London

Apparently the only time I update this blog is when it is raining outside and I can't really do much.

Even though my new direct flight from NYC to London was delayed by an hour, it still arrived 4 hours earlier than my original flight.  In the end, transferring to a new flight was a good thing.

I ended up staying at my sister's ex-boyfriend's, Max's, place for the night... I know, weird right?  I thought that it would be too, but it actually wasn't.  Basically, I chatted with him on Facebook before I left the states and he told me how to get to his place.  I followed the directions and took the Underground.  This was my first exposure to the phrase, "Mind the gap."  It was pretty cool to hear it the first couple of time, and my amusement with the phrase went downhill from there.  After a hour train ride over to Max's apartment, really small hole in the wall,  I promptly took a shower.  I realized that I won't be able to take showers on days I travel... ew.

It was only noon at that time, and I had the whole day to explore.  Max actually volunteered to be my tour guide and show me around all of London.  The first place that I wanted to see was Olympic Park!  When I got there, I saw a construction site next to a mall and three stadiums.  Apparently the British have not yet finished the area surrounding the stadiums.  Basically, I wasn't allowed near the stadiums so I had to go to the highest point of the mall and take a picture from there.  Apparently most Europeans don't shop at malls either.

I don't exactly remember all the places that I went to, but I'm pretty sure I covered all the main things in a few hours.  With Max leading the way, I took the subway, I walked, and I even biked around to see all the sights.  The coolest thing was biking, by far.  Europeans are really bike friendly and TONS of people are riding bikes around (probably because traffic sucks in London).  I've included pictures of Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and some other fun pictures that I took.  Also, everything in Europe is smaller OR everything in America is bigger.  I think the latter is more true than the former.  I don't mean just people, but also: cars, houses, roads, etc.  That was only my first day in London.

I was SO tired by the end of the day, 22:00, I fell asleep while trying to plan out what I wanted to do the next day.  I think this was the first time I have ever fallen asleep while doing something.  I think this has to do with the jet lag and walking around a bunch.

Anyway, I slept until noon... whoops and began a small adventure on my own.  Max was busy in the morning/early afternoon, so I took the time to take a stroll in Hyde Park and the surrounding area.  The British flag was basically covering every corner of every building because of the Diamond Jubilee, 60th Anniversary that was about to happen the weekend following my departure from London.  This includes a royal party that was held in Buckingham Palace that Max and I came across the day before.

I met up with Max later in the day and we walked around some more before it was time to head home and pack my stuff up for my flight to Amsterdam.  Unfortunately, since I booked my flight so late (I blame the people that didn't end up going on my trip with me) I had to catch the super early flight.  My flight left at 07:20.  Since public transportation doesn't start working until 05:00 and the commute was about an hour, I couldn't go early the same morning to the airport.  Therefore, I left Max's place around 22:00 and got to the airport sometime around 23:30.  Unfortunately, I couldn't check in until 04:30.  I basically laid on the ground and tried to sleep in the airport.  I would also like to say that I went to some gimp airport that didn't tell you what gate your plane was at until 20 mins before your flight is scheduled to leave.  I think I got about 4 of sleep that night.

Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors.  I'm just trying to jot down somethings that happened pretty quickly.