P.S I love you (Ireland)

Friday June 6

All 11 of us went on this adventure.  We had to wake up at 4:45 for this one. I took a lovely 4 hour nap before I had to wake up. Uggg!  The taxi came for us at 5:30.  As we entered the airport parking area, "Come on Ilene" came on the radio in the cab. That's how I knew this was going to be a good trip.

At the airport, we go past the swipe in area and enter the line for security. After waiting for about 5 minutes we reach the front of the line. A crotchety old lady was at the front. She asked how many and I told her 11. She took my boarding pass and told me I couldn't go through because I needed a Visa stamp. I showed her my passport, not fully understanding what she meant. Apparently we needed a stamp on our boarding pass. She tells us she won't let us through and we had to go back to where we swipped in. 

We begrudgingly trudge back to the man on the podium. We waited and then asked him if he could put the stamp on our boarding pass. He told us that they do that at the gate. I calmly explain to him that they wouldn't let us past security without them. He gets on his phone and calls over to security. He tells them that we are fine and to let us through. 

We head back to security. Wait in line once again and are met with an old man instead of the crotchety old lady. He let's us through.  We wait for 2 hours until we can board. 

At the front of the line and ready to board, I hand them my boarding pass. They get mad and tell us we have to go all the way back to get the stamp. I told them that we were told we could get stamped at the gate. They radio someone to come over. We get another lecture about getting our passes stamped. Signs them, and then he proceeds to rip my ticket in half. I demand an answer because our returing flight is on the back of the ticket. The man then tells us that we will have to reprint our tickets. "We are staying in a hostel. We won't have access to a printer I say." He tells us to go find an Internet cafe to print at. And if we can't find one, we will have to pay 40 pounds to print it at the airport. Awesome! We finally get our ripped boarding passes stamped and we are finally able to board the plane. 

The flight was 30 minutes long.  Which as good because we booked a bus tour at 11.  We bought bus tickets and headed off.  By the time we board the bus, it is 9:50, which gave us some time before the tour. We weren't too worried. But we were stop 11 out of 12. We came to stop 7 around 10:30. We could get off at at stop 7 and go straight for the bus tour, but we decided against it. Risk it for the biscuit!  We get off the bus at 10:37 and ask the bus driver where our hostel was. We charge toward it. We only had to stop and ask for help once. 

We barge through the door and tell the person working the desk that we need to put our backpacks in the luggage room. And I told him to call a cab while we were down there. We threw our luggage in a corner in the luggage room and rush back upstairs. He said our cab should be along shortly. 

As soon as we hop in the cab I tell the cabbie that we need to go very fast because we are going to be late. And since we were running behind, we didn't have time to go to an ATM. We were scraping our wallets for any euros we might have left over from Paris. We get 10 euros in coins. Whoot whoot! We get to our destination at 10:55. He tells us that we owe him 12 euros. That wasn't 12 euros worth but we had no time to argue. We hand over the change and I bolt out. I had to exchange our email for tickets so I told Lindsey and Karli to stay back and hold the bus. I successfully exchange our email voucher. But while this was happening, the cab driver started yelling at Lindsey and Karli. They ran out of the car but the cabbie ran after them telling them that he wouldn't accept our money. Apparently we accidentally gave him zloty (polish money) which means absolutely nothing to him. Oops!  He thought we were ripping him off, but we had been to 3 different countries last week with 3 different currencies. It didn't help that we only got 4 hours of sleep. They sorted everything out before I even came back outside. 

Fortunately, the bus didn't leave without us. We rushes upstairs and sat in the back row so we can sit together. We had a live commentator. 

First stop, Malahide Castle. It was beautiful. He allowed us 1.25 hours to go on a tour and explore. The castle was beautiful. We were put on a guided tour for free. We toured several rooms. We met 4 other teachers on the tour that were also on our bus tour. That was really weird. The rooms were brightly colored and had many pictures. In the large drawing room there were a few interesting items. First, there was a couch. It had a one person space, a two person space, and then another one person space. The two person space was for a courting couple and the one person seats were for aunts to sit and listen to the couple. Keeping an eye on them. The second interesting piece was a screen. It sorta resembles a music stand bit it was fully covered with a decorative outside. This was to put in front of the women's faces so their wax makeup wouldn't melt off.  

