London and other bits of England

Hey all!

I'm chillin' here in good ole London town. I've been here for two days, and it's been quite the adventure. So let's get started, shall we?

So my plane finally took off from Paris and I arrived at Nottingham on Tuesday without too much hassle. You know, just the usual hassle of figuring out where the bus stop is and where to go. I found the right one pretty easily and met up with my friend Rachael Moreau in the middle of Nottingham. By the time I got there it was fairly late at night, so I just picked up a sandwich at a Tesco (British grocery store) and we headed back to her place at the University of Nottingham.

She's got a pretty big room in one of the dorms. It's much bigger than any dorm room I've ever seen, and it's pretty cool. It's stocked with old wooden furniture that looks as if it's been there since the 1800s or something, which includes a nice boudoir and a table. She's also got a sink and a big ol' bed and probably something else, but I don't remember entirely. It's all very old and traditional-college looking, and she's got a nice view of some giant field. The dorm has a bar, which apparently isn't super popular, I guess because it's too easy. In any case, there are 17 different dorm halls, and each has a bar. There's a pub crawl that goes to all 17 bars. That sounds like a night that ends by worshipping the porcelain throne if I've ever heard of one.

Anyway, I got a bit of a tour the next morning (which included sneaking into and out of their library, which requires a student ID card to get in and out– I'm SUCH a badass, I know!) and saw a few buildings. It's a huuuuuuuge campus with lots of giant fields and such. We got some food to munch on during the trip to London, got some lunch at this nice place in the city, and then got on a bus headed to this place called London. I think you've likely heard of it? The bus ride was comfy and easy and before we knew it, we were in good ol' London. I should note that I've been to London once before, thanks to my wonderful dad and family! Thanks, Dad!

Well, right when we arrive, Rachael checks her purse and realizes that her wallet is missing, which, of course, prompts an epic "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" We head off on this ridiculous wild goose chase that involves talking to at least 10 people who quickly redirect us to another person to talk to, and end up looking on the bus for the wallet. No luck there, so we try the lost and found and all kinds of dumb things like that, and still have no luck.

So, to begin our tour of London, we first visit the police station! Yay! Our welcome committee is a crusty bitch of a woman who works the front desk and seems to have little interest in actually being useful in any way. We have to wait for some guy to report losing his passport and some slightly insane-looking lady who's rambling on something about her kid and her ex-husband and custody and I don't really know. She was crazy and I'm sure it'll all result in some stupid lawsuit involving pleading insanity and lots of crying and yelling, and then they'll probably turn it into a Lifetime movie. Finally it is our turn and Rachael gets the phone number to the bus station in Nottingham. After playing the poor, lost American girl card and saying please a lot, Rachael gets El Grumpola to let us use their phone. Her face is a symphony of frowns and discouraging gazes, but we use their precious phone to call the station and receive news that they have not found any wallets. Sad face. We leave Frownzilla and the police station and decide to head to the hostel that we have booked and deal with it from there.

Rachael's pretty upset, of course, but I'm so smooth and on top of things that her nerves are eased. I awkwardly try to tell some jokes and fail, but she remembers how muscular and good-looking I am and soon everything is back to normal. We are adventurers on an epic journey, and this is but a tiny pitfall in the course of travel. It's all very poetic and wonderful. We buy passes to the Underground (the London subway system– ten points to whoever can tell me the name of the Paris subway system without looking back!) and find our hostel pretty easily. We're staying at this place that we booked called The Generator. We arrive and are relieved that it is legit.

There are two locations of the Generator– one in London and one in Berlin. We're staying at the one in London, obviously, and it's really cool. It's tucked away in what seems to be a residential-ish area of London (near Russell Square, for those who've been). It's got all this yellow and blue kinda modern industrial cool decoration, and it's a pretty neat little place. There's a little travel stand that sells basic snacks and things a traveling person might need, and there are rooms to eat and chill in. There's wireless internet you can buy and computers you can use, and there's a little restaurant/cafeteria that has food. Oh, and there's also a bar with cheap drinks for patrons of the hostel. This place is huge– I think the capacity is around 800. It's not expensive to stay, and Rachael and I are sleeping in a 6 person room for 2 days. It was like 30 pounds ($42ish) total for the both of us. Really cheap when you consider it's London! Dang, yo. The beds are comfortable and there are lockers to lock your stuff in. We've felt totally safe, as there are security guards out all night that only let people with room cards into the area. All in all, this is a totally legit place. We hit the jackpot. If you're every traveling in London and need a place to stay, The Generator is a good choice. It's pretty close to a lot of interesting places in the city, and it's close to the Underground.

