When Jenna and I landed at Heathrow airport, we had to figure out what Tube line (subway/metro) we needed to take. Our hostel was right next to the Edgeware Road Tube stop. We were able to buy Tube tickets there and found out we needed to take this line to this stop and then switch to another line to get to Edgeware Road. Well, we got to the stop where we needed to change lines. I stopped to ask someone for help just to double-check we were going the right way. We'd been told wrong. We had to get back on the same line as before, ride to the next stop, and then switch to a different line. Anyhow, we got there.
A lot of the Tube is under construction right now, so some of the stations only have stairways, or some only have "lifts," or elevators, rather than escalators. There are often delays too and the trains will just stop for a few minutes underground.
So Edgeware is one of the old stations that has a lift. However, we must've found the back exit or something because we walked up a flight or three of stairs. When we walked out of the entrance/exit of the Tube station, the Green Man Hostel was no where to be found.... it was supposed to only be a few steps to the right after exiting the station. Not there. We walked around forever asking what street we were on... Edgeware. But we could not find that dang hostel! We later found out we'd gone out some back exit rather than the main one. But we found our hostel and got checked in. And the hostel really is the next building after the main entrance to Edgeware station.
The Green Man is a bar or pub on the bottom floor, while the dorm rooms are on the two floors above. We were of course on the very top floor... the staircase is narrow, windy, and very steep. It was a challenge getting our luggage up there. We booked this hostel because Emma has a friend who recommended it.
So we get up to room #6, open the door to find...... a TINY room. There was absolutely no floor space. One person could open her suitcase at a time. Instead of having a room with three bunks to make six beds total, there were two bunks stacked three beds high. What an adventure. The bunks overlapped at a 90 degree angle. There was just zero amount of space. And the floor was really dirty too. The bedsheets were clean, though. And at least the six of us BSU teachers got to stay in a room together.
The beds were made out of 2x4's and were held together by screws and glue. I'm not even joking. The beds creaked and shook a lot. Luckily they held together. This hostel was just horrible. It was like a bad joke. We called it Dachau because of the bunks being three-beds high and SO close together and overlapping. Maybe that wasn't very nice, but we couldn't help it. It reminded us of Dachau when we went there at the end of February. On Sunday after we got home I was telling our supervisor, Terry, about "our concentration camp... I mean hostel!" Haha.
The bathrooms were of course shared, but were at least cleaner than the ones at the Kinlay House in Dublin. And we couldn't beat that it was in a pretty central part of London right next to a Tube stop. We were in the part of town, though, where there are a lot of Indian people. Apparently some people refer to it as Little Baghdad..
Anyway, so Jenna and I were so hungry, but waited for the other four people to arrive. Their Tube line stopped twice in the underground, so they were really late getting to the Green Man. Jenna and I had fallen asleep. They got to the hostel close to 8:00 probably. We all got combobulated and went out for dinner and to a couple of bars/clubs that were boring. And it was really cold that night too. It put us all in a pisser mood.. especially because of a certain Debbie Downer who pissed everyone off. What a great start to London.
The next morning (Tuesday, the 12th) we slept too late, but I woke up first around 9:30 and woke everyone up so we could get ready and head out. We went to Picadilly Circus to eat lunch at a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama's. I got a delicious salad and then Wagamama Ramen Soup with chicken, fish, and tofu. It was good, but had no flavoring... and it was monstrous. I ate a lot of it, but it only looked like I made a dent.
After that I bought a couple cheesey Royal Wedding souvenirs and we headed to the Tower of London. I'd gone to London a couple years ago and got to see most all of the main attractions, but one thing I didn't get to do before was go to the Tower. So that's what I did this time! And it was awesome. Al, Brittany, and I went into the Tower while the others walked around and saw the main sites, like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. While we were standing in line to get tickets for the Tower, we saw one of the teacher's from the high school with his family. What a small world.
In the Tower, we went through ALL the buildings. We went through the Medieval Palace, the White Palace, the chapel, etc. We saw torture instruments, where Anne Boleyn got her head chopped off, and the Crown Jewels. Way cool. It was awesome. We were in there for a few hours. It was a beautiful day, too. Sunny and warm enough for just a light jacket.
At 5:30 we met up with the others outside the Tower. Brittany, Jenna, and I went back to the hostel to get ready... we were going to see Wicked that night at 7:30 at the Apollo Theater! London Theatre is huge. You can tickets for shows the day of in Leister Square and Picadilly Circus. We bought our tickets after lunch earlier that day.
So we made our way on the Tube to the Victoria stop. From the Victoria Tube station, the Apollo Theatre is just across the street. We stepped up from the underground and right in front of us was a big Wicked sign. So cool. We had enough time to grab a pizza bread thing from a vendor, and it was really tastey. Our seats of course were in the very tip top, but that was okay. It was a fabulous show! I'd never seen Wicked before, but had read the book. The musical is way better than the book. It was just so cool! We had a great time.
Afterward, we made our way back to the Green Man and stayed in for the night. The next morning (Wednesday the 13th), I got up early to take a day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. I knew I needed to go the Victoria station again to get to the Victoria coach station somewhere near the Tube station. I was about to leave when Al wanted to go with me. He hadn't even bought a ticket yet... so he was going to go with me and try to just buy one there. I had to wait on him to get all his stuff gathered and we were hauling ass to even get there on time. It was hard to find the coach station... I don't know if I have ever speedwalked as fast as I did that Wednesday morning.
