The Sights And Sounds of London

Here I am, finally with some free time. We have been unbelievably busy and tired for the past 3 days. The jet lag has hit us pretty hard but we have still managed. Just looking around and knowing that we are in London is keeping us awake. The flight seemed really fast at about 6.5 hours where I got no sleep. Upon arrival to London we were questioned pretty intensely by the customs agents but made it through eventually. We actually stumbled upon Buckingham Palace on the way to our hostel. Unlike later in the day there was nobody there and we snapped some good pictures.

Anyway to try to make this post a little less boring, I'm finding the London experience to be very similar to a Toronto trip. Except that the wealth in this city is evident everywhere we go. Bentley's, Rolls Royce, Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari's are seen everywhere. Unfortunately, I can upload any pictures of the cars right now as this computer is not a PC and is not running Windows. It is interesting seeing the same movies that came out last month in North America, coming out this month here. We can't even go see Superbad right now even if we wanted to.

Along with Buckingham Palace, over the 3 days we have seen the Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (where I got to stand on Charles Darwin's grave), Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the British Museum, and St. Paul's Cathedral just to name a few. These attractions were very interesting but I found wandering around the alley ways and the maze of streets to be the most interesting. It is amazing how much there is to see and do. Even though I got to see everything I wanted to, it is too bad we are leaving tomorrow.

The food here is nothing special as there is no distinct London flavor. However, they are known for there fish and chips and I have to say they were excellent. Despite, how expensive everything is here we have done pretty well. Basically everything here is the same price as in Canada except in Pounds (or Quid?). The beer over here is still reasonably priced and is absolutely delicious. The pints are served right of wooden kegs and has to be pumped by hand.

The hostel we are staying at is really nice and we have met many people. People from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaris, Austria, Brazil, and Italy. We went out to a club called Walkabout 2 nights ago with about 8 others from our hostel, including the staff. It was converted from an old chapel and was a lot of fun.

Before I end this post I have to mention the Canada Memorial near Buckingham Palace. It was built about 10 years ago from the generous donations of many Canadians, including the one and only Conrad Black. At least he put his fraudulent money to a good use!

I could probably continue for another few pages but I am running out of time with this Internet. I will write again in 2 or 3 days; hopefully with pictures. Leave me comments if there's something I forgot to mention that you want to hear about. Until next time, Cheers.