We've made it to December, Folks!

So every few weeks in Spain there is a long weekend called a "puente" (a bridge). The first week of December there are civil holidays in Spain, making it so that I had from Thursday-Tuesday to travel. And so I went to London to meet up with one of my old roommates, Carrie, who is currently studying in Budapest. I got really lucky that I was flying into Luton airport because Gatwick had been closed now for a couple of days due to snow. I went to the airport with a group of kids flying to Ireland, and their flight was completely canceled. A lot of people got pretty screwed with travel plans that weekend between the snow and the airport strike in Madrid that Saturday. (In case you missed it, the national gaurd had to be called in and the president announced the first state of emergency since who knows when).

Anyway, I successfully made it London, albeit a couple hours later than I had intended. Since it was a budget airline, we disembarked on the tarmac and had to take a bus to the terminal, which I have never had to do before. Being on a plane filled with mostly Spaniards, I didn't look too ridiculous when I pulled out every article of clothing I had to keep warm in the sudden 20 degree Celsius drop in temperature.

Following the directions given to me by the hostel I was staying in that night, I got off the bus at a stop where no one else got off. The bus pulled away and I found myself standing at the edge of a highway, in the middle of the night, with all my stuff, alone. Slightly concerned, I pulled out my directions and read "walk up A117 for 10 minutes". Up?! Not only was there no visible incline in sight, I couldn't see a street sign anywhere confirming that I was in fact on A117. I picked a direction and began to walk, following the highway under series of maze-like underpasses until I determined that this road was not going where I needed to go. When I tried to call the hostel, my phone wouldn't connect, so I turned around and walked the other way.

I eventually found an underground station, and after studying the map for a few minutes, determined that I just needed to go a few more blocks to the....right? At this point I realized I was totally lost, with no change to make a phone call, and the two people I saw and stopped for directions had no idea what road I was asking about. I ended up walking back to the underground, where I saw a janitor. Upon asking him for directions he replied "You want to walk there?!" and then pointed me in the right direction. I walked for another half an hour, before I flagged down a bus that drove by. The bus driver was really nice and took me a few blocks in the right direction and showed me what road to walk down. Finally, just when I was about to give up, I stumbled upon the hostel.

Checking in, the guy at the reception looked at me, taking in the fact that it was 2 in the morning and I was alone and asked me if I was ok. When I explained politely that the directions on the website were terrible, he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I didn't want to deal with explaining the fact that "up" is not a direction so I took the sheets he gave me and headed up to the room. Since I was only staying there one night, I had gotten a bed in a 14 person room which I realized was not the smartest choice when I entered in dark the middle of the night to find 13 sleeping people in bunk beds 3 high. Not much I could do at that point except find an empty bunk with my cell phone light, drop my backpack at the foot of the ladder, and sleep in my clothes. Needless to say, it was a pretty terrible experience.

Fortunately, the rest of my trip to London was much better. I got into town the next morning and walked around the city, explored Harrods, and waited for Carrie to get in. The next day, we walked EVERYWHERE. Being the poor students that we are, we did a ton of sightseeing from the street, walking past the houses of parliament, Buckingham palace, Tower Bridge, the Globe theater, and Millennium Bridge. We actually went in to the Tate Modern (all museums in London are free) but at that point we were exhausted and only could look around for a little while before we collapsed in a coffee shop.

Carrie and me at Tower Bridge (common misconception; London Bridge is really lame looking)

That night we ate at a pub where we got carded twice (!!!) and had the rudest waitress ever. But it was ok, because afterward, we went and saw the newest Harry Potter movie in a huge theater. It was fairly epic.

The next day, we decided to take the underground everywhere due to the fact we could no longer feel our feet. We went to the British Museum which was pretty cool. It pretty much has nothing from England in it, but it does contain the Rosetta stone, the frieze of the Parthenon, and half of ancient Egypt. The rest of the day we walked around taking in the sights we hadn't yet seen and checking out all the stores decorated for Christmas. We also found a great traditional pub that had the most delicious roast (and stuffing balls!) ever.

Parliament and the Thames

I suppose that pretty much sums up my trip to London, albeit brief and not extremely detailed. All in all, it was a pretty cool city even though it was freezing and the pound has a ridiculous exchange rate. Oh! How could I forget? In the spirit of Harry Potter, we managed to take the greatest platform 9 3/4 picture ever in King's Cross Station: