We just finished day one of our trip...its probably going to go by so fast from here. We got into London last night and trained it to our hostel which is right smack dab in the middle of Picadelly Circus. We were wide awake because it was barely 6:00 Toronto time but 11:00 London time. After dropping our bags off in our hostel, we decided to walk around for a bit outside and take oh-so-touristy pictures in those very picturesque red london telephone booths. Of course by the time we got home it was already 3:00 London time and we couldnt sleep because our clocks were still working Canadian.
We woke up this morning to a stereotypical London day - ominous clouds and a hint of humidity and chill. I saw a Mephisto store and of course took a picture in front of it! Then i proceeded to see if they were the same price in London as in Canada [Affirmative - phew!]. The Mephisto lady told us to buy umbrellas from Boots, the chemist down the way [read: a pharmacy similar to Shoppers Drug Mart]. So we strolled to Boots expecting to pay £5 for an umbrella...but to our shock and dismay they were priced at £22!! We felt sooo violated!! Of course, we opted to take the chance without one!
This city is beautiful but reminds me a lot of Melbourne...obviously very Victorian architecture. Walking around this morning i felt as though i was in a movie...the cars are all weirdly shaped. The bright red double decker buses are made by Mercedes and everything is the same price it would be in Canada - just multiplied by 2.2. Pents not cents. Must pay to use the bathroom. I'm glad i'm not here for too much longer! Although the people here do have an undeniable coolness...maybe its the accent?!? They also seem to have an uncanny way of making tourists feel like tourists with there blatant dry sarcasm. Obviously, we can't hide the fact that we are tourists since we look left before right when crossing the road and stop in the middle of crowds of people trying to re-navigate using crude tourist maps!
We spent the day being our own tour guides and bought a full day train pass to check out all the sites. We saw Buckingham Palace and the changing of the gaurds, Big Ben, West Minister Abby, the London Bridge, a huge ferris wheel (the London eye?) and fed some pigions in Trafalger Square. We also forked out a hefty sum to see Madam Tussauds Wax Museum...it was well worth it! Right when we walked in we saw a Bollywood exhibit with Amitabh, Sharukh and Ash! Being the fobs we are, we took pictures pretending we were the head heroines. Chaiya Chaiya was playing in the background...ahh these are the times of our lives! We then went on a quest to find some fish and chips...mission accomplished! The true London way - at a pub no less. After that we decided to jump on a random double decker bus and i had a little Harry Potter moment. Just call me Hermoine!
Tomorrow morning we leave for Amsterdam!
