London Photos: Day 1

Just a few photos from our trip to London: Day 1.  I spent a good amount of yesterday editing these photos, so enjoy.  I'd post more, but I don't know how to do an "lj-cut" type of thing here on blogger.  Haha.  Please click on the photos to see the full-size resolution.   

At DIA - waiting for our flight out to Chicago!

Our room - The Radisson Leicester Square Hotel

In Chinatown - just a block from our hotel.

The National Gallery - Just behind our hotel

The National Gallery (left) & St. Martins In The Fields (right)

Trafalgar Square - We probably went here everyday. Haha. It's the 4th most popular tourist attraction in the world.  It's always busy here.

Pretty building I saw while walking.  It's hard to do night photography without a tripod, but I do enjoy it!

Big Ben - I finally got to see him!

Westminster Bridge

The River Thames & The London Eye

Houses of Parliament & Big Ben

Waterloo Bridge, I think.

Having a drink on a boat on the River Thames!

Cheers!

There was a bar/club downstairs on the boat & we met this random group of guys there & hung out with them for a bit :)

With the London Eye behind us.

and that's our first day/night in London!  I actually have to download the other photos from my little camera.  I'll post a round 2 of day 1 sometime later.  I took wayyyy too many pictures.  Hahah.  I got a couple great photos though :)  More to come later!

 

Stonehenge.

This was an old entry that was saved as a draft since my laptop crapped out & I was too lazy to go back and finish the entry...


Being in England has been great.  I continue to forget that I am in a different country despite the constant reminders:  driving on the "wrong" side of the road, narrow roads, ancient buildings, abundance of mercedes & BMWs, & extremely expensive everything.  Different terms I've learned thus far:


Bathroom = Toilet or Loo
Take out = Take away
Cotton Candy = Candy Floss
Popsicle = Ice lolly
Fries = Chips
Subway = Tube


It's quite interesting.  The accents still amuse me.  Just listening to my little nephew speak cracks me up.  Ok, he's not so little.  According to this stores measuring poster thing, Gian is the height of a 7 year old (he just turned 6 on Saturday).  I am the height of a 12 1/2 year old.  Hahah!  


Anyway, we checked out of the hotel on Monday morning.  We left our baggage with Guest Services while Peter & I walked around London.  We headed down to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.  We made it just in time to watch them at their starting point.  We then headed down the street to the gates where there was a SEA of people.  We pretty much missed most of the ceremony as everyone fought for a spot near the gates.  We could hear the band/guards, but we couldn't see anything.  So we waited & waited  until they came towards our way.  The man standing next to us had extremely bad body odor.  It was a bit nauseating to say the least.  It was bright & sunny out, so everytime a gust of wind blew by, the feeling was bittersweet.


After that we got a drink & sat around & relaxed in the park for a bit.  We walked some more through the sights and ended up in Covent Garden.  We should've gone here earlier!  We were hanging around Chinatown so much, we didn't get a chance to check this area out.  We did some shopping and picked up some things for people.  I also now have more scarves than I will ever need in a lifetime.  There were a lot of shops & it was just a quaint collection of buildings, stores, & restaurants.  Performers also riddled the streets as the masses were drawn to them like flies.  We finally said our goodbyes to Leicester Square and headed to the Tube.

My cousin & his family were gracious enough to let us stay with them for the remainder of our trip.  We all went to Stonehenge today.  I never thought I would get to see such a sight this early on in my life, but I did.  I expected it to be much more grand, but it didn't disappoint.  Just being there.. was amazing for me.  Maybe if we were allowed closer, allowed to actually touch the rocks, the henges would surely tower over me.  Being in the English countryside was also a sight to see.  Peter, my nephew (cousin's son! it's just easier to say nephew), & I took a walk through the grasslands to get closer to the sheep.  It was adorable seeing my nephew follow Peter like that.  I can't imagine how the experience would've been if we were there for sunrise or sunset.  There were sooo many tourists there.  I think I would very much like to enjoy the area all by my lonesome.  There's a sense of mystery there, a sense of peace.  I'd prefer it not be clouded by the presence of people all around me.  I'll have to do that next time!  I picked up some postcards & a stonehenge ecobag (only £2.50!) as souvenirs.  


We headed out shortly after our walk through the fields.  We stopped by KFC for lunch!  Yum yum.  I love KFC.  It was interesting to see the menu & their portions of food once again.  I continuously receive reminders of how over indulgent us American's can be.  Their "large" sized side dishes were no bigger than those mini-sized play-doh containers!  I was also amused by my nephews choice of food.  Sweet corn dipped in baked beans & ketchup.  LOL.  Kids are so strange.  


