Tower & Palace

London has become way more exciting and fun after we got through with a lot of the boring UCL and apartment stuff. Friday night Alyssia, some people we met at UCL, and I went out to The Court which is a pub that is about five minutes from our apartment. The place was packed but it was really fun. First I got an English beer (which tasted like wine and was super fizzy) and then I got Bulmers Apple cider which is served cold NAT hot :( but it was still really yummy! Both of those drinks cost around 4 pounds which is pretty cheap considering they were large drinks. Alyssia and I hung out at the pub for awhile and met a British man who was very drunk but really funny. He offered to take us around to other pubs but we declined figuring he was too drunk to know where he was and not a good idea to follow a strange man around. He then later asked if he could sleep on our couch which I responded by saying we don't have a couch and then he asked if he could sleep on the floor and I told him we didn't have a floor. He was very sad but I did not fancy being killed :) The next morning we woke up and went to the Tower of London. The first thing we did was to take a tour with a Beefeater who is someone who has served in the army for over 22 years and is now working at the Tower and they are also the Queens body guards. All the Beefeater's live in the Tower of London which is very weird! & they are all locked in there at 10:00pm every night. After the tour we went and saw the torture chambers, crown jewels, where the king, queens, and knights lived, and some other stuff around the Tower. Once we left the tower we walked across Tower Bridge which looks over the Thames. It was a great view of the city, Tower, and river. After we crossed the river we went to a pub which was very yummy. I had chili and PIMMS which is a YUMMY drink that has lots of fruit and lemonade in it. When we finished lunch we walked back to the Tower to go to Tower Hill to see where prisoners were be-headed. Then we hopped on the underground and went home. On Sunday we woke up early because we had to be at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard was cool but not as interesting as I remembered it. Right when the ceremony was over we ran to the ticket lines for tickets to Buckingham Palace.The State Rooms were AMAZING! I wish I could live there. All the gold, crystals, paintings, sculptures, and decorations in each room were stunning. Everything was bright and sparkling, I wish that I could have taken pictures. Even though they would not have done the rooms justice. With our tickets to the State Rooms we got a free audio guide which was helpful in telling me about every room and pointing out objects for me to look at. You end your tour outside in the Queen's Gardens. They are green, huge, and beautiful! I am crossing my fingers that I will be invited to her next tea party at the Garden's which has a guest list of 8,000. Once we walked through the gardens we went to Whittard of Chelsea Tea shop. It has a vast array of teas for good prices. Alyssia and I then went to a pub for lunch then hopped back on the underground to go to UCL's museum to see the exhibit SKIN. It was an interesting exhibit and it was FREE :) Now I am home and three boys just busted into our apartment without knocking to say hello...people are very friendly here. Now most of the UCL students have moved into our apartment complex which is nice and many people have knocked on our door and introduced themselves...that is except for those three boys. More to come later! PS IT RAINS A LOT :)