What London is REALLY Like....

Oh my! What a couple of days it has been.

To start, London's weather is COMPLETELY bipolar. It's absolutely ridiculous! I definitely did NOT pack correctly. For example, on a given day it will start off at 55-60 degrees, sunny, no rain, and an hour later it will have become gruesomely cloudy, 40 degree thunderstorms. Its June, and people are walking around in winter coats, boots, and tights. NO ONE wears anything but black!!! It's depressing! But yet everyone looks so classy and chic.. fail.

Last night we went to this awesome pub, called the Founder's Arms, right on the river. We crossed over the Millenium Bridge (the wobbly bridge in the Harry Potter movies) and walked right by the Globe Theater to get to it. Amazing view, despite the rain!

Then, after getting a couple of really awesome Prague beers, called Staropramen (below), we left the 'Arms' to go to a REALLY authentic, cool British Pub, in hopes of finding some handsome British men. 

The British men we found, the hospitality unfortunately we could not seem to find anywhere. After arriving at the second pub, we had to wait.. ohh maybe 15 minutes before we were even acknowledged at the bar, and then once we were acknowledged, we sat down with a couple of other girls from our program (who had the British boy connection) to sadly only be ignored by the British men's friends and basically everyone in the whole establishment. One of the boys said the pub was not supposed to be a "tourist attraction" because it's tucked back behind Victoria street by Victoria station... oh well! We had some good cider, hopped back on the tube with our McDonald's fries, and headed home. 

However, I forgot to mention, we did meet ONE person who particularly enjoyed out company at the pub, and her name was Laura. She LOVED Americans and thought we were pretty special. She even found us a second time before we left to talk to us. Super adorable. 

Today, the 18th, Elyse, Jory and I ran some errands before our awesome BUS tour we had. I had to buy more time on my Oyster card (the card that gets me on the tube and buses), and Jory needed to "top up" her phone with more pounds. And on our little excursion we came across the Sloan Square farmer's market! I had the most amazing burger of my life, cooked right in front of me! For anyone who knows of the greatness of a Miller's burger, let me just say that this burger was BETTER. It was beyond delicious.

Then of course, it started to rain suddenly, and we hopped on the bus to get back in time for our big tour. 

Oh and by the way, everything in London is so expensive because the tax is 20%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some more fun facts about London:

• During the time of the Roman Invasion, London was known as Londinium. In Saxon times, it was known as Lundenwic and during the kingdom of Alfred the Great, its name was changed to Lundenburg.
• Contrary to what many people believe, ‘Big Ben’ in London is not the name of the clock or the tower, but a 13-ton bell inside the clock. The tower is known as St. Stephen’s Tower.
• The London Eye or Millennium Wheel of the city is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe.
• The London Underground, built in 1863, and popularly called ‘Tube’, is the first metro of the world.
• Buckingham Palace, The Queen’s official residence built in 1702, was earlier the site of an infamous brothel.
• Windsor Castle of London is the largest and oldest castle of the world that is still in use.
  
  Pictures of our big bus tour to come soon..
  
  -xox-