face. However, there was a guy dressed up like him that looked pretty close to the real deal. We also couldn't get an autograph because only the first 100 people to buy the new DVD got to get an autograph. It was basically a fail on the Matt Smith front, but Comic Con was still exciting.
We left soon after all the fails and headed to the Tower of London. It was beautiful at night, but we didn't stay long because we were all so hungry. We had heard about this Mexican place near Trafalgar Square and Jasmine said she knew the way so she took the lead. Of course she did not actually know the way and she ended up taking us in the completely opposite direction into East London, which is the sketchy part. After walking for over an hour she admitted she was lost, I could have told you that like 20 minutes into the walk, but a quick bus ride dropped us off right were we needed to be. I was super excited for the food and to be out of the super harsh and cold wind. I had been craving mexican food since I got to England because there is a serious lack of it here. I got a quesadilla and it ended up being the spicy thing I have ever eaten, and i do not do spicy foods. The menu said "spicy-ish" and my experience has been that England is on the mild side, but man was I mistaken. It was good, but I could have used a glass of milk.
10/27: Day 3 of London
Jasmine left this morning so it was just me and Michelle. We headed off to Baker Street and enjoyed all that 221b had to offer. The Sherlock Holmes museum was small and I could have lived without going inside, but there was no way for me to know it wasn't necessarily worth it until I went in. Then it was back to Comic Con to meet Tiffany and Danielle, who had just arrived from Prague (another place I really want to go). Michelle and I got to take picture next to a TARDIS while we waited for them to get tickets, and we got to enjoy all the people in amazing cosplay. There were so many more people there than there was on Friday so it was pretty epic. There were people dressed up at The Doctor, Amy, Daleks, wizards, jedis, storm troopers, people from Naruto, and tons of video game characters. Some of these costumes were pretty legit and Michelle got tons of pictures that I am definitely going to steal from her. There were also more famous people there. Friday it was just Matt Smith, but Saturday I saw the main guy from Eureka, the man who play Professor Flitwick, the guy from Haven who I know from the first episode of Buffy, and Dale from The Walking Dead. It was a good day. To make it even better Michelle and I then headed to the Duchess theater to see Our Boys. It was a woderful play and it only cost us 20 GBP. The theater was super intimate which means I was super close to both Matthew Lewis (Neville from Harry Potter) and Arthur Darvill (Rory from Doctor Who). Yes I got to see Neville and Rory, and seeing Rory is way more exciting for me than seeing Matt Smith. I definitely chose the play to see them, but it turned out to be an excellent play. It was hilarious and sad, and I learned a new drinking game called Beerhunter (play on Deerhunter). It basically is Russian roulette with shaken beers as the bullets. It was just a super fantastic day. We eneded up not getting back to the hostel until after midnight.
10/28: London to Bradford
So I had booked a coach back to Bradford leaving at 3 so I had a day to do stuff on my own. I really enjoyed being on my own in the city. It was just less hassle because I knew what I wanted to do and I didn't have to coordinate with anyone else. It was an awesome day. I went to Trafalgar Square and then made my way over to St. Paul's. From there I walked across the Millenium Bridge (YAY Harry Potter!) to the Tate Modern. I must say I was less than impressed by the exhibits, but I am glad I went and it was FREE! Of course after making through the museum I had to grab the 11 bus back to Victoria Station. There was construction going on so it took longer to get there and I ended up sprinting to the station because I got off a stop too early. I honestly thought I was going to miss my bus, but when I got there the clocks said I had an hour to spare. I was so confused because my watch and my phone told me the bus should be leaving. It was very disorienting. I thought I had changed them somehow, but yesterday I had the right time. Once I got back to Bradford I saw an email reminding me about the clock change, so there day lights savings time is earlier than back at home.
It is nice to be back in my room, but I loved London. I wish I was studying there so I could get a taste for what it is like to live in a big city. I guess that experience will have to come later. Overall I think the trip was a success. Jasmine is not a bad partner, but I am glad the rest of our trips together are just weekend things. I also wish I had done more in Barcelona, but Jasmine was not up for it. I would have been fine with going off on my own, but I get the feeling that she would not be. I also wish we would do some bigger group trips so she would feel better about going out. Hopefully she will loosen up a bit more once she has gotten more used to traveling.
Unfortunately there is not much time for recuperation. I have this big group project that I have to work on and Thursday night I am off to Scotland for the weekend. I am not complaining, but I think at the end of the semester/year I am just going to crash. That or I could just adjust my time management.
