3.4.10 – Last Full Day in London

Today was our last full day in London, and it was a relatively full day. It began by heading to the Chelsea Football Stadium to get a tour of the facilities. We saw the press room, locker rooms, walked out onto the field through the tunnel, and saw the stadium. It was neat, however I don’t have much passion for “football” so I don’t think I appreciated it as much as a couple of other people would have. One fun thing they had was in the front of the stadium where they had life size photos where fans could stand or sit in on to make it appear like they were a part of the team.

After the visit and lunch at a BBQ place for ribs, we headed back into town. I joined up with a group heading to Harrods. We walked around a little, which included the chocolate, food, and toy department. We then had to be on our way because the group that I was in for the afternoon had to meet our teacher and tour guide at 3:00 for a walking tour of London’s East End. We also wanted to run back to the hotel beforehand because we needed to layer up since we were going to be outside for a couple of hours.

We then met up with our guide at the Liverpool Station. It was a little difficult finding her because the station is rather large and has several exits, but we managed all the same. We then began our walk around the East End. We didn’t see anything particularly special, she was simply pointing out different locations that were important to the waves of immigrants that inhabited the area throughout the years. Additionally, she pointed out different areas that were relevant to the Jack the Ripper murders. Most of the locations were sort of strange because the area has mostly been redone, so only a few of the buildings she was talking about were still standing. There were really two things that made this walk worth it, (1) we stopped at a coffee shop half way through where we all got coffee courtesy of DIS. It was good coffee, however it somehow failed to do the trick because after that stop, I couldn’t stop yawning. (2) Our guide for the afternoon was the same one who gave us the bus tour on the first day. She is absolutely hilarious because she is so random. I cannot remember half of the things she talked about on the tour because she constantly was changing subjects and adding in random facts. She definitely knows her history facts though (she is also pretty good with pop culture trivia too). Overall, it was a decent way to spend the afternoon.

After our tour, we went back over to Westminster because several people wanted to go on the London Eye. I decided not to go on it because it was dark outside by this time and I didn’t know how much I was going to be able to see, and I figured it could be an activity to save for this summer. While they were on the Eye, Heidi, Erica, and I walked along the Thames for a little bit, but then found a souvenir shop to look around in for a while.

Once the other girls got off the London Eye, we all headed over to Chinatown because we all decided Chinese food sounded good for dinner. It was a little bit of an adventure finding it, but overall it wasn’t too bad. We then began to determine which restaurant had the cheapest chicken dishes (that was what most people wanted). I didn’t really mind a cost issue, but I know the others were more concerned about that. It was an okay dinner. I did enjoy the fact that I was not completely stuffed when we left though, rather just satisfied. We then made our way back to the hotel to change – stopping at Platform 9 ¾ on the way (it was kind of funny because they are actually doing renovation on Platrforms 9 & 10 at King’s Cross, so the Platform had been temporarily “moved” to a different location) – and meet up with some other people from our class to go out for the evening.

I think it was about 2:30am when we finally left the club/bar to head back to the hotel. It seemed a little too far to walk, although Margot was determined to do so. The night buses were also a little tricky to figure out, so we simply decided to grab a cab. It was only like 8 pounds, and it ended up being fun to ride in one. Once, we got back at the hotel, Margot, Julie, Lisa, and I hung out a little bit (after we finally got a working key for Lisa). I then quite literally crashed on my bed to try to grab a few hours of sleep before I had to be up for the next morning.