Groeten!
It's hard to believe another weekend is here and gone. London was amazing! I had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I did. The time I got to spend there was definitely not enough, so hopefully one day I will make my way back to London.
It ended up just being Sarah (my roommate) and I that made the trip to London, but we had a great time! We left around 1pm on Friday, right after class. Starting from the time we stepped foot into the Brussels train station until getting on the train to come back home from London it was an eventful experience (to say the least).
Friday:
We had taken the train to Paris the weekend before and didn't have to go through any sort of security to leave the country, so we just assumed we wouldn't have to go through security to get to London either..... we were wrong. Luckily we were early getting to the station because we had to go through customs, be harassed by the border patrol about why we were going to London, why we were in Belgium, etc, etc, and then rush through the station to make it on the train literally two minutes before it left. What a great start to our trip! Once we got to London things started to smooth themselves out and we immediately felt much more at home.... gotta love the English language. It was such a relief to be able to figure out our way around an unfamiliar city just by reading the signs or asking for help. We got ourselves Tube passes (the underground metro) and found our way to the hotel. After getting settled in we set out and began our London adventures... which started with a Thames River tour. The tour didn't last long and once we reached the end point we explored a little and took entirely tooooo many pictures by the Tower of London.... oops. We ended our night with a late dinner at a local British pub near the hotel, where I had a London specialty... Fish and Chips.
Saturday:
We started off bright and early for our "Big Bus Tour" (one of those stereotypical double-decker red buses you think of when you picture London). We took the bus all over the city, getting on and off as we wanted to explore on our own (and again, have way too many photo shoots). In the course of just a few hours we managed to see every tourist spot you could imagine...... Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, the list goes on and on. It was an exhausting day to say the least.
The highlight of the day (and visit) was definitely going to see "Grease" at the Piccadilly Theater. The show was great and we couldn't have asked for better seats. The one down side was the lack of A/C though. Temperatures usually don't get into the 80s too often in London, and while we were there it was definitely warm.... so it was quite uncomfortable in the crowded theater --- but we survived and I loved the musical.
Sunday (Today):
We again had to get up way too earl.y in order to catch our train back to Brussels (where we met up with our class for a day trip). But of course, things just couldn't go 100% as planned. Fortunately for us, we planned ahead this time and left even more time for security at the station (even though it wasn't even any where close what we had to go through to get into London). However, when we got into the check-in desk, the attendant realized my ticket said it was for YESTERDAY! I couldn't believe it! Somehow, the company we bought it from had screwed up the date when they printed it off --- all of the other information was correct just not the date. We had to sprint across the station to find the ticket office... and then explain what happened. We were so lucky this happened in London, we all spoke English and it made things go a lot easier. Luckily, everything worked out and the guy at the ticket office was super helpful and nice and fixed it all. We ran back across the station and managed to somehow make it through security lines, grab a quick latte, and get on the train with a few minutes to spare. PHEW! What a morning (and to think, this was all before 9am!!!).
Needless to say, we made it to Brussels safe and sound and met up with the group for another wonderful day trip! (even though it did rain on and off all day!)
I can't believe that I am starting my last week here in Belgium! It has all went so fast (especially these last 10 days or so, starting with a trip to Paris - then Gent - and finally London and Brussels --- it's been a blur!) This week will be spent mostly in Leuven, catching up on homework, starting to pack and finishing up and last minute things we want to do here.
Tootsies,
Kait
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