London – June 21, 2004
Well, here’s the story so far. I arrived at my hostel my first night in London and made friends with a girl from Australia named Claire. We went sightseeing during the day, and later I went shopping. That night when I returned to the hostel, my other roommates were there as well: a girl from China and a woman from Brazil, Cristina. We decided to go play Asshole (a card game) in the common room, where they were having karaoke. After a while, this Australian guy Ryan joined us (very hot!). By the time karaoke was done, a couple of other guys joined us as well. Another Australian guy, Luke (really cute), a guy from Hawaii, a guy from Spain and a guy from Singapore. We were having so much fun! Eventually the bar shut down, but we stayed and played pool and drank. I finally went to bed at 4am, but I think they stayed until 6am, or at least that’s when Claire woke me up, when she was drunkenly talking on her phone REALLY loudly and then had to run to the bathroom to throw up. The next day, Friday, I didn’t do much because I had to change hostels, which is such a hassle. We were supposed to go out that night, but Claire wasn’t feeling well (no surprise there) and I ended up falling asleep at 8pm, only to wake up an hour later and then finally go to bed at 11:30pm. I guess two nights of only 3 hours of sleep finally caught up to me. Oh yeah, I met this really cool Australian guy named John, who’s been backpacking for 20 years!!! And he’s 82!!! Isn’t that crazy? He started backpacking at 61 years old after his wife died. He’s got 5 kids and 11 grandkids, he’s been all over the world and has seen all kinds of things, and it’s so cool. Man, he’s like my idol.
Saturday I had to switch hostels again, yuck!!! I went to the Tate Modern Museum, where I saw Picassos, Cezannes, Matisses, Monets, Pollocks and Dalis, it was very cool, and then I went to see Les Miserables in the West End (London’s Broadway). It was very good, although I had the worst seat, but that’s what you get for a half-price ticket!!! Sunday, I switched back to my first hostel (thankfully I don’t have to switch anymore until I leave, yay!). I went back to the Tate Modern and then walked across the Millennium Bridge and went into St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is amazing. I also went to see Harry Potter 3!!! As a movie itself, it wasn’t bad; as an adaptation of the novel, it sucked. But my friend Julee had forewarned me, so my expectations weren’t high and I enjoyed the movie as a whole (even if they did totally butcher the book). I came back around 11:30pm and met the other girls in my room: Isabelle from Montreal, a girl from Seattle, and Fatima from France. I didn’t feel like going to bed, and it sounded like there was a good party going on downstairs, so we three French girls went downstairs. Ryan and Luke (the Aussies) joined us. Eventually Isabelle and Fatima went to bed, but I stayed up with the boys and we were joined by the Hawaiian guy and ended up having this political debate, and finally went to bed at 3:30am. It was a good time! It was definitely hard to get up this morning though. That’s the thing about traveling: I can never sleep in, because I don’t want to waste a day. Not doing too much today, calling home, maybe a museum and then I might be going out with the two French girls and a Chinese girl that joined us today, to a Latin club named Havana. Hopefully that works out, I’m in a party mood!!! And tomorrow off to Paris!
St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Uk