Hello hello!
I forgot how much I enjoyed London. Everything about it screams class and there's so much to see. My camera was put to good use today; I took some 300 pictures already.
We woke up at 10 to take a coach tour of the city. Our guide, Simon, was hilarious and we all agreed that if he narrated our whole trip, it would sound better than we could ever put into words because he has the accent. We started off by going to Buckingham Palace where we got off and took pictures. The palace was first occupied by a monarch by Queen Victoria and boasts the largest private garden in England. Not a top notch security system though; it's literally a brick wall and some barbed fence. Should you get through that, though, there are guards all over the place just waiting for some target practice.
After Buckingham we drove by Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, of which my pictures turned out terrible because they were from behind the window of the bus, and then onto St. Paul's Cathedral. That was stunning. Last time I was here my mom went and did that, but I was preoccupied with catching up with Abbie and Shelby, so I never got to do that. The 4 blocks surrounding St. Paul's boasts 55 churches, all built by the same guy. Why you would need 55 within such a small area, I've no idea, but if you're feeling particularly holy go there.
After St. Paul's we went to see the Tower Bridge which stretches across the Thames. From there, you could see the Waterloo Bridge which was built in WWII entirely by women and is one of the only 100% sound bridges in London. Females: 1, Men: 0. We stopped for lunch at a cafe and then we went to the West End where everyone purchased tickets for 'Avenue Q'. Next was Trafalger Square which is by far the absolute prettiest place I've seen in London thus far.
The views are crazy; you can see the top of St. Paul's if you look behind it, and all the way down to Big Ben in the front. 
We're going for a tour there later on in the week, but we were allowed to roam and take pictures today. I saw a mime, Katie, and thought of your dad. He'll appreciate the picture, I'm sure :D
Despite that I've already written a novel, this is only half of our day. The next half was spent acquainting ourselves with the bus and underground systems. The busses are easy peasy, but the tube is another story. We were let loose after a 5 minute explanation as to how to use them, which Greg (our trip leader) thought would be enough, and we spent the next 30 getting lost trying to figure it out on our own. After 2 wrong stops and a lot of people laughing at our mistakes, we finally got to where we needed to go.
Now, we're all cooking dinner before going out for the evening. Amanda and I are going to explore Hyde Park and then head down towards Parliament to get some pictures and walk along the Thames. After, our group is meeting up at a pub called The Queens Arms, which I'm sure will be a riot. We'll see how well they all fare on the tube after putting a few back... :D
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