 The Castle

 Courting couch

Make-up melting shield

Back on the bus and we are starving. We hadn't had anything to eat since early that morning. Luckily, the next stop was a cute harbor with lots of food places. We walked toward the harbor looking for the cheapest place to eat. We eventually find a place with 8 euro fish and chips. We walk inside and sit down. We notice the menu has the same fish and chip meal for 4 euros more. We get up and go to the take away line. We get ours to go. We find a ledge in a parking lot and sit down to eat. I finish most of my meal before all of the birds descend upon us. They were at our feet, backs, and side begging for food. 

We finish and head toward the water. Oh my goodness! It was so beautiful. I was literally in a Pinterest picture. It was really windy, but really pretty. Mountains, the Scottish sea, and boats were all around. 

The 5 hour tour finished up back where it started. We hit an amazing gift shop. Food was next priority. We walked around to several shops but didn't find anything cheap enough for us. Finally we settle on a Mexican restaurant. We find a bench in the median of a busy street to people watch. We eventually got cold and shuffled to Starbucks. 

I got white hot chocolate. We sat in for free wifi and to get warm. I looked up specific directions to our hostel so we wouldn't get lost. 

Leaving Starbucks, we had a heading. We actually knew where we were going and it only took us 20 minutes!!! Wow! That is a big difference from 3 hours. We paid and got our room keys and luggage. Our rooms really weren't too bad. There were 3 bunk beds and we had our own bathroom.  We went to bed early, because we were extremely tired.

Saturday June 7

We slept in until 8:45. That was really nice. We got partly ready and headed downstairs for free breakfast. Toast and cookie things. Not too bad.  

Off to the hop on hop off tour. We walked to the pick up place. We got on and then we were off. the third stop was were we wanted to get off--Trinity College. We wanted to see the Book of Kells. This is an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels. We had to wait in line for 15 minutes. We get inside, buy our tickets, and head to the exhibition. There was a lot of reading.  It was very pretty with its gold colors and great calligraphy. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures.  Then we went to the actually library part. Holy cow! It was filled ceiling to floor with old books. The books were arranged by largest books on the bottom and smallest at the top. it was crazy that college students actually went into the library and checked books. After several pictures, we left toward the bus tour again. 

We found Eddie Rockets. It was like Steak 'n Shake. They came to take our order. I saw a meal deal and ordered that. Chicken strips with fries. A drink came with it. I ordered still water. The waiter said sorry we can't do that. We have coke, diet coke, fanta, ad sprite. I got wide eyed and said I can't do carbonation. The waiter sat and battled himself on whether to let me have it or not. He said he isn't allowed to but he will do it this one time. I was so happy I could get my water. I just can't believe it was that big of a deal. The chicken basket came. It was smaller than a kids meal and it looked like chicken nuggets instead of chicken strips. I was not a fan of that place. 

We finished out the tour and then headed to a tourism office.  We had a lot of time to kill and we wanted to see some Irish scenery.  We asked the people at the tourist office about getting to the coast. They said day tours were the only way to get exactly where we wanted. But he suggested a different place for us to go. He said go on the dart (local train service) to the opposite coast. 25 minute ride. We thought that was a good idea. 

We got to the train station, bought our tickets, and loaded up, bound for Dun Laoghaire.  We got on and are taken on a beautiful ride. There was water and beautiful coast. I couldn't contain my joy. It was suppose to rain today. It was 63 without a cloud in the sky. We couldn't have asked for better weather. 

