Getting Around

We must say, the transportation system around here is very impressive! Between the buses, the trains, and the "tube" you can get anywhere in a timely manner, even if you are directionally challenged (a.k.a Cristina). We've had plenty of adventures on all three modes of transportation already!

Yesterday, we took our first tube trip to Central London. As easy as it is to get around, we encountered some difficulties, especially with the language barrier. Seriously, you would think going to an English speaking country would be easy, but Steph had to ask the English speaking man at the ticket office to repeat himself five times. We finally got our tickets and decided we were real Londoners, so naturally we could get dropped off in the middle of London and see every major tourist site without a map, in a few hours.

We managed to stumble upon a museum, the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. Don't be impressed, there are signs every two feet in Central London directing tourists like ourselves to all of these sites. Keeping up with the tourist theme, we obviously got ripped off trying to buy lunch. Somehow we managed to pay £5 for a £2 sandwich because we got special bread that we didn't ask for. What's unspecial bread??? See what we mean about the language barrier?

After some shopping at H&M, TopShop, and Harrod's we were exhausted. For you non-Brits, we'll explain Harrod's through locational analogies. For you Auburners, it's the size of three Haley Centers, for you Princetonians, it's about double the size of the entire McCosh building, for you Miamians, Harrod's is the size of the Florida peninsula. Let's just say there was a lady in a ballgown singing opera from one of the twelve balconies...just like Macy's right?

We ended the night by attending a "Crazy Hat" party. Apparently it was National Hat Day? Even if it wasn't, we had a lovely time. The people and food were brilliant!

Today, we took the tube once again to SoHo to go to church at Hillsong. After seeing the selection of British godly men, we decided we were too old to wear promise rings that could be mistaken as engagement rings. To avoid any confusion about our marital status, we switched our rings to the right hand. Considering the language barrier already in place, we didn't want to cause further confusion. More importantly, church was brilliant and lovely! We'll definitely be back every Sunday!

Tonight we decided to go grocery and Poundland (like the dollar store) shopping at 4. It was a great idea considering everything closes at 5 on Sundays. We ran into Poundland and furiously grabbed £1 pots, pans, and dishes (what a deal!). We had 9 minutes to grocery shop and anyone who knows either of us knows how much we love food, so this was more than enough time. After throwing a lot of random items in our carts, we were told it was time to exit. We bought pasta with no sauce, cereal with no milk, and bread with nothing to put inside. Real substantial meals, huh?

By this point, we were each carrying 3 huge bags of random kitchen and grocery items. We went to the nearest bus station just wanting to give our arms a rest. After waiting for 30 minutes, and Steph's bags all breaking, we realized only certain buses stop at each stop. And guess what? None of the six buses we could take back home were stopping at the one where we were waiting. See how local we've become? After realizing this, we ran to another stop and hopped on with all of our items in hand.

Finally feeling at ease, we placed our massive bags on the seats next to us. After one stop, two ladies from Peckham (remember the hood next door?) dressed in tunics decided they wanted our bags' seats. Rude. Next thing we knew, our urban neighbors were sitting on top of our stuff and we were covered in the rest of it. We wish we had a picture to place here, but we didn't think it was an appropriate time to ask for one, so you'll have to rely on a mental image.

All in all, it's been a great weekend. We start classes tomorrow (wait, are we not here on vacation?) and hopefully we'll make some more local friends!

Cheers!