London Wanderings

It’s study week here at the University of Bradford, so naturally Vanessa (my fabulous roommate) and I decided to go to London for a few days. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon at our hostel right in the heart of Piccadilly Circus. The place was a bit of a circus itself but clean enough and cheap enough for two student travelers like us. Plus we were hardly there.
We immediately went to meet friends in front of Westminster Abbey and then stroll down to see Big Ben, the parliament buildings and Trafalgar Square. We had a lovely Italian dinner off Regent Street and then headed for Wicked, the musical. Wicked is the story of the two witches from wizard of OZ, before they became the ‘Good Witch’ and the ‘Wicked Witch’, when they were roommates in college. It absolutely hilarious! Afterwards we decided we needed a couple of drinks to help us fall asleep in the hostel and so headed to the pub.
The next morning we got up early to head to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, which was unfortunately canceled for the day. Still we enjoyed seeing the sites. We picked up Daniel, another friend stopping over a night on a flight from Vancouver to Kenya, from the airport and headed to Hyde Park. However the chilly autumn weather was too much for my southern friends (Vanessa is from California and Daniel is from Kenya) so we detoured to the Natural History Museum were we traveled to the center of the earth. After that is was off to another pub and then Vanessa and I decided to cash in on cheep student tickets again and went to see the stage adaptation of Rain Man (Daniel went to sleep off his jet leg). The play was also fantastic – a perfect balance of laughter and tears. By the time Vanessa was fast asleep in her hostel bunk, Daniel was wide awake so he and I wandered Piccadilly in our pajamas for a few hours.
The next morning we decided to return to Westminster Abbey, and this time go inside. The history of the place is overwhelming. In a few hours of wandering we felt like we had absorbed most of the royal history since the 13th century and some of the science and literature too! Next we headed to Hyde Park where we had a fantastic Turkish lunch and poked in the cute shops. Unfortunately it was then time for Vanessa and I to catch our bus back to Bradford.
Now it’s Friday morning and I’m writing this instead of working on my essay or preparing for the Rotary Peace Seminar this weekend – I better get on to both.
Peace!

P.S. I would post photos but my computer has some problems and is refusing to let me : (