The biggest oh my goodness--holy cow!!! This place was magnificent! It was so beautiful. Pinterest perfect town.  You could smell the sea when we hopped off the train-- I was in love. We immediately headed toward the harbor overlooking the Irish Sea. It was probably 1/2 mile out into the sea. We start walking, taking in this picturesque place. I was so happy we were by water! Our view on the left was blocked by this massive wall, but I noticed a tiny little opening. I rushed toward it. It was rocks leading to open water. I couldn't be happier. The others followed me. No one was down there with us. We were secluded and by the water. You could tell it was low tide because all of the rocks had algae and seaweed on them. I didn't care. I scaled the rocks and made my way to the waters edge. I almost slipped on the last rock and tumbled into the sea- but I saved myself right before my foot was submerged. I then bent down and out my arm in the Irish Sea. It was a magical moment. The water was a little chilly, but not cold enough to keep me out of it. I wanted so badly to jump in and swim. Instead I settled myself upon a rock that looked like the little mermaid rock and laid out in the sun. That was so relaxing sitting in the sun next to the sea. I really didn't want to leave. 

 The harbor 

 Irish Sea

 Little Mermaid Rock

Eventually, we continued down the dock thing and came upon an old light house. It was cute.  Not huge or really beautiful. We walked back toward land. I was sad, but we followed the shore line. There were paths right at the shores edge. The waves crashes upon our path but I was in love. We made it to the end of the line and there was a swimming hole. I was in awe. About 50 people were swimming in the 58-68 degree water (Thats what I guessed with my expert opinion). There were people lap swimming and children swimming.  I stood there a while just watching in envy, wishing I had brought my suit.

Food. We walked back along the shore and all of the food places were closed, except for a nice cream shop. I got a vanilla cone with a chocolate stick in it. That was so yummy. I liked it a lot. It was time for actual food. The shops were either too expensive or already closed. We eventually descended upon a Starbucks for actual food and free wifi. We sat in there for almost an hour. Abuse and use that free wifi. 

So close Starbucks, better luck next time

Back to Dublin. We made it into the train safely and back to Dublin. We decided to people watch for a while. Boy is that always fun. We found several interesting people. There were some hen parties, trollops, and creepers. We sat there for 45 minutes, then headed back to our hostel.

The start of our journey was a little rocky, but Dublin was great!  I truly couldn't begin to capture the beauty of the mountains, country side, and sea in my pictures.  The movie "P.S. I love you," which was shot in Ireland, was completely right when it talked about how green Ireland really was.  Ta and Cheers!

Pictures, Worship, and Lion King-- Oh my!

I was back in the classroom for my last day of observation.

I walk into the classroom and immediately put to work. I have to cut out candle flames and be an autocorrector on homework. These children did not spell "Building a Friendship Bridge" correctly, so I had to go back and add letters in.

Today was picture day. All of my cherubs came in with their nice clean uniforms and hair done up really nice. They all looked adorable. Since we had PE today, our class had pictures first. Students in my class were told to go and get any sibling they had in the building so they could take family shots. Some came back with older siblings, while others came back with younger ones.

After the sibling shots, they got to do individual shots. I was the lucky one who got to take them out in the hall and wait with them. I have a very rambunctious bunch. They were bouncing off the walls thanks to their lack of procedures and management in place. Eventually they all get though the line.

We had class wide worship when we were done by pictures. We started off by singing church songs (none that I knew, but I mouthed some random words to make it seem like I did). Then we lit a candle and had scripture and a mini lesson. Since all of my students are getting confirmed in the next few weekends, we talked about letting Jesus into our hearts and how you light up when the holy spirit enters you. To remind them of this, the students were to put together two colors of flame, glue their picture on the front, and write a prayer on the back.

PE was next on the agenda. We had to go outside because the gym was being occupied by the headmaster and Year 1 and 2 students. It was freezing outside. Children could either do football, relay races, or basketball. I was secretly hoping I could help with basketball because that is the only thing I really know something about. Luckily, the PE instructor let me have basketball. I head over to the court and realize that the basketball hoops have soccer (football) nets under them. That is where they are going to play soccer. He points me in the direction of a pole with a whole at the top and three on the sides. This was the basketball hoop. On the ground, instead of the court were circles surrounding the pole. I just went along with it and refereed the game. Even if I didn't understand the court, I still knew how the game was to be played. I think I did a pretty good job, given the circumstances. We all go back ins tide once the meeting in the gym is over. I was at the end of the line corralling the children. A worker shouts across the playground "Miss, can you help me?" I responded "Sure" and I walk toward him. Then he said that I don't think I could help him because he noticed my accent. Then he asked me why I would choose to come to Liverpool in such crappy weather. We continue gym in there. They pick up playing basketball--Still incorrectly.