We started heading back towards the city to go "picking" at this farm.  You can pick your own berries, fruits, vegetables, or flowers, & just pay for them at the closest kiosk.  Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and it started pouring rain.  We decided to head back to Hayes & once we got home, the sun broke through the clouds & the rain stopped.  Great timing!  Hahah.  At that point my cousin decided to just take us shopping in Uxbridge.  I picked up a last minute birthday gift for my mom & my cousin hooked me up with a super sweet pair of Adidas Superstar shoes!  Oh man, I love it, so much!  I don't think you can find it in the states, which makes it even more sweet!  He even got me a Nike top to use for sports/running.  I know, I'm so spoiled :)) It's the benefits of being the baby of the family.  Hehe.


I'm so lucky.  So blessed in my life.

When In London.

London has been great thus far.  Everything is damn expensive.  Everyone is hustlin` & bustlin'.  The streets are lively.  Never a lack of uninteresting passersby.  The accents.. oh the accents!  I love it.

I am so fascinated with my little nephew (my cousin's son!) everytime he speaks.  Even my cousin & his wife's accents have changed.  So awesome.  Hahah!

We've pretty much seen all the staples here in London.  Most of the must-sees.  We didn't do any tours or go inside really.  We missed our chance to see inside Westminster Abbey due to my misjudgement on the Tube rails/paths.  We ended up walking another 20 minutes to get to the church.  By then the service was ending :(  Ugh.

We did take a tour of the Chelsea stadium (Soccer/Futbol) today though.  This was moreso for Peter than me.  Haha.  He looked like a little kid in a candy store, all googly-eyed & drooling at the site before him.  He's happy now.

As long as we get to go to Stonehenge, I will be satisfied.  Seriously.  That's all I want to see.  Anyhow, I'm pretty pooped.  Night night.

June. July. August. Summer.

"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade." 

~Gertrude Jekyll

I wish it was still June. In June, I would be in Hawaii in the comfort of my huge, super sweet, best hangout place in the world, room. Maybe that's a stretch, but it's my room. I am biased. I would also be with my mom, brother, & my little lucky bear (whom they say is 15lbs now!). Not to mention, FRIENDS, my friends. I wish it was still June.

Summer is slowly coming to an end. Autumn will soon be on our doorstep. Fortunately, I get to close my summer out with a trip to London! I get to see the sights.. definitely SUPER excited for stonehenge.. just travel & experience a whole different culture and lifestyle. Awesome! I also get to see family that I haven't seen in forever & a day.

I'll definitely miss the sunshine of summer. I actually got a tan this time around! Though, I'm still considerably "whiter" than everyone else. I already miss you summer. Time to start planning out at least some kind of schedule for my trip to London!

Confirmed. England, here we come.

August 26th - September 3rd.

This week will live in infamy for the rest of my life.  Why?  Because this is the scheduled date of Peter & I's trip to London, England!!! Yes, I finally got he confirmation dates :)  How awesome is that?

Backstory:  I was bored in mid-November and decided to try my hand at sweepstakes.  The second night I played them, I instantly won a trip for 4 days/4 nights in London from a Coke Zero instant win game.  I was shocked to say the least.. It was my first win from an online sweepstake!

I am so glad everything is coming together.  We still need our hotel reservation confirmation, but I'm not really anticipating anything great for that.  Haha.  Originally, the trip I won was for 4 days, but I was able to extend the trip to a full week, without charge.  We'll be staying with my cousin Arnel after our 4 night hotel stay.  I guess he & his wife will try to take leave for the week that we are there :)  I'm also making arrangements with my other cousin Ela to meet up with her sometime while I'm there.  Hope things work out.  It'd be nice to meet up with them somewhere else in the world besides the Philippines ;)  

If I had it my way, I would've stayed at least 3 weeks!  Lol.  Peter works though, so that's a bummer.  The things I could've done in Europe!  I definitely would've taken a train to Milan, Italy and visit ALLLLLL my family there.  There's so many cousins, aunts, uncles, and all their children that I haven't seen in YEARS and years.  One day, I'd like to backpack through Europe, stay in hostels, do an odd job to get extra cash, hitchhike on a farmers truck, etc. etc.  One day.

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Also, an update on me hand.  When I said I'm missing two knuckles, I meant it quite literally.  It's broken, duh.  Classic Boxer's Fracture.  Here's 2 sets of photos.  1 from a couple of days after the fact & the other from 2 days ago.  I know, it's still bruised.  I'll live.