12/23: After a fabulous 2 hour nap, we left our hostel at 5am to catch the bus to the airport to make our way to London. Everything went smoothly as far as our travels went, caught our flight and found the right bus to take us to where we needed to go, but that bus was an hour long ride and we all passed out the whole way and missed the stop we were supposed to get off on. Oh well, we just had to walk a little further to find the train station where we could leave our bags for the day before we caught our 9pm train to Rugby. Mission #1 in London: find food and wake the fack up! Success was found in an adorable little square with a weird statue and a christmas tree.
Then sightseeing: Tower bridge, Tower of London, London bridge, London eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey. We even passed through a "winter market" (we're in London now, so they had to be politically correct and not say Christmas market booooo)
*sidenote: at this point in the journey we have been walking EVERYWHERE, going out at night (usually dancing and running is involved) and all of our shoes have gotten holes in them and are leaking (especially Caylin and Meghan's).
With our aching feet and still a couple of hours before the train, we decided to make the trek to Buckingham palace...we were bitching the whole time, and I think God heard us and wanted us to shut up because it started pouring rain while we were in the middle of the park and had no coverage. We found shelter and as soon the rain let up and we figured out where the nearest tube was, we sprinted past the palace to SIT and wait for the train in the comfort of chairs and heat. Enjoyed some hot soup and a couple games of banana grams before catching the train.
TRAIN REUNION!!! Decided to have some "cocktails" on the train aka buy the cheapest whiskey we could find and mix with coke zero. Lucy jumped on board, of course we greeted her by hiding and jumping out to scare her! Once the scare was over, she took a second to look at us and said, "you guys look like hell!" TRUTH HURTS. After a loud (and probably very annoying) train ride, we arrived in Rugby to meet John and Cath Thompson! We stayed up had some food and a little wine and chatted about what the next couple days were going to be like.
CHRISTMAS EVE: My favorite holiday :) This part of the trip could not have come at a more perfect time...got a great nights sleep, woke up to a delicious hot breakfast and then went to get pedicures (our christmas present from Caylin). Had a relaxing day before John made a delicious curry dinner early in the evening , so we had plenty of time to go out to the pubs! WARNING. When spending Christmas in England be prepared for lots of drinking because most of their "traditions" involve going to the pub. So Christmas eve was spent boozing with some of Lucy's friends. Met some real weirdo's....and EVERYONE wanted to know what the heck we were doing in Rugby...apparently they don't think very highly of the birthplace of Rugby..they should have more pride.
CHRISSIE!!! Woke up to breakfast and "breakfast bags" - same idea as stockings, so I was stoked. Then presents! I had a package from home that my mom had sent (such a cutie) and Cath had gotten all three of us a couple little presents that were perfect for our travels: hat, socks, gloves, candy! Around noon we went to the pub with John (again a tradition) for a couple hours and had some fun. When we got back it was 2nd Santa! Meaning, Santa is a forgetful guy so we had a couple more presents waiting for us :) At 3 it was time for the Queen's speech. I was very excited for this because I had never heard her speak before, and Lucy and Cath were saying that she has the weirdest accent and is the only one that speaks like that, they call it Queens english. I couldn't really tell, but she was small and cute and it was nice. Before dinner started we had a champagne treasure hunt! Cath had made little clues on our place settings and we all got a glass of champagne and hunted around the house where our final gift was! Loving this tradition. Dinner was great, we had turkey and ham and cranberry sauce! And best of all there were poppers! So I got to wear a crown all night. After dinner we played Bingo...which Cath now refers to as "black bingo". Side story: Cath's daughter-in-law went to New York and said that only black people play bingo. When Cath told me this to find out if it was true I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Anyways, we played a couple games of bingo: things got wild (and we were drunk) and John threw his napkin at me to knock off my hat :( We grew to have an interesting relationship, but I would like to think he liked me best because I'm so "sassy". We continued with the game theme and taught them how to play Thumper. Aww such fun :) AND BEST OF ALL, they had great internet, so I got to skype with the Shrodes for a long time and my parents!! Even though I couldn't be with my family, it was a pretty awesome Christmas.
Then sightseeing: Tower bridge, Tower of London, London bridge, London eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey. We even passed through a "winter market" (we're in London now, so they had to be politically correct and not say Christmas market booooo)
*sidenote: at this point in the journey we have been walking EVERYWHERE, going out at night (usually dancing and running is involved) and all of our shoes have gotten holes in them and are leaking (especially Caylin and Meghan's).