From the gym, we go back to the room. The children change and I hang up all of their flames onto a bulletin board (#4 for me). Then it is time for lunch.

Picture taking was going on in our normal room, so we get shoved off into the library, which is being reconstructed. We spent our lovely 1.25 hour lunch in there freezing. The whole school was cold, and I was not dressed for it. The same guy that stopped me on the playground came into to do some work and realized the room was occupied.

I went back to my classroom early after lunch to see if there was anything I could help with. She told me that we were going to be working on Egypt booklets. I could handle that. Then she told me that I needed to work on a bulletin board with Abby, who is also in Year 4. They give us the supplies and we are off to work.

We arrive at a completely blank bulletin board. We had to put the background on, then the boarder, the title, the flames, and then decorate it the rest of the way. Literally from start to finish. This board was for confirmation. They told us what they envisioned for the board and we had to make their ideas into fruition. They wanted "Confirmation" on the top in a semi circle. It took us a while to actually get the word how we wanted it. After we were done putting that up, two different teachers walked my and told us that we spelled it wrong. I know we are from America, but I think we can spell confirmation.

That same worker guy approached us again. He asked if we knew what way someone went and then talked about how he needs to learn to multitask better. Then he begins to tell us that men need to use their 4% of estrogen that they have because it will make them better. He goes into a speech saying that women are actually superior. We didn't argue with him.

We continued with the bulletin board. Next we had to put 60 flames with the children's faces on them in the center. The teachers said they wanted it to look like a fire. I do my best to arrange the red, orange, and yellow flames to make a fire. I think I did a pretty good job. We finished the rest of the board with just 20 minutes left in the school day.

I go back to the room and help the "poorer" students (thats what my teacher refers to them as) with they Egypt fact book. I am only back a few minutes when my teacher puts me on the spot. She is pointing to a body of water and asks me what one it is. What the heck!? I could barely tell you all of the bodies of water in the united states. I stare at it for a while and she told me just to give a guess. I guessed Mediterranean Sea, and luckily I was right. All of my children clapped for me! Yay me!

We finish the day with prayer and then we are done. I talk to my teacher after class to confirm what my unit is for teaching. Both Abby and I get to teach a unit on America. Woo Hoo! That shouldn't be too bad.

The only thing that helped get through the day was the fact that I was going to see Lion King tonight. I have already seen the show before, but it was so good I couldn't wait to see it again.

It was just as good as I remembered. The costumes memorized me. I am so glad I got to see it again. Everyone I went with loved it too! 

Well off to get 4 hours of sleep until I wake up for my flight for Ireland! Ta and Cheers!

London, Destination London!

Wednesday May 28

That was the shortest flight ever. I read the entire time. Very good. We arrived in London roughly on time. We got our bags and then had to figure out how to get to our hostel.

We went to the info desks but they were all closed. We had to go to the south terminal and we were at the north. We took the shuttle and we were at the south terminal in no time. We went to the help desk. We asked the quickest way to our hostel. Apparently it was a train and then the tube. 

We had to go to a different place to purchase our tickets. The line took a while but not as bad as the louvre. Ha. While in line we heard that one line was closed because someone jumped in front of it. Not good. We got our tickets and then looked for when the next train would be departing. I heard over the loud speaker that the train approaching platform 4 was heading toward london bridge. That is what we needed. 

I grabbed the suitcase and headed toward the platform. Everyone else was not sure, but they followed me anyway. We hopped on the train right before the doors closed. Then we sat on the train for 30 min before we hit London bridge. 

We found the metro no problem. We rode it and got off without any problem. We asked for directions once we got off the metro. We headed toward her directions. About 10 minutes into our walk we realize we are in a residential area and completely lost. We see a lady across the street and flag her down. We ask her if she knows where it is. She whips out her iPhone and gets directions for us.  Yay for iPhones and people who actually have wifi!

