London

Thoughts
At first we figured London was just a quick stopover on the way to the rest of the trip. We weren't expecting much from London. Turns out London was really really cool. The architecture is a great mix of old building mixed with modern, head turning styles. The touristy sites such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge are simply amazing. The transportation system is by far the best i've ever seen. You can get from anywhere to everywhere in no time, either by 'the underground' or by bus. Even coming out of the bar at 3am we were able to catch a bus within 10minutes that took us across town to within a block of our hostel. Incredible.

The park here are beautiful and seem to go on forever. We went walking in St. James park, then crossed the street into Hyde park and it went on forever. We walked for over an hour and never saw the end of it. Beautiful gardens, huge trees and monuments and statues, open fields where there is always a soccer game, huge manmade lakes to fish and boat on. They have everything and there was tons of people in it. Best parks i've ever been in.

Overall London was awesome. Much much more then i expected. A really great city despite the fact it was always cloudy.

What we Did

So what did we actually do.
Friday: we got to London and found our hostel after a little while. Put our bags down and just started walking. We walked to Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey and Big Ben. On the way home we stopped at a good ol English Pub called the Barley Mow. Tried a couple of the traditional ales, I had some good ol Fish and Chips. Was a good night. After that we bought some beers (6 tall cans for £5) and drank at the hostel. Cashed in fairly early around midnight.

Saturday: We get up early (9am) had the free (i.e. not much) breakfast at the hostel. Then we took off sightseeing. We rode the London Eye (the big slow ferris wheel) then walked for miles in the drizzle. Then we bought a day pass for the underground and went to King's Cross where platform is 9 3/4 is (Harry Potter fans know). We then weren't sure what to do, so we hopped a random bus to see where it'd go. We ended up at the Elephant and Castle pub which wasn't much. From there we hopped another bus to go to the Tower Bridge (most people think it's the London Bridge). That was also very cool. After that we headed back to the hostel to change into our clubbing clothes. We hit the Ministry of Sound one of the most famous night clubs in London. Other then the £15 cover charge, the club was actually pretty cool. It opens at 11am and closes at 6am. We didn't close the club down, but we stayed until 3am, met some folks from New York, who figured the £15 cover was just about right. I've never heard bass like that, all of my organs shook!! that was it for Saturday.

Sunday: We slept until 1pm, then just decided this was a good day to lounge in the Park. We threw the football around for a little bit then started walking....and walking....and walking. The parks went on forever. They were incredible as stated above. We thought about just coming back and going to bed... but then we met some girls from Edmonton, how about that. It was there first day so we took a little walk around London, then came back to the hostel and drank a couple more beers. Now i think i'll stop writing and get two hours sleep before we get up to go catch our plane to Frankfurt.

Cheers,

The Three Amigo's