In the UK now, EH? Might as well go to London

Number 96

So I arrived at number ninety-six in Borehamwood, England (about 30-40 minutes outside of central London) with some family until University move in day. Arriving on the 28th, it finally hit me that I was in England. So the next day, I decided what the hell, I'm going to go to London.

St.Pancras Internation

Heading into London was dead easy taking the train to St.Pancras International Station in about 20 minutes. Getting of the train left me a bit confused as I headed into London without a clue where I was going. My first sight as I left the train station was a cool double-decker bus that gave me the instant urge to jump on it and run to the top.

Double Decker

King's Cross

As I continued to try and figure out where the hell I was, I came to King's Cross Station (You know that one with platform 9 and 3/4 from Harry Potter? Pictured below). After this I was finally able to find a map and start heading in the right direction... or so I thought. I followed the map until I came across the church picture. This is where my adventure kicked up an unexpected notch. As I was taking pictures of this place (down a small side-street), I noticed two very unusual looking characters smoking by a dumpster (straight outta the movies, couldn't make it up). As they s
tarted walking in my direction I thought nothing much of it.....until they came right up to me. Of all things an exchange student could expect to hear from the first person they talk to while abroad, not many people expect to hear  "Gimme your f@$king wallet and that camera son". My stomach dropped, but as I was only 20 feet from an extremely busy street, I probably even surprised them. I took off faster than Usain Bolt in the 100m final (well maybe not, but felt like it) and kept going till I ran into some "bobbies" who helped me out. Quite the "exciting" start, but a little more terrifying then I had planned. Following this I decided to trek on, and head further into London.

I then headed up near Picadilly Circus to see what all the fuss was about, as mobs of people wandered the streets seemingly all heading in the same direction. While wandering the area, I found an unreal football (soccer) and sporting goods store called sports direct. Honestly the cheapest football stuff and Olympic apparel I had seen yet. It was huge, with four floors of merchandise craziness. I ended up grabbing an official England jersey for 15 pounds and got it personalized. Not the most interesting thing but it was only the start of the day!
I then headed towards the River Thames to see if I could get a closer look at the London eye and Tower bridge, and along the way came across some pretty cool buildings and statues.

Statues of Justice

As I was going towards the Thames,  out of the corner of my eye I saw a mass of people heading in the same direction all wearing Team GB Olympic stuff, so I went to see what was going on. We ended up in Trafalgar Square. I still couldn't figure out what was happening, but the street around the square was barricaded and full of security. I didn't know it at the time, but I was about to see the Olympic/Paralympic torch parade!

Trafalgar Square/ Museum

Torch!

 It was pretty sweet seeing some of the athletes and coaches and volunteers, but the torch was awesome. The one thing I noticed walking around London was that there was still a big buzz surrounding the Paralympics. I honestly thought people wouldn't be as excited for the Paralympics, but I was very, very wrong as you can see.

After this I finally made my way to the London eye. Now the new mission was to get ON the London eye. Now when you go to the eye there are tons of other attractions around it (like wax museums, etc.). They try and bundle these with tickets for the eye, and don't give you the option to buy just tickets for the eye at almost all the kiosks, except for one that is particularly hard to find.

When I got in line for tickets, there was a lot of people in front of me and only one quite suspicious lady character behind me. I met an American couple from Boston who were adamant that the Boston Bruins are Gods gift to the world (They were nice people, but lost all cool points with that). In order to get the full London experience I guess I still had to get pick pocketed, but what do ya know, it happens to me. As I slightly turn to talk to the couple, I felt a slight tug on my backpack. Having heard about this pick pocketing business, I didn't have anything in my bag but a drink and some fruit ( I would have been distraught if she took the food). As I whipped around, she realized she had been caught, flung her hands back, and took off like a rocket with some random guy in the corner. Wasn't as scary as the beginning of the day, so, I carried on.

So after robbing me of  eighteen pound (no not the pickpocket, the London eye), I got to go up. It was pretty cool, but not the best day out making for a pretty average experience. You can see pretty far, but the pictures aren't very good when it is raining. I met another American couple up there from Tombstone,AZ  (ever seen the movie tombstone?). They own a theater called the Wyatt Earp theater next to the famous O.K. Corral. Thought that was pretty cool, ANYWAYS....
I pressed on (feet by this point are dying) to Buckingham Palace, home of the Queen. She was a very nice lady, and after having tea with h...... just kidding, I got some pictures, they were cool, here they are.. blah...blah...blah. Following a walk through Hyde park, I decided to try and find London bridge as well as the tower bridge. For some reason this was a difficult task for me, and I ended up walking by the Ritz hotel, which was by far the most luxurious looking place I had set my eyes on. The parking lot out back was filled with Ferrari's and Aston Martin's and a particularly nice Lamborghini Gallardo which was so awesome in the picture above.

 I briefly got a glimpse of the London Bridge, which to my astonishment was not the tower bridge. My whole life I had thought the two were the same. Wrong, very wrong. When I didn't finally find the tower bridge down the Thames, I saw they had removed the Olympic rings and replaced them with the Paralympic Rings for the start of the games.

By this point my feet were on fire, and I decided it was time to call it quits! I headed down to the tube station, and began my journey back for dinner (tea).


More coming soon (gotta catch up to my travels.

Leaving Canada

Prior to leaving, I decided it would be good to hang out with some of the best friends I have (excluding those half way around the world or who couldn't come haha). The boys came up to "The Wick" where we did what we had been doing in Uni for the past 2 years: whatever. It was a great time which included swimming in disgustingly cold water, pizza, Kinect Olympics and randomly: Paintballing.  Highlight: Shooting Aakib in the face

 Leaving Canada was pretty surreal. The flight was at 10pm on August 27th 2012. I pretty much packed the night before and day of, which left for a little bit of confusion, but overall it was pretty smooth sailing. Heading to the airport it had not even come close to hitting me that I was about to leave the only home I had known for the 6 months. 

The flight was delayed for a good two hours, leaving me plenty of time to enjoy my last Tim Horton's hot chocolate (yea I don't like coffee, so what?).  It then finally came time to board the plane. I had purchased and upgrade so I got to board the plane before all the regular mere mortals.

Once I  was on the plane I found my seat and waited to see who I had the luck of sitting with for the seven hour flight. To my surprise, and older age woman came and sat beside me. She seemed very pleasant and we chatted for a few minutes before another larger lady came and squeezed in. As we began to take off, it had still not struck me that I was leaving for 6 months. 

Now, back to the elderly lady. A very nice lady indeed, but to my horror I would come to find out that when I had sat in my seat, I had unknowingly sat down into a history class, Subject: Her family dating back to the time of Moses and the freaking slaves.  After what was a surprisingly short 6 hour 15 minute flight (the pilot meant business), we landed at London Gatwick Airport and I said my farewells having achieved a A+ in history.

I then waited in the airport for a solid hour and a half, with customs being pretty easy. Grandad strolled in and picked me up and we were off to where my mom and uncles grew up: Borehamwood.