We follow these new directions and they lead us in the opposite direction.  15 minutes later we are yet again lost. We decide to turn around because it was dark outside. Slightly sketchy. Scratch that a lot sketchy. On our way back we find the road that we should have taken. We try to reorient ourselves. A couple came up to us and asked if we were looking for the hostel. They pointed us in the direction. We head that way. After another 5 minutes we find the hostel. 

Not the sketchiest place we have stayed, free breakfast and a restaurant inside.  We will take it.  I had some sort of chicken parmesan minus spaghetti, plus ham.  I liked it.  

After dinner, we decided to go buy some towels and take a shower, yes buy towels 3 pounds each.  Jen, Lindsey, and I all hopped in the showers.  There were 4 stalls right next to each other.  Right in the middle of showering, the fire alarm goes off.  We all start freaking out and yelling.  We had no idea what to do.  The only thing that crossed my mind was a conversation I would have with my mother 'So mom, I am in a foreign country, standing outside my hostel in just a towel'  We all reach for our towels and clothes trying to get out the door.  Luckily it turned off-- it was just a false alarm. 

Thursday May 29

We start off the day by sleeping in.  How nice it was.  We woke up at 9:00.  At 9:30 I was partially ready when we went down for breakfast.  I had cereal, a croissant, and toast with some yummy jam.

We went back to the room, finished packing, and checked out.  I had the address for the next hostel and it said that it was an 11 minute walk away.  Not too bad.  We head out.  We arrive at our "destination".  It is a house in a residential area.  We are not sure what to do because there are no markings on the house or anything.  So we walk back to Palmer's Lodge (our first hostel)  to get wifi. 

There we ask the staff to look up the hostel for us so we could get directions.  The staff pull up the exact same place we arrived at earlier.  Karli calls and asks them if the hostel looks like a house.  We head back to where we just came from, but this time we go to the door.  A man walks out and starts talking to us.  He is staying at the hostel too.  No one is at the hostel to check us in.  No one answers the door or anything.  It is sooooo sketchy.  We sit outside for a long time.  No one can call because none of our phones have service, including the man.  The man walks up to someone on the street and asks them to help us.  They call, but don't get an answer.  Then another man walks up.  He tries calling the people and gets through.  They say that they are sending someone over.  Two more people show up.  Someone pulls up.  She ask for the person that called the asian guy says that it was him.  The lady picking him up asks if we have called to tell someone we were here.  No, we don't have phones that work!!!  She calls it in for us.  She says wait here until someone comes to get you.  What the heck?!?!  We wait some more.  A white creeper van pulls up.  We all look at each other with a look that says there is no way that we are getting in the van.  We ask them if they are part of the hostel and they said yes, but someone else was picking us up.  A few minutes later, a guy in his late 20's comes and asks for Karli X4.  Thats us.  He tells us to follow him.  We follow him to his car.  I know this all sounds really bad but we needed to get somewhere.

As he drives, he explains that there are several properties associated with this hostel chain.  They all just have that one address to meet and we get shipped off into our actual hostel later.  We arrive at our hostel.  It is literally a home.  It is huge and really nice.  There is a locked gate, a huge kitchen, living room, and many more things.  We fill out some paper work and we are on our way.  

We walk to Kilborn tube station and board the Jubilee line toward town.  We have this thing mastered now.  It takes no time to get there.  Once there, we had to find somewhere to eat.  We crossed the bridge and found a cute little tavern.  We walk in and order.  I had macaroni and cheese.  It was delicious.  

After our delicious and cheap meal, we head toward the london dungeon and london eye.  We find the dungeon but it is packed and the only tickets we could get were for really late.  We decide not to get them and walk around instead.  We walk all over.  We walked to Buckingham Palace and then it started pouring.  

We ran for cover in some trees, but after a few minutes we decided that we had to keep walking.  I wore my TOMS and they were soaked by the time we reach where we needed to be.  

