ally-cat

WE GOT A HOME TODAY!!!
the details of this are actually longer than i have time to write (20 mins left before cafe closes), but ill write it up on the laptop back at the hostel and then paste it up tomorrow.

Day three was great!! We got up and went on the Sightseeing Bus Tour of London, which is an open topped double decker bus that drives around London past all the major attractions. We got off at Buckingham Palace and (sorta) saw the changing of the guard. I wanted them to do the Target commercial dance, but I guess that’s just on tv. We really didn’t see much of it cause there were soooo many people blocking the view, but we got our pix and whatnot. In the morning it was really pretty out so it as fun to drive around and see everything. I added a bunch of the pix to the website from our excursion.

After the tour we stopped at Fridays for lunch cause I wanted American food. It cost me 20 bucks for a bacon cheeseburger, and it wasn’t even American style. The bacon was more like ham. The hamburger at mcdonalds was better and like 1/5 the price. Plus they didn’t have coke, just pepsi, the commies.

Then we walked down to the British Museum. We didn’t have much time so we only saw a tiny bit of it. Its not as good as the Louvre in Paris IMO, but it was still pretty great. Plus all the museum admissions are free so its like you can just wander in at any time. I included a couple of pix that I took of the museum like the Rosetta Stone (used to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics), the mummy of Cleopatra, a mummied cat, two mummied falcons, and the skeleton of a young girl that was one of 30 that had been sacrificially killed to be buried with some king.

When we got back to our area we went down to that internet café we discovered yesterday, and we were able to get on aol for the first time! Our excitement was quickly dampened, though, when we signed on and discovered that there was no one online to even talk to! It only costs like $4/hour so we’re gonna start going by there a little each day when we can. It closes at 9pm, so the latest we can be on is 4pm American time which sux cause most people aren’t home from work/school by then.

We got three new roomies tonight. Haley and Jason from Australia, and just now a new guy walked in, but he dropped off his backpack and walked out again. Falling asleep at the keyboard. See ya tomorrow!

Day 2 of London J. This morning we went to BUNAC’s orientation. I flipped through the job listings notebook and found several secretary/admin type positions to check out. Some of the listings were old, though, so I don’t know how many of them will actually pan out. We also looked at the apartment listings. Theyre mostly around $200/week with most of the utilities included. Wed probably just have to pay for our own phone/internet and maybe the water. Speaking of phones, K and I gor our cell phones today! Theyre crappy lil nokia 1100 phones and cost $80* : / Theyre prepaid minute plans and only cost .10/minute. No aim on them though 😦

Today we had the best meal weve had since weve been here…McDonalds! I usually don’t eat fast food except for arbys, but it was sooo good to have real, American tasting food for once (even if the ketchup did come in a cup like the way sweet and sour sauce does).

We did a ton of walking around today, kindagetting used to things. On our way to the pizza shop for dinner we discovered an internet café where I can hook up my laptop. Its expensive ($1/5 mins), but it means I can start uploading my pix to the website J, so look for some pix to start going up.

Bed #6 got filler today by Tom from Poland. Hes probably in his late 30s or so. He said there was some sort of layover while he waits for some bus to take him some where…yeah I don’t really know what im talking about 😛

*all prices listed in the American equivalencies, i.e. the phones cost us 39 pounds which is about 80 dollars.

Ok so this is my first diary entry. Im not exactly sure what to say…amazingly, ally and I go to bed early and wake up at about 8 every morning. This is a very new concept for me. Hopefully it will stay this way! Its our 3rd day in London and today was our day to be a tourist. We took a sightseeing tour of London. We saw all of the big places to see, granted most of it was from a double decker bus. We decided after we got off at Buckingham Palace to just stay on the bus and go back to the places we wanted to see in more detail at a later date. It was really gorgeous and a little surreal! By the end of the tour we were absolutely freezing! I knew London had weird weather but tiday was a little crazy. When we left at about 10am it was sunny and hot, probably in the mid 70s. by the end of the tour it was cloudy, rainy, and 10 degrees colder. Doesn’t it usually get hotter the later in the day?

Anyways after the tour we went to lunch. Ally and I were very adventurous…we had TGIFridays! It was so good, but so expensive: ally had a cheeseburger that was 9.95 pounds, that is approx $20! Our lunch was so good though.

After lunch we walked to the British Museum, which has free admission. It had some neat things, but its not really something im into. I had a headache and I was about to fall asleep, so I glanced around at some things and sat down. Ally really seemed to enjoy it though, but its something that she likes to do. We didn’t get to see too much though b/c the museum was closing. Afterward we came back to the hostel.

The mother and daughter from Mexico are gone, as well as Australian Dan. Tom and his stinky feet from Poland are still here, but he’s going tomorrow. I think he said more in the 5 mins we saw him today than he did all day yesterday. Im sure by the end of the night we’ll have at least one more roomie! Maybe he’ll be hot!! Kidding…sort of!

Its funny b/c I almost brought a candle, but I decided against it. Now I so wish I had one b/c our room stinks so bad. Also I think it quite possibly the hottest one in the building. Our window is open but there is absolutely no breeze and to top it off the little fan is broken!

Well ally is d/l the 120 pics we took today, so hopefully there will be some cool things to see. Im thinking about taking a nap, im exhausted! I miss everyone and ill talk to you soon!

