bloody mary, death by heat, and fuzzy hats

Hi! So today is my third day in London! We got up really early so we could make it in time for breakfast at 7:30. I had another pastry thing with yummy raisins in it. I also got that black pudding thing… I didn’t get the nerve to try it. It smells spicy and it looks like a burnt hockey puck… and I just couldn’t do it. Maybe tomorrow? (probably not.) haha. After breakfast, we went to the tour bus and drove around Hyde Park. We saw Trafalgar square (it has all of these statues and fountains… and it’s cool). We drove more through the streets with all of the neat shops… I loved it. After we went to Westminster Abbey and the Parliament building for about an hour. It wasn’t enough time to go inside of Westminster Abbey, so we decided we would come back after our tour. I ate a banana, thinking it would be no big deal. It turns out that there are no trashcans in London… that complicates the peel situation. I guess they don’t have trashcans because of trashcan terrorist bombs or something. We then went to Buckingham Palace. It was so cool! We saw the first two bands that walked into the Palace, and they were so good. They were all wearing those fancy furry hats. =) After we watched the bands walk down the mall (the main street going into the palace), we tried to cram up close to the gate so we could see any of the guards. That proved to be more difficult because I was a lot shorter than everyone else. So… no good. Today was short people awareness day. So basically, I couldn’t see any of the guards except the pictures I took when I put my camera up high in the air. I did get a few pictures though, so that was really fun. We saw the princes’ house; that was pretty exciting. It was amazingly hot and humid. I was not very happy about that, but we got into the shade and eventually I recovered. We had lunch at a little café and I had a BLT (and avacado…) sandwich. I also had a tomato salad! I really liked that… I even saved my crust so I could feed it to Freddy. Unfortunately I had to throw the crust away because I could not find any Freddys for a really long time. Hopefully tomorrow. After lunch, we walked through Trafalgar square! It was really beautiful and just so big! All of the buildings here are just so overwhelming because they are so fancy and big. I took a picture next to Aslan (por Aslan/por Narnia). Look how big Aslan is! Baby lion is all grown up. After we went to Trafalgar Square, we went to Westminster Abbey. It is the most amazing church I have ever seen. I can’t believe people still go to church there today. It took about an hour and a half to get through it all, and I am pretty sure we probably didn’t see everything. It is about 1000 years old. Pretty much all of the old kings and queens are buried there (like Bloody Mary!). Darwin and Newton were even buried there! The architecture was amazing. It was gothic style, and the ceilings were so ornate and high. I just couldn’t even believe it. I really loved it. I wish that I could have gone there right after my European history class. =) Also, there was even a part of the Abbey that had a hole in it from the bombings in World War II. I thought that was cool, and really appropriate, considering it was by the WWII memorial in the Abbey. After Westminster Abbey, we tried to figure out getting back to the hotel. The bus situation is slightly complicated, and the money situation is really complicated. I don’t remember being this confused about pesos, but maybe I was. Eventually we made it back, and then we just relaxed in the hotel. Fun stuff… Then we went to the Ivy, which is a famous restaurant for famous people. Seriously, I am not making that up. Ha. But I didn’t see any famous people, unfortunately. When we got bread before our dinner we didn’t get plates. This made me nervous because it was a really nice restaurant and I didn’t want to get crumbs all over the table. This, of course, is unavoidable and I got crumbs all over the table. So because I was nervous, I swept them all off the table onto the floor. I know, that was stupid… but it didn’t occur to me until later. Haha. So then the lady came out and swept everyone else’s crumbs onto a plate. Now I feel like a fat jerk. But the food was amazing, really. I got linguine with pesto, and then I had toffee pudding for dessert (aka, the best ever). Then we took a taxi home, which made me slightly ill. Haha, crazy taxi drivers. Now I am gonna go to sleep because I am quite exhausted from a long day of heat, walking, and seeing all of LONDON! Cheers!