We did get to the coach station with only a couple minutes to spare before we needed to begin checking in. Al was able to buy a ticket.... and I had been looking forward to having a day to myself. I like to be alone; I'm a bit of a solitary person. And spending days and days with the same people constantly and in close quarters really makes you pissed off at all of them. Anyway, so we got to the tour in time.
Windsor Castle decided it wanted to be closed for the day because that's what they do in Europe, so instead we went to the Hampton Court Palace, which was our first stop of the tour. Hampton Court Palace was Henry VIII's main place he liked to go. It's now in London, but back then it was outside of London along the River Thames (Timms)... it was a four-hour-long boat ride for ole Henry.
Hampton Court Palace is pretty cool... it's massive. You could spend a whole day there just looking around. There are Henry VIII's apartments, his kitchen, and another area of his. There are Mary II's apartments, and a few other peoples' apartments. We only went through Henry and Mary's apartments because we wanted to get outside to explore the massive gardens; those were really cool. We grabbed a spot of lunch to take on the bus with us from a cafe at the palace.
From there we set out for Stonehenge. I have always wanted to go to Stonehenge. I've always been interested in things like Stonehenge, the pyramids, Lock Ness, Big Foot, ghosts, etc. I just like that stuff and like to watch shows about them. So this was my main reason for booking the whole tour: Stonehenge. I thought it was really cool.
Some people (like Al!!) say, "It's just a pile of rocks." "I'm not impressed." I thought it ruled. These stones are MASSIVE. The place is 5,000 years old and was built in three different sessions. Many of the stones are from Wales, too. How in the world did these people get those massive stones there? And why did they put it there? What is special about that site? What was the purpose of the site even?
And these people who built the thing were ancient people who didn't have modern equipment. They were so ancient that a lot of them didn't even have proper clothing for the environment; they wore animal skins and lived until about the age of 30. Something I did learn about Stonehenge is that it is thought to measure the Winter and Summer solstices by the way the sun passes through the rocks. These ancient people were especially concerned about the Winter solstice because they needed longer days and warmer weather.
The weather this day wasn't the best. It spit out some rain all day, was kind of chilly, but was quite windy. The wind was the main problem really, but that's okay... it was just true England weather.
After Stonehenge we made our way to Bath. Bath is a picturesque town nestled in a valley. It has a Roman bathhouse that still has water in it. They even have baths there you can still use if you want to book a spa day six months in advance. This bathhouse is the only one in England (and most of Europe) with water from hot springs. There were different rooms and treatments with different water temperatures used for different therapies. Bath was THE place to be in the 1700s... just think of Jane Austen novels. If you were rich or in the incrowd of society, you went to Bath. Jane Austen lived in Bath for a few years and two of her novels are set in Bath: Northanger Abbey and I don't remember the other one off the top of my head. But anyway, Bath was the place to go.
We toured the Roman baths, which I would've liked to explore more, but Al wasn't impressed. He liked the ones in Trier better.... even though these ones still have water in them! We walked around town and he complained about how it was boring. He didn't care that it was pretty and historical. He wanted to try a scone because he'd never had one before. We ate at this tiny little cafe beside an old bridge, which was nice. We each got a piece of cake; I had the chocolate something and he had the Victoria pound cake and a scone. I got a latte and he had a hot chocolate. It was all really good.
By this point in the day, it was raining pretty steadily, so it was kinda icky to be outside anyway. Al wanted to go into a sport shop and ended up buying a cricket set. I don't know why because then had to carry it around with him everywhere and it was too big to be a carry-on for our flight to Amsterdam, so he had to check the dang thing... it was just an ordeal. Oh well. He wanted it.
So we walked around Bath a little bit. I wanted to look inside a church, which Al seemed to be offended when we got there and realized it was actually a cafe inside instead of a church still. Oh well. So finally it was time to leave and I could stop having to listen to him complain, which was getting close to ruining the day trip. As soon as we got on the bus, I popped in my earbuds and listened to my iPod and took a snooze for part of the way home.
I was so glad to get back. Al wanted to freakin eat fish and chips for dinner, so Jenna, he, and I set out to find some.... there aren't any fish and chip places in that part of town with all the Indian people... There's kebab places. So we went to a kebab place. He still got their version of fish and chips, which I'm sure wasn't as good as could be. Oh well. I was just very irritated by this point if you couldn't tell.
We got back to the hostel and Jenna and I went upstairs to chill for a bit. We went downstairs to meet Al to have a drink with him. We talked to some Irish guy named James (I think) who was trying to move to London. After a while we went upstairs. Jenna and I both took showers so we wouldn't have to try and do it the next morning when everyone else was getting ready. The three girls had gone out that night.
The next morning (Thursday, the 14th), we got up and got ready. We had some time to kill after check-out time and before getting to the airport. Emma and I walked a couple blocks to get McDonald's for an early lunch while the others got frozen pizza from the hostel bar. We took the Tube to London Central Airport. There, we flew to Amsterdam, which was another one-hour flight.
Cheers, London!
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