Kicking it with my orb

Back home safely, and the trip was AWESOME! London is such a cool place, even though the weather was kinda junky the whole time. I guess that is pretty standard fare over there. Despite that, I just love the vibe that the city gives off...it is a similar feel to New York (with shorter buildings:-))

We made great time on Friday, we all slept on the plane, and by the time we landed and got to the hotel we were rested and ready to go! We had time for a quick drink before we took off to meet Big Sis' friends for dinner. One quick observation...London is absurdly expensive. I think it is even worse than Manhattan...it seems like everything has almost the same price that it has in the US, only it is priced in pounds instead of dollars (the exchange rate is about $2/pound.)

One more observation: the food really is not very good. It amazes me that a massive, International city with that many travelers and visitors doesn't have better food. In four days, we didn't exactly get to every restaurant in the city, but I feel like there was an alarmingly mediocre consistency to it (and had heard this before we went.)

We didn't stay out terribly late on Friday because we were a little tired, as were most of her friends. Also, the people at dinner were a little older (a couple of her friends' parents that she knows well, etc.) so everyone was kind of tame. We went out for a little bit after dinner, but were back at the hotel at a pretty reasonable hour. (Oh...and I could write about four posts just about the hotel...)

Because we were in bed kinda early, we were up early, too. Big Sis and her friend went out to meet some other friends (it is hard to catch up with seven years worth of relationships in four days) and me and Smoking Hot Roommate did the tourist thing...which was awesome! They have so many cool things there! Westminster Abbey is gorgeous...I would be much more religious if I could go to church there:-P

The Tower of London was really cool, too. I would like to put in a word for the Crown Jewels as well...it is good to be Queen! If I was ever Queen, I would just sit around and kick it with my orb:-) The Tower Bridge is super cool, too...it almost looks fake because of the funky colors. Buckingham Palace...not so cool. Really it was pretty boring, and the changing of the guard is tedious and time-wasting;-)

This post is getting too long, and I don't want to bore you with silly details, so I will just highlight one funny thing. In Parliament Square, there are a bunch of statues. Oliver Cromwell, some other random British guys and...Abraham Lincoln. I sort of walked past it, then had to stop and go back and look. But yes, definitely honest Abe. I guess he is worthy of statues outside of his own country, which once again proves my point: Illinois rules!!!

OK, maybe a little more tomorrow, but for now I have work to do. And, I have a post to write about Big Sis and Smoking Hot Roommate, too, so we all have that to look forward to:-)