To London and Back Again...

As we had planned last week, our little group traveled to London for a quick weekend trip. It was a great few days! I wish we had more time, but it was still a ton of fun. Here's the tale...

We woke up early Friday morning and took an intense double-decker bus ride to Glasgow's Prestwick airport. We sat in the front row on the top level of the bus, and it was freaking us out. It felt like we were flying, and it looked like we were running over pedestrians and small cars all along the way. We arrived at the airport, got through security, and flew on Ryanair, which was pretty much what I expected: a budget airline that gets you to a place without the expensive luxuries of a normal flight. It got the job done. It was only an hour-long flight, so we were in London by 1 p.m.! We exited the airport and saw an interesting smoothie/juice shop called "Lovejuice." Needless to say, we wanted to stop. Unfortunately we had a bus to catch. No Lovejuice for us... Next, we took a bus from the airport to Liverpool Street, which is smack in the middle of the downtown business district. It felt like a metropolis. Unlike Glasgow, London actually has the population that fits its size. After being dropped off we had to hike a few miles to our hostel. It took us about a half an hour, and our first mission after dropping off our bags was to find food. Luckily there was a nice little pub, "The Friendly Dog," around the corner from our hostel, so we crashed there and got some lunch. The pub had a great menu and some interesting house beers (Bombardier, London's Gold, and Mad Goose). Nachos, drinks, a "Bombardier Pie," and an accidental anchovy (thinking it was a piece of bacon, I accidentally bit into a disgusting little anchovy, to the delight of my friends) later, our ravenous stomachs were satisfied. After lunch we decided to buy a pass for the "Tube," and go do some sightseeing. Our first stop was the Museum of London, which had interesting exhibits about the creation of London and its history. Next was Picadilly Circus, which was kind of like Times Square. Tons of shops, lights, and people! We stopped for dessert in a café and then headed to Big Ben, Parliament, and the Eye of London. It was crazy actually seeing the buildings! They're enormous and the architecture is unbelievable. Having them all lit up at night was also a treat. We tubed back to our hostel, relaxed for a few hours, and then went out to a bar/club to meet up with a few guys that Meredyth knew. Ah, how we'll never forget the night of the "sketchball supreme." That was Friday!






Saturday morning we woke up and grabbed breakfast to prepare for another day of tubing and sightseeing. Our first stop was St. Paul's cathedral, which was enormous and amazing. The outside was massively impressive; the inside was beautiful and serene. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside, but I would strongly suggest you go there. Next we went over to Tower Bridge and walked across that to the Tower of London. I wish we would have had an entire day just to explore the inside of the tower. It's a huge castle! We tubed back to Big Ben and Parliament to see them during the day, and while we were in the area we stopped by Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. We couldn't go into Westminster because touring hours were over, but the building was still massive. Next time, I suppose. Buckingham was also massive. The Queen has some nice digs. Unfortunately there were no guards with fuzzy hats around to mess with, but I'll find them. Someday. Our final stop was Harrod's, which is an extremely expensive store. It was also massive. There were a lot of gold-plated things, mirrors, handbags, and scarves that cost about $225. I was scared to touch anything. With sore feet and empty stomachs we tubed back to our hostel neighborhood and found a pub called "The Swan." We hoped to find a pub with some crazy rugby fans (England was playing Waled in the 6 Nations tournament), but most sports pubs were packed. This pub was nice. We got to watch the game as well as relax. This pub also had some interesting house beers, and Will tried a few. One was called "Doom Bar" and the other was called the "Peculiar Ale" or something. Someone got nachos, I had fish and chips, and we all got some form of Bailey's coffee for dessert. It was perfect. We then crashed back at the hostel. Sarah went to meet up with a few Australian friends who were in town, Meredyth hit the hay, and Will, Jackson, and I played a few games of pool before bed. It was a solid day and a half, and we got to see some awesome sights!

Our flight home was the same as the flight to London, only the plane we flew home on was much nicer. We took the train from Prestwick to Glasgow, and the Scottish countryside was beautiful. There were about eight different golf courses that we saw, and there were some die-hards (just like you and the boys, Dad) playing golf on them! It made me miss my clubs and the summertime $5-a-nine rounds with Dad and the boys...

With our adventure over, I'm recounting our events in this post and thinking about a nap. Tonight we're headed to the Australian bar "Walkabout" to watch the super bowl! It'll be on here around 11 p.m., but it will still be amazing. Will and Jackson are both from LSU, so they're pretty excited about the Saints. Should be a grand time! Enjoy the pictures. Cheers!