London What a Time (Part 2)

I woke up the next morning feeling great after a few hours of rest in my comfy bed that felt like it had a matress made out of sand... I awoke to my roomates exclaiming how excited they were to be on a Double Decker Bus tour all day for only the grand price of 22 pounds. I said I'd take the tube to Leischer Square with them, but not exactly go on the bus with them at 8:00AM in the morning. I was hoping to experience London in my own way that day, and I sure did as this story progresses. As we get to Leischer Square my friend Madison and I walked past the fountains to the monuments where there were lion statues all over the place. Apparantly, because the lion symbolizes GB. Anyways, after some funny pictures around the Lions, Madison lets me know that the bus doesn't leave until 10AM. Basically, we decided to walk down the road to go see if the Queen would give us a wave as she was having her morning tea.

We walked past some British guards early in the morning holding their bayonetted Semi Automatic machine rifles, and headed our way towards Buckingham palace. We ended up making it in about twenty minutes and had a lovely conversation about the Queen and rock music. Eventually, we got some pictures of the palace and decided it was time to get back to the square in order for all of the group to get onto the bus. We were successful and eventually found ourselves back at the square where the whole group pledged to meet me at 12:00PM at the Texas Embassy. Yes, I'm not lying Texas had an Embassy in London before they were officially accepted into the Union as a state way back then in US history. More on this amazing restaurant later.

So, I'm alone... in London walking the streets all bymyself. (Mom if you're out there I'm still alive). As I'm walking down towards Picidily Circus, I see a group of cop cars and a whole bunch of onlookers.... (yes I promise I'm still alive). Right next to the building which is like a marble sort of Roman elitist style type of building I see movie cameras. So, basically, I'm standing across the street of where a movie is being shot. The main character was a tall slender gentleman who looked a lot like Leonardo Decaprio.... I'm not sure if it was him exactly, but I'm going to put my money on it. Apparantly, it was a chase seen and the tall gentleman who looked like Leonardo was pulling a sniper pistol from his pocket in order to kill or threaten someone in the chase scene. It was good fun, and I stood there for a good half hour watching how a movie was made. After that non-sense I was hungry.... it had been way too long since I had eaten last.

I made my way down Picidily and was looking for a nice open aired coffee shop where I might get a muffin, coffee, and read a tabloid or newspaper. I found my place right across from the Barclay's Bank called EAT cafe. I went in, ordered my cup of coffee, and drew out my credit card when to my surprise I was told to draw money to purchase my mid morning snack. I went to the Barclays, got some "poundage" and went back to purchase my meal. However, I was sent over to another store to pick up a tabloid entitled The London Paper. I sat outside facing a perfect long range view of Big Ben and read the paper all about how Britian viewed America, their own economy, "holidays," genetics, and sport. It was so relaxing, not a care in the world at that point on my windy London day. I sat there in pure enjoyment for at least an hour and a half, I had two groups of people ask me where something was, to which my thrilled response was,"sorry I'm on holiday." It was now getting close to 12PM and I still had to make it back to the hotel room to get my camera.

I decided to take The Tube to get my camera. This was to be the first time for me on the Underground alone (Mom, I'm still alive don't worry please don't worry). I went in, put my ticket through the queue machine and made my way down the escalator to the Picidily Circus line. I stood in the train listening to Brits talk about all things, including AFL football, which apparantly is a huge deal over here. I got back to my hotel room picked up my camera, and made my way back into the underground to get to Leischer Square. At about 12PM I arrived from the tube in the square to the sound of Church bells. It was amazing, thousands of people all walking around on a beautiful and cloudless Saturday afternoon in the square. A rugby match was to go on in the heart of London today and hooligans from all over were singing the team songs together outside of the station. I felt invigorated, independent, and for the first time completely trusting in myself as I walked towards the square to visit my friends. Eventually I got to the Texas Embassy and had a wonderful small lunch with my student friends.

The Texas Embassy is the only TexMex restuarant in all of London... And we just so happened to have a Texan with us who was the perfect critique of all things Mexican and Tex Mex. I order a half-order of Quesadilla and a pint of Budweiser for lunch. It was decent, and our waiter had a British accent which made him saying the word Quesadilla all the more hilarious. Overpriced though, my meal cost me about 12 pounds and it was a small lunch. My group of friends kept telling me that they were going to tour England via bus tour some more, to which I explained that I would follow them via tube. Some people decided that my way may be the best way to see the city. So Madison and Dinah followed me out of the restaurant to the street in order to come on the underground to check out the Tower of London. And what an adventure we were about to have.

We decided what our route was to be on the Tube in our way over to the Tower. What we didn't know was going to shape the rest of our day completely. Apparantly on Bank Holidays, which parallel "Memorial Day" in the US, London shuts down a few of their Tube lines and parts of the city for maintenence. We get to where we were going to shift our journey to the Circle Line, only to find that the line is closed all weekend. So, Dinah, Madison, and I had a decision to make, either walk the river Tems (sp) walkway towards the tower which is like 4 miles long, or take a cab to the Tower of London. We decide to take the walkway. A great decision, we got a bunch of pictures of the river, bridges, and buildings, as well as have great conversation. We stopped at St. Pauls Cathedral to take pictures. A beautiful site it is and hard to phathom in all actuality. Eventually, we made it to the Tower, where the girls had their tickets. It was massive, and unreal to a point as well. I was not sure if I could cover all the ground I needed to cover in this world heritage site in London. So I paid my 14 pound ticket to get into the Tower and took off to explore myself.

This tower was amazing, royalty, criminals, and many others were kept in this immaculately huge. Being the historynut that I am I remembered some of the key figures who were kept in this building, and to finally step foot into where history was made, put something that was far away into my actual life experience. I can't explain the feeling, it is something that everyone I feel needs to have in order to understand the beauty of it all. I went into the White Tower and saw armor, embattlements, and the history of the Kings of England. It was unbelievable, I could have spent a day in there learning about everything. My only regret is getting to the Tower as late as I did, because I never got to see the Royal Jewels. That will have to be something to do when or "if" I ever get back to London. I ended up running into the girls again and then we had the mission of trying to get back to the tube, and not just the tube, but to a station that was actually running. So after talking with a few locals we found a closed station and ended up getting a free bus ride to Lincolnshire Station where we could connect at Piccidily Line in order to get back to the hotel to change for dinner.

After getting back to the hotel we got dressed, and decided to see what kind of food London had to offer on a Saturday night. The one word that could describe the city on this Bank Holiday weekend is "dismally empty." Most of the pubs were closed, most of the people had left the city, and at about 9PM there was no one serving food wherever we walked. So the group and I decided that we'd check all over the squares of town around our hotel, eventually we found a quaint and beautifully small Italian Restaurant. Since the six of us decided to go in without a reservation we got a few stares from the waitstaff. (I kept thinking that they were saying to each other in Italian, 'Stupid Americans'). Whatever the matter I ordered my traditional favorite Italian dish, Cavetelli con Quattro Formaggi and a glass of red wine to pair with it. Dinner was phenomal and our waiter ended up warming up to us all by the end after a few of the girls we were with ordered dessert. I ordered an after dinner Johnny Walker Black Label drink and we ended up staying and talking until 11 PM.

The walk back to the hotel was a long one, but we all ended up making it. The Grand National had a pub in the front of it called "The London Pub," so we ended up having a few drinks that night and as the Pub closed at 12:30 got a few snacks and went to bed. It was the end of a great adverturous day and we were all tired. My roomates and I swapped stories of the day and ended up asleep by 1AM, which is early for most of us.