London experience day 2

Hello, So you want to know about the rest of my weekend? Here we go! Okay, so I left off on the Friday right? So Saturday morning I woke up to some kind of alarm. There were only a couple other girls that woke up and we were all wondering if it was a fire alarm, but didnt want to rush out side because it was cold. Since I was next to the windo I got to look outside and check to see if people were running outside. No one was so I asked one of the girls who was dressed to go downstairs and ask. I turned off afew minutes later when I was dressed and getting my stuff ready for the day. I mean it was a little ahead of schedule, but I figured we should get a head start anyway. Turns out it was a false alarm, so no biggie. When she was ready a bit later, Karicia and I made our way to St. Pauls Cathedral. We had some issues finding the enterence for some reason, but over all got in and actually paid less than I expected. It was gorgeous. Very pretty and very big. We climbed the stairs to the Whispering Gallery and walked around that for a while. It was like 260 steps or something. Then we climbed another 150 steps to get to the next gallery which was outside and overlooked London. It felt like I was on top of the empire state building again. We tried to go to the highest gallery but were told it was closed! That was a bit of a disapointment, but we still got to see the rest of the gorgeous cathedral.

Next stop was Cafe Nero for a hot chocolate and coisant. We chatted there for a bit then made our seperate ways. I was going to go to the TKTS ticket booth in Leister Square. It sells half priced tickets to West End productions. But Karicia wanted to walk and Leister square was most def a tube way away and she wasnt going to see anything that night anyway, so she decided to take a walk down the thames and see the market that was near the London Eye, while I got my tickets and met her at the London Eye later. It actually didnt take as long as I thought. I thought I was going to be in line for a while as it was mid day Saturday and I was sure it would be busy. I actually got through within 20 minutes and got one ticket to Spamalot and as I was by myself I got a really good seat in the first balcony second row! It was then a fairly short walk, at least shorter than I had anticipated, to the London Eye. I got to walk accross that bridge that is only for people and is all pretty and you can see the Eye and stuff.

I got there at least an hour before I expected to and got my tickets that I had ordered online. Karicia must have read my mind or something because she appeared very shortly after so we were able to get in line right away. The line was HUGE, like no joke, so we thought we would be waiting 45mintues to an hour. But surprisingly again, it onlytook half an hour and it wasnt at all annoying because we were constantly moving and making progress, no long waits in one position. And we had lots to chat about which only made it go by faster. The Eye takes around 20 people in a pod at once and takes around half an hour to go around. We got marvolous pictures and since it was around 3pm the sun was starting to set giving the city a nice glow. There were some rude foreign people, but that didnt phase us, we were so excited to be in the London Eye. At one point we were trying to get a picture with Big Ben behind us and this one girl pushed in and tried to stick her camera in the way. I literally pushed her (gently of course) and told her to wait. She just kind of looked at me and after the shot Karicia and I moved to a new position that we could see better and have less people around to bother us. I think if those foreign people had been smiling or happy in any way I wouldnt have been so rude, but they were incredibly unhappy, at least that is what it looked like. You think they would be excited to be in the london eye. I mean they did probably speand enough money on it.

Anywho, that being done we decided to wonder around for a bit then go for supper. We managed to make that last a good hour and a half, then wondered around until we found that internet cafe that was so cheap. When I left we parted ways. Karicia back to the hostel and me to see Spamalot. I got in fairly quickly, got a program and sat down in very lovely seat, I could see everything very well. The musical is hilarious to anyone who hasnt seen it. I definately recomend it! It had everything and more that is Monty Pythonesque. Mostly Holy Grail. It had the flying cow and killer bunnies and all your favourite characters and more. The guy who played King Arthur was East Indian I think so there were some really funny jokes about religion in there. He was amazing too and obviously and improver. My favourite part was when they are looking for Jews so they can put on a play and the servant says that he is a jew and Arthur is like, why didnt you tell me this before, then the servent says it isnt something you tell a heavily armed Christian and then Arthur looks at the audience and then does this little, nevermind, gesture, because he is obviously Muslim. At some points he made a ramadon joke and even started speaking in whatever language he is. It was all quite perfect. My favourite character/actor was Sir Robin. He was perfect and obviously laughs kinda easily, like corpses easily, but he totally incorporated that into his performance and it worked very well. The singing was actually very good, they were very talented singers. The sets were awsome, everything was very Monty Pythom, in fact most of the actors looked like they were Monty Python. Like they should have been a part of the group way back when.

Anywho, after that I checked out the gift shop a little closer just to see and dont worry everyone I didnt buy anything though it was soo painful I actually had to rip myself away from them. You have no idea, there were killer bunny slippers, a killer bunny hand puppet. Spamalot spam, cow merchendise and all these other things, that make you just go ooo. I instead tore myself away and made my way back to the hostel. Luckily there was little if any creepiness. I quite enjoyed my ride back. I got back, put my stuff away and went to bed.

Oh, I didnt mention something from that morning. We actually talked to this girl who had been sleeping in the bunk mext to us, she asked if we were from Canada and said she was from Vancouver. We chatted with her for quite a few minutes and found out she was on an exchange with a program called swap. She had just graduated and what happens is the program helps you get a flat or apartment in ..somewhere you want to go and then helps you get a job and integrate yourself into the culture. She said its been awsome and that she was moving into her flat that day. She said she had gotten lucky and gotten a journalism job at amagazine. Not really the magazine she would want, but its still a really good job and a good start. I noted the name of the website of the swap thing and then thats when we made our way to Saint Pauls, but not before wishing her luck on her life.

I will try to do Sunday tonight or tomorow. But for now its time for lunch!