PS – Last night I was on the phone and these 3 guys came up the stairs. For some reason 1 of them was naked! He was covering up like he was embarrassed, so I don’t think he was doing itfor the hell of it. I think the weirdest/funniest part is where he came from is the front desk, bar, and all of the common areas! So its not like he came from the shower or anything. I think he came from the bar, they were playing some drinking game or something. It was one of the funniest things ive ever seen!

Just got back to the room for the night. we had dinner at a chinese restuarant. the price was about the same as in the US, but you got like 6 pieces of chicken and you hafta pay for drink refills. Jenn had warned me about this so i asked the waitress if we got refills before we downed our cokes and she looked at me like i was crazy and was like (in a chinese accent) “no, you have to pay!” after having napped, showered, and eaten, i finally felt ok.

after dinner we went back the the hostel, The Generator, and went to the bar/night club where they were having karaoke night. the first guy jumps up on the stage, yanks his shirt off (and damn did he have a hairy chest!) and proceeded to do the worst rendition of “Eye of the Tiger” thats ever been sung. Everybody loved it. our roomie, Dan, got up there and did “Piano Man” and he did a pretty decent job. We were sitting on stools near the pool tables and we noticed the balls, and they are all solid blue or solid yellow, plus an 8 ball and a cue. This guy named Dan (new Dan not roomie Dan) came up and started talking to us. Hes from canada (currently alberta) and on his way to scotland. Roomie Dan (completely hammered by now) said he was going to sing two more songs but K and i decided to skip out and et to bed since out time is still all screwed up and we hafta get up early tom morning to go to BUNAC. i had a ton of fun tonight – only downside: we came out reeking of ciggy smoke after wed just showered and changed before dinner. now we stink like true europeans. 🙂 we go two new roomies when we got back in the room. its a mother and daughter from mexico. didnt really get to talk to them much, cause they went out…at 11:30 at night? bed time, goodnight everybody.

PS – the sole of my sandal broke!
PPS- K says “there are a lot of hotties over here! but i will remember Steph’s rule”
PPPS- I thought they spoke English in this country, but half the time we cant understand what theyre saying!

Well…we’re in london. so far, it has *sucked*. the plane ride and the airport parts were surprisingly easy. Then came the part where two girls had to lug seven very heavy (and im not exaggerating, one suitcase even got tagged as extra heavy cause it weighed 65 pounds) suitcases from the airport to the train, the train to the Victoria train station (neat looking place, with some “colorful” people walking around) and then on “The Tube” for two different train lines. worst part is, there are *NO ELEVATORS*! We had to drag all these heavy suitcases down several (yes, several) flights of stairs. luckily, in a lot of instances random people would grab a bag and carry it down for us. Still, we were seriously huffing and puffing it. oh yeah, heres a laugh at ally moment: my carryon bag that came with my luggage set was on wheels, but as a duffel bag shape with a shoulder strap so pulling it by the shoulder strap on its end was kinda difficult. it wasnt until we were at the london airport that i discovered the weird lil pocket on the bottom was hiding a pullout handle that turned it into a rolling suitcase. K and I were cracking up fter the way i had been dragging it and all this time it had had a handle.
Anyway, so we got off the tube at our final stop were fretting about having to lug everything *up* all the stairs we had come down, when i see a heavenly sign that says “LIFT”. back up on the street with our 50 bags, we now hafta drag them a few blocks to the hostel. luckily theyre all rolling and easy (still damn heavy but at least easy to coordinate when there are no stairs involved) so we make it to the hostel at 2pm (arrived at airport at 9 am — this took us 5 hours) with only one break. its not a 5 star hotel or anything, but after having lived in older dorms before its fine by me. the bed had clean linens (for free- some hostels you hafta rent the sheets) and is really comfortable. we’re in a room for 6 — 3 sets of bunk beds. right now we only have one roommate, Dan. hes 19 and from australia and said he was at summer camp in mass. for 3 months and now hes backpacking thru europe for i think 4 more months. he only has one duffel bag for the whole 7 months! he seems pretty cool, some of the people ive seen in london have been slightly odd. im glad we got him and not the rowdy group of french or russian or whatever guys that checked in with us.

after we got settled in the room, we went to go get lunch. not far from the hostel are several little sandwich shop and such. our hostel seems to be in a good location. its not in a crowded, busy. congested area and its nice to walk down the street – esp since we had great weather today. its similar to how downtown athens (georgia, not greece) was.

we got burgers at a tin cafe for cheap (about £2 so like $4 including our drinks). the burgers were kinda diff than the US. they werent bad really, not great but kinda different. kristie called them “horrible” 🙂 i got a chocolate milk but its like milk and cocoa powder so when you buy it all the choc has sunk to the bottom. the cokes have real sugar in them too. havent these people heard of high fructose corn syrup!?! thats what makes stuff good!

after we ate we investigated the internet cafe. its expensive and the computers are like the ones on the cruise ship, not regular computers so you can only access the web and not do chat or write documents or anything. (there goes another $2 as im typing this up). there doesnt seem to be any place to hook in the laptop at the hostel so im just keeping it in the locker till we get an apt.

when we got back to our room we passed out for like 3 hours, which brings me to now…sitting here writing.

Hey everybody! we’re writing from the airport while waiting for the plane. There werent many people at the airport so we made it from walking in to the gate in an hour and a half (including a bit of shopping for candy). We werent able to get seats together so we are sitting one in front of the other.