We stop at a little waffle and ice cream shop to get out of the rain.  It was really nice.  I got a waffle with ice cream and chocolate on top.  So delicious.  I ate really slow to prevent me going outside.  We walked outside and saw a street performer.  He was sort of entertaining.  He dragged on the performance though.  He just needed to get to the point.  When we finish watching him, we head toward the london eye.  

The line doesn't take long at all.  Eventually we make it into our pod with 20 other people.  Gross.  We got to see the city.  I liked it a lot.  I got many good pictures.  

London eye done, we head for some souvenir shops.  We visit several and purchase things at most of them.  We then decide to go for dinner.  After walking around and not finding anything really good, we go back to the same place we had lunch at.  It was really good.  I had bangers and mash.  It is basically sausage and mashed potatoes.  I ate a lot today.  Probably not a good thing.

After dinner we head back for Waterloo station and back to our hostel.

Friday May 30

We decided to sleep in a little bit and head to the changing of the guard first thing in the morning. 

We woke up and are free breakfast at the hostel. I just has jam and toast. Not too bad. Then we headed toward the tube station bound for buckingham palace. We got there around 10. We thought just 30 min early. 

As 10:30 nears, the crowd began to grow. Two people who didn't speak English butted up against me. 10:30 comes and goes and nothing happens. Maybe it is at 11:00 we thought. Not a problem. We waited and more and more people showed up. It was getting crowded around us. 11 comes and goes   Then Jen speaks up and says that she thought the hangs happened at 11:30. Really?!? We have waited this long so we decided to wait some more. It was so crowded now. The people behind me kept saying excuse me. I grumpily answered back that I couldn't move. People were pushing trying to get up to the front. We tried to keep our ground.  At 11:30 finally things start to happen. I stick my arm with the camera through the fence to get some better pictures because our spot was kinda crappy. Then the people behind me scooted up and trapped my arm in the fence. I was really ticked at this point. My feet hurt and I had had enough human contact to last me a lifetime. We watched part of the ceremony but we left early because we got sick of everyone pushing on us. 

From there we headed to the bus tour. We had a rough guess of where it was, but the maps weren't that great. We wandered around for a long time before we found the information center. There we got our tickets validated and we were on our way. We sat down and looked for where our first stop would be. We decided St. James Cathedral. It was enormous and really pretty. We walk inside and take a few pictures. We then realize that it costs 16 pounds to go in. We leave. Next was food. We window shopped at some menus outside wverything was really expensive. Then we see a fish and chip place. 

We walk in and like the prices. We walk up to the counter to order. The guy asked if it was to go. We said no. So he said find a seat. We walk upstairs and find a table. We see the prices for sittig down to eat and they are double the take away prices. We head back downstairs to order take out. We all get cod and chips to go. We walk around with our boxes trying to find a place to sit and eat. We end up sittig at the cathedral outside. 

The tour takes us around to the tower bridge. We get off there to take some pictures. It is extremely crowded there too. We get back on the bus and ride until Westminster abbey. We get off no where near te abbey so we have to figue out which way to go. We finally figure it out and arrive at parliament. Take more pictures. We walk around parliament and realize we were here yesterday. We take more pictures at a phone booth and head to a different stop. 

Next was the pool!  I could hardly contain my joy on the ride. Others were falling asleep. This station is huge. We follow the signs and arrive at Olympic park. Oh my goodness!!! It is beautiful! There is a very nice shopping center and of course the bean! My pool.

Look at how beautiful it is!

We had Mexican food for dinner. I got a quesadilla. I has to eat it really fast so I could make my swim time. I finish and leave the others at the table. I basically run toward the pool. I was so stinking excited. They let me in and I am on my way. I get into the locker rooms. They are nothing like I have seen before. 

I walk into the pool area and I am in awe. It is beautiful. A lovely 50 meter pool and I had it for 1 hour. I brought my phone in to take pictures. I snap one and then get yelled at by the lifeguard. Then another one comes around and tells me I shouldn't have my phone on deck. I went back to my locker and put my phone away. 

