Sunday, June 22, 2008

Loving London... Hating the Hostel


I think the title of this post is self-explanatory... We love London. Wish we could say the same thing about our hostel. Think of it this way... how would you like to share a room with 8 other male companions? One of these "companions" has long hair and decides that a Speedo is proper bed-time attire and covers are simply unnecessary. Another one of these "companions" decides to get up every few minutes and go to the bathroom. Ironically the bathroom is located three floors below us because ours no longer works, but that's another story. This wonderful roommate causes a ruckus every time he returns. The other two roommates like to snore unsynchronized. Oh, did we mention that our room is 60 degrees warmer (plus humidity) than the actual temperature outside? Figure if it is 60 outside, it is 120 degrees in our room. The cherry on top of this ice cream sundae of a mess is we are unable to get into our bags for necessities: our toothbrush, clean clothes or shoes. No worries though, this hasn't put a damper on our day.


Day 2 of London brought us sunshine, and WIND. Let's just say that if we were wearing our backpacks, we probably wouldn't have made it. We started the day off with our favorite London attraction...the double decker buses. We rode our favorite pastime towards Buckingham Palace just in time to see the very end of the changing of the guards. After, we headed on a quest to visit St. Paul's Cathedral (people say it has the best view in London). This gave us time to see Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, enjoy a nice boat trip up to London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London (all of which were beautiful) before we finally found St. Paul's Cathedral (which was closed) but the exterior architecture was amazing!


We then hopped back on our bus to get some real action for the day... almost hitting cars and pedestrians. These buses are like virtual-reality rides, except they are reality! We ended up at Piccadilly Circus (contrary to the name, it is not an actual circus) and arrived at our final goal of the day... ICE BAR.


Ice bar was as it sounds... cold. Don't worry, the staff gave us designer capes to wear! Inside the bar we drank out of glasses made out of ice cubes (for the first time since we've been here we had a cold beverage). We even contemplated chipping ice from the walls so we could save it for later. Sadly, this is highly frowned upon.


Tomorrow's agenda: Spending as little time in our hostel so we don't dehydrate (we decided we would rather go camping than stay there), the British Museum ( it's free!) and maybe St. Paul's or Westminster considering they were both closed today. Someone also said something about a fashion museum (anyone know the name?).


Best meal of the day: Thai food for dinner (it got 5 stars and was only £3).

Worst meal of the day: The warm (seeing a trend) cream and cereal our hostel believes is breakfast.

Funniest moment of the day: Trina, Heather and Melissa stuck behind a couple hooking-up on the boat.

Random moment of the day: Running into people we know from Oregon LEAVING our hostel (more like running away from). P.S. they also lived in our apartment the year before us (ironic?)

Number of times people asked what time it was when we could see Big Ben, but not realizing it was there: 13... mostly Heather and Trina. Trina just did it again...


SHOUT OUTS:
-Happy 18th Birthday J.Burrrrrr, to bad you weren't in London, because it's legal to drink.
-What up Becky? Hope summer school isn't killing you. We hear Eugene is nice this time of the year.
-Hi Aunt Ellen!
-Mom, why didn't you comment about our blog? - Trina
-Mom, Dad and Brody... hopefully there are no spelling errors this time.- Staci
-Hi Mom and Dad! Can you please email me back if you really love me?-DEVIN
-Thanks for the comment POINY!!! Can you also email me back if you really love me, I know we've only been here for a day but come on!!! Love ya guys!!! DEVIN
-Thanks to Jan for telling us where the guards are---- Everyone
-Hi Sister, Hi Mom, Hi Dad, i hope you guys are having fun in Europe too! I e-mailed you dad so I hope you get that. I love you all, but I can't really say that I miss you...yet ;) Melissa



12 comments:

Unknown said...

What? No shout-out for me? Psssh. Make it up to me by saying "hey" to Prince Harry for me. Have fun in Paris! Note: Le lemonade is NOT lemonade as you would suspect. It's le citron presse. Just trying to look out for y'all.

Unknown said...

Staci - I forgot to tell you that the British serve milk at room temperature. Now where are you going next...France- well the French.......


Just remember when in Rome,,,do as the Romans do!!

Love Mom, Dad and Brody

Beckileck said...

It sounds like yo guys are having an AMAZING time! I wanna see pictures! Well this has to be a shot comment cuz I have to drive back to the airport to get my luggage, they lost it on my way up here earlier. Better me than you guys though! Well I start school tomorrow so maybe I'l write some long, boring post while I'm in class :) oh and ps thank you guys for the birthday decorations and stuff in my room! It made my day, especially since I am seriously depressed about being back here for school! Love you all! Be safe and have funnnnnnnn

Staci Stringer said...

Hey Ladies!! Hope you're all having a wonderful time! I'm Headed to London On Tuesday (24th) I beleive the day you leave. But I saw Heathers Itinerary on her FB (kinda the same message I left on her wall -sorry ho). And we're going to be in Amsterdam at the same time! I get into Amsterdam July 1st and am there til the 3rd. I think you guys are there til the 2nd. But I would love to see some familiar faces in Amsterdam!!! I'll have a cell phone with me, I don't know if you guys have one or not, I get the number tomorrow and I'll let you guys know But I'd love to see you all!!! Keep me posted on good things to do in London and Paris!! -Stringer

Mary Terese said...

Trin!!! High five for me! LOVE the blog thing! I am so jealous of you guys...looks like you are having an AMAZING time!! Are you getting your fill of Coke/Pepsi? I already miss you (minus your crude ways). Hope you find someone else to pick on and torture for the the remaining 38 days! Love yaaaaaaaaa...BYE!

Audrey said...

TRINA!

I didn't have internet hooked up in my new house so I didn't have a chance to look at the blog but i wrote it down and went all the way to the libraby just to read it. (and check facebook). Sounds like you guys are having an amazing time.

That icebar looked pretty tight- maybe we should consider trading in the snow cone shack for one of those bad boys!

Hope you are all enjoying warm soda!

Unknown said...

You give brody a shout out, and he doesn't even blog?!

I see where the love is....

aunt ellen said...

Hi Girls
But did you shop??????????? Glad you are having fun. Icebar looked amazing I can see why it's a favorite.
Maybe Florida next trip we serve our drinks with lots of ice!!!
Love ya
Aunt Ellen

aunt ellen said...

staci
Hi
Grandma and Grandpa are "blog challenged" but they wanted to send you their love and tell you that they are thrilled that you are having a good time. They will take good care of your room when they are in California
love ya still,
Aunt Ellen

aunt ellen said...

Hi Staci
Do I have to post comments for forty days, I believe that I'm ahead of the game. Like my own personal journalism class!!!
From what I understand if I reach my quotas of comments I get a "my niece went to Europe and all I got was this sucky t-shirt" souvenier
love ya still
Aunt Ellen

Anonymous said...

Hi Devin -

Glad to hear your about to move out of the hostel. Hopefully the next stop will be better like you described. Look forward to seeing all of your pictures and exciting stories.

M.C. said...

On to Paris today ladies... say hi to the Hotel Claude Bernard where we spent our honeymoon. Three yrs of French classes and so little time to use it Devin. Love Dad