16 January

This weekend I went on a bus tour of London called "The Original London Tour." It is on a double decker bus (like the ones that you see in the movies! Except that every bus is like that here..). It is kind of terrifying from the top!

On Saturday we definitely did a lot more walking than riding. It was a particularly rotten day with tons of rain, but that did not stop me and my friends from exploring as much as possible. The bus stops at pretty uch every major London attraction and you can hop off and on at which ever stop you choose. We first got off at Covent Gardens and saw the market there and some street performers. One man juggled knives while riding on a unicycle and I there were some majorly impressive opera singers. It is definitely worth going back several times.

Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. One thing that I find quite odd is that most museums are free, but the biggest churches charge tourists. Worship is free, but it still seems a little funny. However, St. Paul's is definitely worth going back to and paying the admission price. It is Christopher Wren's masterpiece and even from the entranceway I could tell why. That place is SERIOUSLY impressive. I'm excited to go back! I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to build that Church. Somebody told me how many years it took, but I guess I was so shocked that I couldn't remember the number! Princess Di and Prince Charles were married there, and that is just a small sampling of all of the significant events and people that have been in St. Paul's.

From St. Paul's we crossed the Thames via the Millenium Bridge and walked around the outside of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. On my search for the bus stop, I got a bit lost with my friend because we kept getting distracted by the historical markers. It kind of reminded me of my dad...You can't walk very far here without running into something historically significant. I am still amazed (after being here for 3 weeks) about the amount of history that I consistantly walk on, around, through. I mean, it is EVERYWHERE. On one side of the road will be a sky scraper and on the other will be a 600 year old building. It never ceases to amaze me and I don't think I will ever get used to it.

When I finally made it to the bus, I was completely exhausted but very satisfied with the amount of ground that I covered that day. I got a lot of great pictures that I promise to post soon, including several of the whole group (me, Molly, Samantha, Katherine, Mary Katherine, Doug, Nick, and Michael).

Later that day we went to Sports Cafe to watch the Tar Heel ball game. We lost (which is a common theme this season), but it was fun for all of us to get dressed in our game gear and watch the game together. If you are ever in London, Sports Cafe is a great place to watch American sports (as long as a major British football match isn't on).