April 11

April 11, 2012

Still can't find any free wifi near our hotel, but there are computers here for a few pounds per hour. We were up pretty early today, the walls here are paper thin and we back on to a fairly busy street so it can be difficult to get a solid nights sleep. Last night was particularly difficult because the douche bag or bags next door were watching Law and Order and CSI all night with the volume up pretty high. I got up and put in my ear plugs. There's free breakfast here just some toast, fruit cheese, cereal. Nothing really great but it's free and we're on a budget.

We decided to grab a tourist map and try to see some of the sights. The roads here go in every direction and are so busy it's hard to stop and try and get your bearings right. Last night we saw Parliament, The London Eye, and Westminster Abbey do this morning we headed out in the general direction of Picadily Circus and Buckingham Palace. We got a little off course and ended up in a park with an Australian War Memorial and a few other statues. We then walked to Buckingham Palace and The Canada Gate. It was a little underwhelming, the honor guards were there but far behind a gate. They didn't seem to stand very still like they did in TV and movies. Next we tried to head towards SoHo, and ended up atTrafalgar Square, The National Gallery is located there and it was only a few pound donation to get in so we killed an hour looking at the paintings. They had a few by Van Gogh which was cool to see, and many were amazing but after an hour of looking at oil paintings of Jesus on blistered feet they just blend together. We walked to SoHo, it had some cool looking bars and restaurants but not much else. We stopped at a phone place and asked about getting cheap pre paid plans, what we had to go through sounded to confusing so we decided to do it later. Cam bought a phone though, he needs it to call his bank and visa because he doesn't have his online banking setup. It was only about ten pounds for a phone and a prepaid plan. Our feet were incredibly sore and I could feel some blisters coming on so we decided to head home. Our hotel is just north of Big Ben so we've been using that as a landmark, I think we probably walked close to ten kilometers today. Just before we made it back to the hostel these girls asked us if we could boot for them, Cam and Bryce were hesitant but I decided to help them out. They just wanted a Mickey of vodka, which only costs 4 pounds. I figured I was in their position once so I decided to help them out. Liquor in London if bought at a corner store actually isn't too expensive. A Mickey is about 6 bucks and a six pack of tall beer cans is about ten dollars Canadian. A pint of beer in a pub is a different story.

Back at the hostel we decided to look up a cheaper place to stay, but after looking at the hostel world website it was cheaper to stay here and we get a private room.

We spent the rest of the day in our room resting our feet, after walking around and having no luck finding a cheap place to eat at we just decided to have Subway.

Our high school friend Leandra is here tomorrow, she's much more experienced with backpacking than any of us, hopefully she can help us figure out the buses and subway system.