10/18: Bradford to London
Thursdays are my busy days because I am basically on campus untill 5 so I had to do all of my packing the day before. Jasmine and I couldn't book our coach tickets online because our credit cards were being declined for absolutely no reason. Anyway, she went down to the station while I was in class and I got a text that the coach left at 5:30. This meant that I had to book it back to the flat for some last minute packing because of course I hadn't actually finished the day before. Thankfully we make it and the coach ended up being 15 minutes late anyway. The coach was quite nice. I am still getting used to having to buckle up on a bus, but the seats did lean back and that more than made up for it. I think we finally got to the airport after 12.
10/19: London to Marseille
So we had to wait in the airport for 6 hours! We were starving because neither one of us had eaten since lunch the previous day. I think we both just got some chips and ate these really disgusting eclairs. It was actually took effort to eat it because it was so bad. I eventually gave up, and tried to sleep.
Finally we got to France and it was actually warm! I got to wear shorts for the first time since I left Alabama. Just a short bus ride and then a ride in the metro before we were at our hostel (Hostel Sylvabelle). The best part about the hostel was probably how close it was to the metro. After dropping off our backpacks we did a bit of exploring. Our first mission was to find the Mediterranean Sea so we made our way to the harbor. There were tons of sailboats just chillin' in the water. I very much wanted to commandeer one and go for a bit of an excursion. Eventually we made our way down to the beach and I had a Merguez (sausage and fry sanwich) from this little vendor. Although it was warm outside the water was beyond chilly so I only got in up to my knees. People around us were swimming, but they were obviously crazy.
Unfortunately the day made a turn for the worse for Jasmine. Some guy threatened to back hand her at a park and then the strap to her bag broke. Clearly those two things aren't on the same level, but it was one after the other so the effects combined.
10/20: Day 2 of Marseille
We slept in today because we were both still tired from traveling. Well actually I woke up at 9, but I did lay in bed for a while. Marseille is kind of a small place so there wasn't much left for us to do. One could definitely do everything in a day. We headed up to Notre Dame de la Garde at the top of the hill. You have to walk up a bunch of stirs first, but the view is definitely worth it and it is free to enter. It was crazy windy up there so my face was blocked by my hair in a decent portion of the pictures. Then we hopped on the metro to get to the train station so we could buy our tickets to Barcelona. It ended up being like 82 Euros, but we had to get there. Also Jasmine was fed up with France. Sure she had had some bad experiences, but I also think she felt uneasy not understanding the language. Almost no one spoke English. After that we headed back for a nap and then went out to a bagel placeon the harbor for dinner. The guy there spoke English and I think that made her feel better. Overall Ithink Marseille is a nice stop, but definitely not a destination.
10/21: Marseille to Barcelona
Well we missed the train. I had forgotten to change the time on the clock and so we got up an hour later than we should have. Thankfully there was another train right after that still allowed us to make our connecting trins, and they only made us pay the difference between the two tickets. A bit of stress at first, but it all worked out. I knew I was eventually gonna miss a train or flight or coach or something. We finally made it to Barcelona in the afternoon, but then we had to figure out the confusing metro station. It all seemed to jumbled. We knew what train we needed to be on, but it took us forever to find the platform going in the right direction.
The hostel (Ole' Barcelona) that we were staying at was right next to La Sagrada Familia, which is this enormous basillica that can basically be seen from all over Barcelona. It is huge and ornate and under construction. Being this close to huge sight means that there were tons of tourists and guided walks. After checking-in we decided to walk away from the madness and explore the surrounding area. It was basically just a chill walk, but that is always nice when you first get to a new place. The roads are so much wider and more open than they were in Marseille. It felt like I could breathe again. We were going to go out that night to eat, but a storm rolled in so we just relaxed in the hostel.
10/22: Day 2 of Barcelona
The day started off with us heading to our next hostel (Sute Hostal). It was a quick metro trip to the area, but that meant we had some time to kill before we could check-in. Luckily the hostel is situated right next to a shopping/eating area that spans a coupleof blocks so there was definitely things to do. It reminded me of Homewood, but bigger. Also, there were tons of dogs out and it made me miss mine. You can't really Skype with a dog, although I have tried. For lunch we ate at this little restaurant and Jasmine got to show off her Spanish skills,which are quite impressive. I should really learn a language. Ten years of French and 3 1/2 years of Spanish and I still can only speak English. How very American. Anyway I was excited because I was finally gonna get to eat Spanish food, and it was a huge disappointment. I don't remember what I had, but it started with a "c". It was kind of like ground beef wrapped in a lasagna sheet, but it was undoubtedly the blandess thing I have ever tried. I got about halfway through it before I decided it wasn't worth it.
