As I said in my short email I sent out, my parents are here enjoying London. They have already been here a week and seen most of the famous London sights. They were able to figure out the tube system a little bit the first couple days but Dad would rather take the buses because you can see everything. So Dad has been taking Mom on a few adventures on the buses, One day they ended up at the end of a route in what they think was the Ghetto, even though London doesn't have Ghettos...Now that I've taught him how to read the bus map and what bus goes to Victoria (the close stop to where they were staying) I think they've figured it out. It's pretty simple really, but I guess I've been here for a little bit longer...
The beginning of the week since I had my internship they just discovered London and all the great things about it. They did quite a lot of walking and saw a lot as well.
Thursday we went to get tickets to go to the Lion King. We also visited the London Transport Museum. This museum had different types of transportation and the evolution of it.
The rest of the day went by quickly and we were soon waiting for the doors of the Theatre to open so that we could see the Lion King. I was super excited for this and it was wonderful! Truly awesome. The costumes were amazing, it didn't take long before I started to see the actors as the animal they played rather than people. The music was great, their voices were fantastic. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe it! Probably my favorite, although Hairspray is still up there...The Lion King is my favorite Disney movie I think and to be able to see it on stage was great!
On Friday we took a trip to Windsor. We went in the castle which is where the Queen stays normally on Fridays through Mondays. I'd love to report that we saw her and had some tea and a nice little chat... However, since her horses had a race that day she was gone, so we weren't able to meet her. :( The castle was magnificent. It was also really cool to be able to walk some of the same places that royalty does and to see all of the rooms they use. There were so many swords and guns and the furniture was just as you'd imagine in a castle. I really enjoyed our visit.
Saturday we got up early to catch a train to go to Dover. Here we would take a ferry across to France. This was really cool as well. (I really need some new adjectives!) I had never been on a boat before, other than the little ferry/water taxi we took to Greenwich so it was a brand new experience for me. There wasn't really any security to go out onto the ferry. Our passports were looked at, Dad almost didn't make it through because his wouldn't scan or something...But they didn't x-ray our bags or look at them or anything. So it was super easy. The ship was huge! I was impressed by the size and to have a restaurant and bar and shop all on board. wow! The ferry ride only took a little over an hour. Once we arrived in France we had a little bit of a culture shock and language barrier as none of us know any French. This put a little damper on our trip but in the area we were at most knew enough English for us to get by. There wasn't a lot in Calais but we did find a WW2 museum that was in a German Bunker. It was really musty inside and I surprisingly found it a little interesting. I never knew that they could actually fire bombs and whatnot from France and hit England. But I guess it is only around 36 miles away. Calais was lovely though, right on the channel, and our hotel over looked it too. It was a lot of fun and a good experience for all of us. An experience is defiantly the best way to describe it. Coming back our bags were x-rayed, and our passports checked and we were asked basic customs questions-What's your reason for traveling to the UK? How long will you be there? Where are you studying? etc. We all made it through easy peasy. We were very happy when the announcements on the boat were in English first not French!
Almost as soon as we were on the ferry we could see the White Cliffs of Dover. And because France is an hour ahead of England we made it back in literally no time :)
We then took a coach bus to a different train station because the Dover station was closed, and then took a train back to London.
Needless to say it was a long day. Sunday night I kept telling my self "I was in France this morning." I couldn't believe that it was that easy to go to France and it only took a few hours. It's so awesome that I have these kind of opportunities.
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on Sunday here so when we got back we had to walk back to Vandon because all of the streets around Trafalgar's square were closed and a TON of people were out because it was really a lovely day. One of the best we've had. Spring has defiantly sprung, as well as daffodil's everywhere in St. James's Park.
I really should update this more often so that they are shorter and I don't bore you so much in one post! Maybe this week I'll get another out, but I doubt it as I'll be with my parents most of the week and I fly out Thursday to go to the Netherlands! Me and 2 friends are flying in to Amsterdam and then taking a train to Gouda to stay with Luis, my uncle's twin brother. It should be a really great trip and I am definantly looking forward to it!
So that is all for now!
Hopefully you are enjoying warming weather as we are here!
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