London Calling!

Today marks the end of day 5 in Europe. We are starting to get used to the routine of living out of a backpack in a dorm. Everyday we wake up around 9, have breakfast in the hostel, walk around the city for about 4-5 hours, take a mid-afternoon nap, then shower and get ready to go out for the evening. Since our last update, we've traveled from Dublin to London. The Guinness Storehouse was really cool - especially the view we had from the Gravity Bar because you could see 360 degrees around Dublin. We spent our last night in our favorite little tourist trap called The Quay before packing up in the morning and shipping off to the airport. Ryanair provided a cheap and quick hour flight to London, and then we had to get new currency. We are able to use our debit cards in ATMs to get the currency of the country that we are in, so that was easy to do. We figured out the tube quickly and made it to the hostel around 5pm. This place is nowhere near as nice as The Times in Dublin. We have 4 other people in our little cramped room on the top floor of the hideously decorated building - which, mind you, is 2 blocks away from the main building where they serve breakfast and we can use the internet and phone. This inconvenience is compounded by the fact that we have to shower and "use the toilet" (as they say over here. Nope, not bathroom, not restroom, not even lavatory, but flat out TOILET. Weird..) in the very bottom floor. This means we are libel to wet the bed before going down three flights of stairs in a sleepy haze in the middle of the night. This does not make us happy. What DOES make us happy is the fact that London is slightly warmer than Dublin, and we have alot of options of things to do!

Last night we watched the World Cup in The Shakespeare's Head, and after Spain won there was a gigantic street party. A local guy led us to Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, where people were waving Spanish flags while hanging from the statues, chanting "Espana!", and jumping in the fountains. It was reminiscent of the 2008 World Series, except I actually paid attention to that series and was a part of the cheering. This time we just stood there with our jaws open and video taped the shenanigans. We woke up today with no plan in mind, except my strong desire to head to the TKTS booth to get discounted tickets to a show for tonight. I've been dying to see Avenue Q since it opened, so we were able to score some cheap tickets with good seats to see it. Both of us were laughing hysterically throughout the show tonight, and we have the songs stuck in our heads - which, if you know the show, are not exactly PC to sing in public! Before the show though, we had a traditional English dinner of Fish & Chips with a Strongbow - delicious!! I also needed to stop for a post-theatre snack, so we stopped at McDonald's so that I could get my eagerly anticipated Apple Pie. See, this Apple Pie is very special to me. When I came to London 10 years ago on my high school band trip, the only meal I could muster to eat each day came from McDonald's because the English food they served us was garbage. These Apple Pies became burned in my brain. They are deep fried, not baked like the crappy ones we get in America. I've been craving this delicious dessert since I was 16, and it was every bit as good as I remembered :-)

Today we also saw Buckingham Palace (I was giddy watching the guardsmen - so reminiscent of the LHS Grenadier Band... I'll probably geek out and shed a tear if I hear Rule Britannia!) and The National Gallery. We're getting a little bored with all the Jesus art though, so we'll head to the Tate Modern museum tomorrow, as well as the London Eye, London Tower, and whatever else we find on the opposite end of the city. We may also nab some more cheap seats to see Les Miserable because despite the fact that it is my least favorite show ever, it is Abbe's favorite, and NICK JONAS has extended his stay for another two weeks so clearly I need to see this. Phew, this post was a long one! Stay tuned for the next one, possibly from Brussels later this week!!