However, despite that disappointment the day was good. The hostel we stayed at this time was the first one that actually felt like a hostel. There were a bunch of people just socializing in the common area and some were staying for lengthy periods. We ended up chatting with Ed from Australia who is taking Spanish classes during the day. He is waiting for visa approval so he can go back to teaching English in Northern Japan. I was pretty thrilled to get to talk to travelers and hear about what they are up to.
10/23: Day 3 of Barcelona
Jasmine's hair was really bothering her so we went to a salon so she could get it dyed. Boring for me, but it gave me time to do some writing. I had just purchased a bunch of postcards and this gave me plenty of time to fill them out. Of course I left everyone's addresses on my desk in Bradford so I couldn't send them from Spain. It wouldn't be me if I didn't forget something. After that period sitting we took the metro to Cataluyna. We got to walk through these narrow streets and I finally felt like I was in a different country. The problem with cities is that they all sort of feel the same, and that was not what I was looking for. Through the streets we made our way to the beach. The temperature here is about the same as in Marseille, but the water was noticeably warmer. It was still chilly, but it took much less time to get used to it. We also walked along the boardwalk area and then took one of those gondola things up to the top of a mountain. We ended up just grabbing a bite there and enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean and the city. On the way back down the sun was starting to set so it got even better.
10/24: Day 4 of Barcelona
Since we had such an amazing time yesterday, we decided to head back to Cataluyna and go down La Ramba, which is a famous market/shopping street. I think it used to be a sewer at one point, but I could be making that up. I just feel like I read that somewhere. After walking for a bit we decided to go into the courtyard area and have a bite to eat. First of all I got to have paella! Even better was the group of older Irish guys we were sitting next to. They were hilarious! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The other people around us seemed kind of annoyed, but they were so entertaining. They had clearly known each other for years and they would randomly burst out in Irish ballads. Eventually we tore ourselves away from them and made our way tothe beach. We just hungout there all day, but on our way back to the metro we passed by the same group of guys, clearly more inebriated, but still singing and having a grand time.
When we got back to the hostel I passed out, but I had to getup that night so we could head to the airport because our flight was at 6AM and Jasmine did't want to head to the train station in the middleof the night. Honestly Jasmine is very fearful. She never wants to be out at night which kind of sucks, but oh well.
10/25: Barcelona to London
I didn't sleep at all in the airport. I tried but the benches were metal and they all had arm rests so you couldn't stretch out. I tried to sleep on the floor but it was stone so I just got really cold. It was a verylong night, and the granola bars were doing nothing to fill my belly. Hopefully I will get better at this sleeping in airports thing. I did zonk out on the flight though so that was nice.
Since our flight was so early we had hours to kill once we got to London before we could go to the hostel. We arrived at Victoria Station, which is right next to Westminster Abbey, so we decided to walk around Battersea park. It was nice to finally be in a park because those are seriously missing in Bradford and in Barcelona they are all sand. For some reason Jasmine packed these super uncomfortable boots and she was getting blisters all over her feet. We headed to the hostel, but the directions were rubbish and it took way too long to find the street. It wouldn't have been bad, but Jasmine was all crabby because of her feet. We did finally find the place and after we dropped our bags we went off the find food because we hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. Down the street was this BBQ place and it honestly felt like home...except for the football on TV. The BBQ was pretty good and we had a nice long meal.
Jasmine passed out when we got back, but I stayed up because Michelle was suppossed to arrive at the hostel that night. Since we had so much trouble finding the place I was afraid that she would too. To make matters worse neither mine nor Jasmine's phones were working because we needed to TopUp our accounts. Michelle just ended up taking a cab, which I'm sure was expensive, but may have been the best option since she was traveling alone.
10/26: Day 2 of London
I assumed I would wake up at around 9 because I hadn't really slept well the entire trip. However I ended up sleeping until 10:30 and waking up super rested. It was glorious! Because of that we got off to a late start, but whatever. We headed back on the 11 bus to Westminster and did the major sightseeing things like Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Thankfully they are all right net to each other so it took no time. Then it was off to Comic Con!!
We got there before it opened and it seemed like we were queued for an eternity, but we were in line next to a Dalek and Captain Jack so that was pretty awesome. Once the door finally opened there was so much to see. I bought 10's sonic screwdriver and a TARDIS because I just couldn't help myself. Then we queued for the panel with Matt Smith, but we never got in. I could hear his voice in the room next to me and I help sing "Happy Birthday" to him, but I never got to see his face. However, there was a guy dressed up like him that looked pretty close to the real deal. We also couldn't get an autograph because only the first 100 people to buy the new DVD got to get an autograph. It was basically a fail on the Matt Smith front, but Comic Con was still exciting.