I get internet access and Rachael gets her credit card canceled. Luckily there were no new charges on her card, so hopefully it wasn't stolen. (It still hasn't turned up yet, though). We have cheep beer to relax and then run to a little place on the corner for dinner. Quick note about British food: it is horribly bland. Luckily there is a lot of ethnic food here, and it's usually pretty good. Rachael got fish and chips, which wasn't bad at this place, and I got a chicken kabob sandwich. Victory! We're not too interested in partying it up tonight, so we find a really quaint pub near the hostel to have a drink at. Rachael is in much better spirits now that we've got her stuff settled, so we have a really nice time there. The pubs here close at like 12 or so, so we head back pretty early and get some sleep for our big day tomorrow.

The next day (Thursday, btw) is so much better! We get up and go on a free tour of London that we found out about at the hostel. It's run by theater students and professionals who don't have anything to do during the day, and they get paid solely by tips. In any case, they're trained and give lots of details about all the histories and stories related to all the buildings we visit. Plus they're theatre people, so it's well-delivered and they don't forget their lines. It was a really nice overview of town, and we met a few other interesting travelers along the way. After the tour, we grab a quick lunch at McDonald's (their McD's are so much NICER than the ones here!) and do a bit more walking around the city. I show Rachael some places I remember from last time, and we have a great time walking around. I took a lot of pictures, so I'll put them up soon and you can take a little trip through London yourself.

We decide that we should check out the theatre scene while we're here, so we buy some discounted tickets to the musical Billy Elliott (music written by Sir Elton John! Yea!). We're tired from all the walking, though, so we head back to the hostel to change and relax a bit. Once again, our location is great and we find a great Indian restaurant for dinner right nearby where we're staying. We hightail it over to the Victoria Palace Theater and sit in our back-row seats, which really weren't that bad. Neither of us know anything about the show we're seeing, so we have our fingers crossed.

The show was ASTOUNDING. Seriously! I was expecting it to be pretty good, but it absolutely blew me away. The story is about some kid named Billy Elliott growing up in a mining town who wants to be a ballet dancer. It was phenomenal! The music was amazing, and the dancing was just absolutely ridiculous. The main character was this 12 year old kid, and he was doing all of this ridiculous stuff on stage. London's a huge theatre place, so everything about the show was top notch– the lighting, the costumes, the choreography, the set, the singing, the acting, the sound quality, all of it. They had me laughing my ass off at parts and damn near crying at others (er, I mean, Rachael was close to crying. I'm really manly and stoic, don't worry). By the end of the show, Rachael and I were in high spirits. It was the perfect way to spend the night.

We were planning on goin' clubbin', but we didn't have time to figure out where to go or how to get home later, so we decided against it. After a long day of walking and when you have plans to travel the next day, it's kinda hard to get the motivation to go out sometimes. We walked around and got a bit to eat at some shop in Leicester Square, then managed to wander into Chinatown (yea! ten explorer points for me!) We got some drinks back at the hostel bar, and chilled a bit.

And that's where I am now, folks. Thought I'd try to get this all down before I forget it. I left out a few details here and there, but you know. I can fill those in later. Plus I need to have some stories to tell in person!

Tomorrow we leave to go to Colchester to visit my friend Colleen, who goes to University of Essex. There's a wonderful story about how we booked a bus to the wrong city, but I'll have to tell that one later.

I am having absolutely the best time traveling around! I'm getting pretty good at getting around, and though it's still a pain to have to figure out the cheapest (but not too time-consuming) way to get around, I'm getting a lot better at it. I've done a lot of traveling before with my family, but when you have to do it on your own, it's a lot different. I like it. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you want to call me the Traveling Champ, I won't argue!

Hope you're enjoying these posts! I love hearing from you all, and I've been trying to get back to you when I can, but it's hard sometimes. Hope all is well at home; don't worry about me!