Taking over the UK

After leaving Madrid, we moved onto London. We successfully navigated the tube to meet our friend Claire from BC who is studying at King’s College this semester. We stayed with her in her small but very cute room (hey we’re college students, we can sleep anywhere). Claire had class the next day so Becky and I did some sightseeing around London. Becky’s been there before, so not very much was new to her, but I really enjoyed seeing Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The “Eye” (huge ferris wheel they have), the Thames, Buckingham Palace (no sighting of the queen though), Trafalgar Square, and of course, the signature red phone booths (which we actually had to call Claire from since we don’t have a phone and got stared at multiple times).

We met up with Claire after lunch and she showed us around her school which is actually really nice. And they had a nice boastful wall of people who have attended the school (including Desmond Tutu, which we thought was really cool). We made dinner in her dorm/apartment then set out for the night. We met up with some other friends of ours from BC studying at Kings/visiting for spring break (yes, BCs spring break is this early). The club we went to was called “Cheapskates” and aptly named as drinks were 80 pence. But they didn’t seem to know what lemonade or sprite were so we drank a few vodka and waters (not recommended). After a night of dancing and drinking, we unsuccessfully tried to find the night bus and ended up taking a cab back.

Becky left for Ireland early-ish the next day while I stayed around since my flight wasn’t until later that night. I walked with Claire to class which is a very scenic route along the Thames, and I got to have a nice view of the city as well as see the Globe theater.

While Claire went to class, I made my way to Covent Gardens, which is a cute outdoor shopping/food area, and then onto Leicester Square and around the area. All without getting lost! Met up with Claire after class, headed back to her place to pack up my things and go on to Scotland…

… where Sal (another BC friend) was excitedly waiting for me at 1 am as I got off the bus from the Prestwick airport (about 45 mins-1 hour away from Glasgow). Needless to say, I passed out almost immediately upon arriving at his dorm at the University of Glasgow. I got a great Sal-guided tour of the school and the city the next day, even venturing to the far east side to see the Celtic football (soccer) team’s stadium. At least I got a scarf out of it. We also went into the Cathedral, walked around the mecropolis (complete with graves), saw indoor gardens, the biggest terracotta fountain in the world, and went in the museum of modern art, all throughout scattered rain. Later that night (since it’s Friday now) we went out to dinner with a few of Sal’s friends from school including Charlie, another friend from BC. We made our way to “Cheesy Pop” afterwords- a club in their student union that plays ridiculously cheesy music from the 80s and 90s. It was great.

(university of Glasgow)

The next day, Sal and I ventured to Edinburgh, only about a 1 hour bus ride. We met up with yet another BC friend (they’re all over the place), Brian, who’s studying there. He led us around for the day, starting with Edinburgh castle which I was told I could not miss under any circumstances. The 10 pounds was well worth it (for a cultural experience, Dad) to see a cool exhibit about the military and the crown jewels! which are in the castle there. Afterwords it started to rain (surprise, surprise) but I’ve learned to not let that ‘dampen my spirit’ as Sal said, no pun intended (apparently). So we continued to walk around and see the Elephant House, the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book (and their coffee was great!), the Queen’s summer residence (Hollyrood Palace), the Scott monument, and of course a statue of Livingstone (the Scots love him almost as much as they love their poet, Robert Burns). As I told Sal, and no offense to Glasgow, I really really liked Edinburgh. All the hype was definitely worth it.

(Edinburgh castle)

Becky came in late that night, we actually ran into her at the bus station when we got back. We all went to an Australian restaurant for dinner (weird, I know) then to a bar which had formerly been a church but converted, complete with a club downstairs. Sunday, we went to a football (soccer) game! It was cold, overcast, and rainy- yet another surprise in the weather. We watched the Glasgow Rangers play the Hamilton Academical, and the Rangers won 5-1. (Slight aside, Glasgow has 2 football teams- Rangers and Celtics. Celtics fans tend to be Irish and Catholic (surprise) and Rangers fans locate more on the Western side of the city. They have an intense rivalry)

Oh, and our seats were GREAT. 6 rows back, centerfield. (Rangers wore blue). After warming up after the game, we went out for dinner with yet some more kids from BC, some of whom had just returned from weekend travels. After, we met up with some more students from University of Glasgow to celebrate one of the girl’s 21st birthdays! Everyone we met was so nice and we had another great night of dancing- the D.J. at this club “kushion” was great. Some of the students we met were Germans, so Becky and I took advantage of the situation to practice our German which we were told is great!! So we feel much better about heading to Germany being pretty conversational in German. But first we’ve got Paris and Amsterdam to go!