No One Mourns the Wicked!

Can someone please tell me where all the time has gone? I've been here for 2 and a half days, and I only have two full days left in London before we leave for Vienna. I'm actually somewhat ready to head to Vienna because I just want a place to call home, and where I can actually unpack my suitcase. Right now it's just a heaping pile in our hostile. Which by the way the hostile is a room with 14 bunks in the attic of the building that all of us girls are staying in, but it's working out pretty well. It's away from everyone so we don't have to worry about being too loud. Where to begin. I told you about the first few days already, so I give you a recap of the last two in a minute. First I need to correct myself from my last blog. The subway system is called the Tube, not the tomb... that's my bad :) I guess a stopped up ear can really make a difference in what you hear. I'm actually starting to understand the subway. I can get myself across London all by myself ;) Hopefully this skill will come in handy another time...

So let's see.

Yesterday was Friday, the 25th. We started off the morning with class, and I had to give my presentation, which I did fairly well on, so now I don't have to worry about it the rest of the trip! After about an hour and a half of class we headed to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. Apparently everyone else decided to go here too. We did manage to get somewhat close to the front, so we had a pretty good view. I'll post pictures when I get to Vienna and have the chance to go through all of them. After we had lunch in the park, we headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral. All I can say is wow. I'm amazed at the architecture and how beautiful it is. It was neat because it was like a lunch time stop for all the local people. They were just hanging out on the steps in front eating, and they were hanging out in the park too. We got to explore inside with our tour guide Shaun, who is Scottish and stinkin' hilarious. He's definitely one I wouldn't mind taking a few more tours with. After St. Paul's we headed across town to the Tower of London. Which really it's 20 towers, but who cares. The main use of the tower was a prison. It's where King Henry VIII sent a few of his wives to get executed... Kinda neat. OH! AND we got to see the Crown Jewels. Two words: Breath taking. I got to see crowns from hundreds of years ago, the spoon and stuff they use for the oil to anoint the kings and queens, swords, and all other kinds of stuff. It's AMAZING! After this during our free-time we went to buy tickets for Wicked, but we weren't able to see it tonight so instead we walked around the square and had a great time. We got to see M&M World, which is 4 levels of goodness! And the square seemed like the equivalent of New York's Time Square. It had shops galore, posters everywhere, and even a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. :)OH THEN we went to King's Cross and saw Platform 9 3/4. Just saying, it was pretty awesome.

Today is Saturday, the 26th. Today we had a pretty fun day. We started off at Westminster Abbey which basically is a place where a lot of famous and influential people are buried, and it's also the chapel that William and Kate got married in. (Just saying!) ;) It was gorgeous, and there's actually a lot of dead people there... I think the guide said 2,500? A lot of people from the royal family are buried there. Others are: George Frederick Handel, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and Sir Isaac Newton. Pretty awesome huh? After Westminster Abbey we got to a tour around the city a little and that was fun. We ended at Trafalgar Square which is where the National Gallery is. And there's a countdown for the Olympics there, and it's where the lighting of the torches is going to be. It's pretty neat. After the tours we ate at an Italian Restaurant, which was really good. Then we went to buy our WICKED tickets! The first place we found they were £65 which is about $102. But instead we paid £45 which is $70 instead, so it wasn't too bad, and it was TOTALLY amazing. We had some pretty decent seats, and the show was spectacular. I would seriously go see it again if I could.

For now that's all I have for ya. I have a sun burn, and some kind of rash on my legs. OH! AND MY EARS AREN'T STOPPED UP ANYMORE!!! It's amazing to have hearing in both my ears again.

Next up: National Gallery and the British Museum.