Next we headed to Greenwich for the day. It was really neat. We took an over ground train to get there, and it was cool to see that part of London We walked around the Royal Naval Academy and The Queens Palace – which was LAME! All we got to see was the front entry. But first we had to walk up like 5 flights of stairs, so that we could look down at the floor….like I said, lame. The Royal Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory made for a fun afternoon. They were both super interactive which was fun!
Coolest part of the day – we took a boat ride down the Thames to get home from Greenwich!! It was absolutely fabulous!!! I loveeeed it! It was cool to see a new view of the city. It was one of my most favorite activities so far. For dinner we went to Nandos – another one of my favorite London places. It is a chicken restaurant! Obviously, it was the perfect restaurant for me. They have a delicious chicken pita that they are famous for –which definitely lived up to its reputation. I loved it.
Saturday night we walked all around the city in search of a treat, as we usually do at night. We heard that a shop by the London Eye had yummy waffles so we went down there, but the waffle place was closed. The Thames and the London Eye and the bridges and stuff was really pretty at night. It was a fun atmosphere. We ended up at this place in Leicester Square called Ciaos. We got the most fantastic ice cream desserts – which you can see in one of my last posts. It was a super fun night.
Sunday we went to our first day in the London wards. there are six other girls that go to the same ward as me. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. most of the way was on the over ground train which was so neat. I love looking out the window. so super pretty.
Sunday night we played games with a bunch of the girls in the Centre. it was a blast.
Monday we had our first excursion to the countryside. it started at the glorious hour of 5:30 am. we got the on the coach and scored with the last row. we drove out to Stonehenge, which took about an hour. we got to go early and go inside the ropes and touch the rocks, which is super cool! no one else gets to do that! honestly though, Stonehenge is totally not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, its amazing. it really is awesome, but it’s small and cluttered and really doesn’t look like the pictures. but it was fun.
Next we headed to Wells, where we went through the Wells Cathedral. We learned all about how towns and cities and such are classified in London. A “Hamlet” is a place that has either a church or a pub. A “Village” and a “Town” both has a church and a pub, but a town has more people. A “City” is classified as a place that has a pub and a cathedral. it made me laugh that the places were based on churches…and pubs… haha. It was freezing today. absolutely freeeeezing! We got hot chocolate and muffins at a small bakery in Wells. Delicious!
Our last stop was Stourhead. This was a beautiful garden and mansion. It was in this garden that they filmed the famous raining proposal scene in pride and prejudice. It was beautiful. But I might have appreciated it more if it had been sunny. There was a cute little pond in the middle, with a grotto. which was my favorite part of the whole thing. It had little waterfalls and statues of goddesses and secret tunnels. the floors were made out of stones and they had patterns in them. the walls and ceilings were just cut out of the stone. it was awesome. they also had stone forts and bridges all throughout the garden. it was pretty fun. on the way home we made a stop at King Alfred’s tower. you can read about it under the pictures of it. it was over 200 steps to the top, and it was just a tower. in the middle of the forest. for no apparent reason. stupid. but it was pretty. it reminded me of north Carolina. and my boy. :[
Tuesday we started off the morning by getting student discount tickets for Les Mis!! We ended up in the 10 row for 28 pounds. it was so excited. we spent the rest of the day walking around the theatre district. it was fun. we came home and spent a few hours at home before the show started. Our seats were amazing!! no one sat in front of us so we had a straight shot to the stage. it was PHENOMINAL. I had chills the whole time. It was amazing. I loved it. We walked the whole way home singing. it was awesome.
We also got told today that because we have all been such good sports about the lack of hot water, we get to go on the London Eye for free!! Our director is going to pay for us to go. Which is awesome because I don’t think that it is something that I would pay to do. I’m super exited.
This morning I woke up to two terrific surprises. First – hot breakfast! We had amish oatmeal for breakfast – it was basically an oatmeal cookie…baked into a loaf. we put fresh raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, on top and then dumped cream over it all. it was seriously amazing. the BEST surprise was a bouquet of roses from my boy. Seriously, how cute is he?? It almost made me cry. it was so sweet. I miss him so much it is ridiculous.
We basically spent all day today sitting on the bus. Hah. we had class this morning. After class we went to Covent Garden to do a little shopping :] it was fun. We went to Thortons and got amazingly delicious ice cream cones. We walked around for an hour or so and then we decided that we were too worn out to do much, but we didn’t want to go back to the Centre. So we got on a bus! The first one that we saw. We spent the next 2 hours seeing the city from the top of the bus. it was fabulous. we road that bus until the route ended, then we got on the tube towards china town for lunch. we ate at a so-so restaurant, but it filled the craving that we had. then we hopped on another bus that was in the general direction of home. it was the perfect day. I have the funnest friends. we seriously had the best time, just sitting on a bus talking. my aunt wrote on my facebook wall after looking at all of my pictures and asked me if there were more than 3 girls that came on study abroad. hah. it made me laugh. well, there are. and they are fabulous. but us 3 have so much fun. and I love it.
scenic pictures from the last few days.. :]
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