London

I made it to London! Getting here was unexpectedly rocky... I was scheduled to fly out of Boston at 5pm on Monday (yesterday), and arrive in Amsterdam early the next morning. Then I'd booked a cheap flight to London. Unfortunately, my flight out of Boston was delayed by SIX HOURS due to mechanical issues (always what you want to hear). They had to fly in a part, and then make repairs... hence the lengthy delay. So, needless to say, I missed my second flight and ended up having to book a new one from Amsterdam. AND lug my second huge suitcase here, which I'd been planning to store at the Amsterdam airport. That will teach me to book flights on discount airlines when coming from the US.

In any case, I eventually made my way to London yesterday afternoon and found Kara and Sally, who had traveled from Germany and outside of London, respectively. We checked into our hostel, which is pretty much an un-impressive college dorm, but very centrally located in Piccadilly Circus. We had dinner last night with Michaelagh and Harry, who just moved here from Edinborough-- what great timing! I'm lucky to be able to catch up with so many friends on this side of the pond.

Today, we slept later than planned... oops! But it certainly helped with the jet lag. We managed to see a lot despite the late start-- we walked all over London, had breakfast in Leicester Square, walked through Trafalgar Square, spent a long time doing the audio tour of Westminster Abbey (which was AMAZING), saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, crossed the Thames, had high tea on the South Bank, and went up in the London Eye. Also amazing, a little alarming at the top. We stopped by the National Gallery just before closing, too.

Tonight, when re-checking into the hostel (we had to change rooms), we opened the door to a floor full of makeup and the overpowering smell of nail polish remover. Literally, it looked like these girls had dumped their makeup bags out all over the floor, and smelled like they had been drinking the nail polish remover. There was even a hairbrush that had somehow made its way over to the door. I am pretty sure that Frida and Liesl will be out later than us tonight... hopefully they won't be too loud or we'll have to return the favor when we get up early tomorrow for more sightseeing.

We caught the World Cup game at dinner and then at a true English pub-- unfortunately for Kara, Germany lost. And while the restaurant had been full of Germany fans, we figured out quickly as the game ended that the bar was full of Spain fans. Kind of random, but a guy near us commented that Spain has never been in the World Cup, so I guess that's a good reason to be supportive.

I have lots of pictures... so many today that I exhausted my camera battery! But they'll have to wait since I don't have the cord right now.

I hear it's hot in Boston... hope everyone is managing to stay cool!