TRAIN REUNION!!! Decided to have some "cocktails" on the train aka buy the cheapest whiskey we could find and mix with coke zero. Lucy jumped on board, of course we greeted her by hiding and jumping out to scare her! Once the scare was over, she took a second to look at us and said, "you guys look like hell!" TRUTH HURTS. After a loud (and probably very annoying) train ride, we arrived in Rugby to meet John and Cath Thompson! We stayed up had some food and a little wine and chatted about what the next couple days were going to be like.
CHRISTMAS EVE: My favorite holiday :) This part of the trip could not have come at a more perfect time...got a great nights sleep, woke up to a delicious hot breakfast and then went to get pedicures (our christmas present from Caylin). Had a relaxing day before John made a delicious curry dinner early in the evening , so we had plenty of time to go out to the pubs! WARNING. When spending Christmas in England be prepared for lots of drinking because most of their "traditions" involve going to the pub. So Christmas eve was spent boozing with some of Lucy's friends. Met some real weirdo's....and EVERYONE wanted to know what the heck we were doing in Rugby...apparently they don't think very highly of the birthplace of Rugby..they should have more pride.
CHRISSIE!!! Woke up to breakfast and "breakfast bags" - same idea as stockings, so I was stoked. Then presents! I had a package from home that my mom had sent (such a cutie) and Cath had gotten all three of us a couple little presents that were perfect for our travels: hat, socks, gloves, candy! Around noon we went to the pub with John (again a tradition) for a couple hours and had some fun. When we got back it was 2nd Santa! Meaning, Santa is a forgetful guy so we had a couple more presents waiting for us :) At 3 it was time for the Queen's speech. I was very excited for this because I had never heard her speak before, and Lucy and Cath were saying that she has the weirdest accent and is the only one that speaks like that, they call it Queens english. I couldn't really tell, but she was small and cute and it was nice. Before dinner started we had a champagne treasure hunt! Cath had made little clues on our place settings and we all got a glass of champagne and hunted around the house where our final gift was! Loving this tradition. Dinner was great, we had turkey and ham and cranberry sauce! And best of all there were poppers! So I got to wear a crown all night. After dinner we played Bingo...which Cath now refers to as "black bingo". Side story: Cath's daughter-in-law went to New York and said that only black people play bingo. When Cath told me this to find out if it was true I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Anyways, we played a couple games of bingo: things got wild (and we were drunk) and John threw his napkin at me to knock off my hat :( We grew to have an interesting relationship, but I would like to think he liked me best because I'm so "sassy". We continued with the game theme and taught them how to play Thumper. Aww such fun :) AND BEST OF ALL, they had great internet, so I got to skype with the Shrodes for a long time and my parents!! Even though I couldn't be with my family, it was a pretty awesome Christmas.
Faces of pure joy when they opened my gift: flasks..."one for the road?"
Champagne treasure hunt!
BOXING DAY: We were quite lazy. But who isn't on the 26th (maybe the hard core shoppers). John and Cath had left for the day to pick up Beth, Lucy's sister, because the trains don't run on boxing day. Meaning we were in charge of dinner. After meeting the hysterical Beth and having dinner, we went to The Fighting Cocks...Lucy claimed it as the worst bar ever. But that never stops us from having a good time and we turned that place into a good time: bartenders giving us free shots, playing pool, playing ring of fire, and confusing the local lads.
12/27: Time for everyone to go their separate ways...Caylin and I to London and Meg to Paris. It was a difficult goodbye to the Thompson's because they were such amazing hosts and I really hope that I get to see them again someday. Caylin and I took the train into London and met our good pal Vincenzo! After dropping our stuff off at our super cool hostel we were ready to hit the town. First stop, Buckingham palace where we could actually take a look around and not sprint pass in the rain. Impressive, but not many guards there because the Queen was in Scottland with her sick husband. The best part is when Caylin and I decided to do our signature handstand in front of the gates...Pretty sure people thought we were a flash dance group. Hit up a couple squares and then got ready for dinner and a night on the town. Dinner was at a bomb Vietnamese restaurant with a very high pitched waiter who loved the idea of us drinking beer and gave Vince the thumbs up to get us drunk...Then we went on our own mini pub crawl trying new beers at all these different pubs. Accidentally walked into a gay bar and it freaked Vince out hehe. Did some more handstands, played some card games and somehow got Vinceyboy wasted by 11. Not sure how that happened, but when we said we were going to take him home he hung his head and said, "this is the lowest point in my life." But countered it with "I will not surrender and refused to be taken back to his hotel. When I laughed at him, he bitch-slapped me, in the face. Rough night.
Olympic countdown!
Handstands in Trafalgar square
Dinner
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