We left soon after all the fails and headed to the Tower of London. It was beautiful at night, but we didn't stay long because we were all so hungry. We had heard about this Mexican place near Trafalgar Square and Jasmine said she knew the way so she took the lead. Of course she did not actually know the way and she ended up taking us in the completely opposite direction into East London, which is the sketchy part. After walking for over an hour she admitted she was lost, I could have told you that like 20 minutes into the walk, but a quick bus ride dropped us off right were we needed to be. I was super excited for the food and to be out of the super harsh and cold wind. I had been craving mexican food since I got to England because there is a serious lack of it here. I got a quesadilla and it ended up being the spicy thing I have ever eaten, and i do not do spicy foods. The menu said "spicy-ish" and my experience has been that England is on the mild side, but man was I mistaken. It was good, but I could have used a glass of milk.
10/27: Day 3 of London
Jasmine left this morning so it was just me and Michelle. We headed off to Baker Street and enjoyed all that 221b had to offer. The Sherlock Holmes museum was small and I could have lived without going inside, but there was no way for me to know it wasn't necessarily worth it until I went in. Then it was back to Comic Con to meet Tiffany and Danielle, who had just arrived from Prague (another place I really want to go). Michelle and I got to take picture next to a TARDIS while we waited for them to get tickets, and we got to enjoy all the people in amazing cosplay. There were so many more people there than there was on Friday so it was pretty epic. There were people dressed up at The Doctor, Amy, Daleks, wizards, jedis, storm troopers, people from Naruto, and tons of video game characters. Some of these costumes were pretty legit and Michelle got tons of pictures that I am definitely going to steal from her. There were also more famous people there. Friday it was just Matt Smith, but Saturday I saw the main guy from Eureka, the man who play Professor Flitwick, the guy from Haven who I know from the first episode of Buffy, and Dale from The Walking Dead. It was a good day. To make it even better Michelle and I then headed to the Duchess theater to see Our Boys. It was a woderful play and it only cost us 20 GBP. The theater was super intimate which means I was super close to both Matthew Lewis (Neville from Harry Potter) and Arthur Darvill (Rory from Doctor Who). Yes I got to see Neville and Rory, and seeing Rory is way more exciting for me than seeing Matt Smith. I definitely chose the play to see them, but it turned out to be an excellent play. It was hilarious and sad, and I learned a new drinking game called Beerhunter (play on Deerhunter). It basically is Russian roulette with shaken beers as the bullets. It was just a super fantastic day. We eneded up not getting back to the hostel until after midnight.
10/28: London to Bradford
So I had booked a coach back to Bradford leaving at 3 so I had a day to do stuff on my own. I really enjoyed being on my own in the city. It was just less hassle because I knew what I wanted to do and I didn't have to coordinate with anyone else. It was an awesome day. I went to Trafalgar Square and then made my way over to St. Paul's. From there I walked across the Millenium Bridge (YAY Harry Potter!) to the Tate Modern. I must say I was less than impressed by the exhibits, but I am glad I went and it was FREE! Of course after making through the museum I had to grab the 11 bus back to Victoria Station. There was construction going on so it took longer to get there and I ended up sprinting to the station because I got off a stop too early. I honestly thought I was going to miss my bus, but when I got there the clocks said I had an hour to spare. I was so confused because my watch and my phone told me the bus should be leaving. It was very disorienting. I thought I had changed them somehow, but yesterday I had the right time. Once I got back to Bradford I saw an email reminding me about the clock change, so there day lights savings time is earlier than back at home.
It is nice to be back in my room, but I loved London. I wish I was studying there so I could get a taste for what it is like to live in a big city. I guess that experience will have to come later. Overall I think the trip was a success. Jasmine is not a bad partner, but I am glad the rest of our trips together are just weekend things. I also wish I had done more in Barcelona, but Jasmine was not up for it. I would have been fine with going off on my own, but I get the feeling that she would not be. I also wish we would do some bigger group trips so she would feel better about going out. Hopefully she will loosen up a bit more once she has gotten more used to traveling.
Unfortunately there is not much time for recuperation. I have this big group project that I have to work on and Thursday night I am off to Scotland for the weekend. I am not complaining, but I think at the end of the semester/year I am just going to crash. That or I could just adjust my time management.
