I'm in London!

Tuesday 9/11

I arrived in London around 8 in the morning. I had an overnight flight and maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep. The other time was spent chatting with the person beside me or watching movies. I don't sleep well on any form of public transportation :(

I made it through customs, picked up my bag, and quite quickly spotted Tonya and her mom (insert big sigh of relief). We hugged, rearranged a few things, exchanged some money, pumped me full of caffeine, and got on the tube. We made it back to her place fairly easily (although these brick roads and sidewalks are not easy to pull a suitcase across!), I ate, showered, and we hit the ground running! No rest for the weary. They say that staying awake is best to help with jet lag and I'd have to agree. This day might have been a bit of a blur but I slept like a baby that night!

Our first London adventure was to the Tower Bridge, for those who watched the Olympics this is the drawbridge that the big rings were hanging from. Once we crossed the bridge we were at the London Tower which is an old castle/village and gave us a really great intro to the British history. We did a tour with a real Beefeater (free, only offered at certain times) and it was amazing! Ken, our Beefeater guide was quite a ham and so full of humor and facts! A few highlights here included seeing some Crown Jewels and a torture chamber!
INSERT TOWER BRIDGE PICS, CROWN JEWELS, TORTURE CHAMBER, KEN

My metabolism was highly thrown off so I demanded we stop for a snack and I tried Coronation Chicken. It's basically a light curry sauce with raisins and it's so yummy! After the food I was feeling more refreshed and we took the tube to Westminister Abby. Unfortunately it was closed for the evening but we still got to walk around, and snapped some fun photos of Big Ben and the iconic red telephone booths!
INSERT PIC OF WESTMINSTER, BIG BEN, RED PHONE BOOTH

Just a short walk across the bridge took us to Tonya's hospital and the London Eye. We walked along the waterway admiring the views and Big Ben now just across the river. We came upon a Cantina where I tried Pimm's for the first time. Pimm's is hard to describe. It's a liquor that you mix with cucumber, oranges and mint. It's like a really weird, but yummy sangria (minus the wine!). We were trying to wait out the lights coming on but we were getting really cold and hungry so we headed back home. We picked up some Chinese take out and had a quiet evening just catching up with one another. And then FINALLY I was allowed to go to bed, and it was wonderful!
INSTERT PIC OF LONDON EYE, BIG BEN, PIMM'S, CHINESE