Back into the pool, I hop into lane 4. A guy is in there, but I don't care. The water feels nice.  Not too hot, not too cold.  I notice a sign on the block.  It said to swim clockwise.  Well, that answers a question I have had since I was little--You swim in lanes like you drive on a road, no matter what country you are in.  It honestly took me a while to actually stay on the left side without swerving into the other side and hitting the lane line.  Also, it was a 50 meter pool.  This was my first time swimming in a 50 meter pool.  I liked it but I was thrown off a little bit, especially on my backstroke.  The guy in my lane was not too fast, even though the lane was reserved for fast people.  I didn't mind.  I was just trying to soak it all in.  

We had an uneventful ride back to our hostel, but I was still so happy, for not only being able to swim, but swim in the 2012 Olympic pool! 

Saturday May 31

We decided to sleep in again today.  We woke up at 9:10.  That was really nice.  After breakfast, we headed toward the Tower of London. The tower is huge and it is more like a castle than a tower.  

We made our way through several parts of the castle including the torture room, the crown jewels, and the beasts.  The torture room was really interesting.  I liked seeing the actual torture instruments.  There were two different locations for two different crown jewels.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures at either.  The room with the beasts was interesting.  They held so man different animals, like lions, tigers, polar bears, grizzly bears, monkeys, and many other animals.

 The Tower of London

Torture Room 

Pictures of the actual jewels are frowned upon

Then came the part I looked forward to the most, the actual crown jewels.  There was obviously a line to see this.  It took awhile, but it was beautiful outside so I didn't care.  Once inside we wound around corridors with images, quotes, and movies about the jewels.  They were really interesting.  I got to see Queen Elizabeth II coronation.  Then came the jewels.  Oh my goodness!!  They were beautiful and shinny!  

We left soon after that.  Food was on our mind.  We found Subway.  Something familiar and cheap.  This was the first time I had actually seen Ranch since I got here.  They don't use it here.  I don't think they understand what 6" is either.  My sandwich looked rather small.  

Back on the tube headed toward Madame Tussaud's.  We arrive an hour early.  Since we were right at Baker Street, I thought I would take advantage.  My inner nerd was geeking out again.  Hello Sherlock!  I went to 221B Baker street and took several pictures.  

The name is Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221B Baker Street

Madame Tussaud's was next.  I was really excited for some great photo opportunities.  Once we got inside there were so many fricken people.  We would get in line to take pictures with a 'person' and then people would cut in line.  Not cool robert frost!  We had a lot of fun exploring and taking pictures.  

Dinner time!  We went to Pret something.  We had seen them at almost every corner in London, so we decided to stop.  They had sandwiches and stuff like that.  All prepackaged stuff.  It cost more to dine in than carry out.  That made me mad, but we stayed anyways.  I had a ham, cheese, and tomato croissant.  It was good and then I had a fruit bowl consisting of oranges, kiwi, blueberries, and pomegranate.  I was so happy to get some fresh fruit!

With some daylight left, we decide to head to Kings Cross station.  Specifically, Platform 9 3/4.  Lindsey and I stood in line for our pictures.  The guy running the pictures was really funny and entertaining.  I told Lindsey to jump in her picture.  She did and I captured the most amazing shot ever!  Once done with that, we see that Karli and Jen found the others group of Ball State students that were in London.  We talked for a while and then decided it was late and we should probably leave.  We made it back to our hostel and crashed.

Sunday June 1

We woke up a little earlier than we had been, in order to make our train.  We gather up all of our things and head toward the tube.  We are fine getting to Waterloo station, but once there, we couldn't find the train we needed to be on.  We went around asking people where we needed to be.  Apparently, we got off at the wrong station and we needed to get back on the tube and get on at a different station.

At the new station, we wait for 20 minutes to see what platform we had to get on.  An announcement came on saying that the train we wanted to take now had less seating, so not everyone would get on board.  As soon as we knew what platform we were departing from, we booked it to the train.  As we run up, the doors close, so we had to use a different one.  The doors shut on me twice.  Literally shut on me.  I was squished in the door.  Despite some set backs, we made it back to Liverpool, retrieved our large suitcases, and drug them up that awful spiral staircase again.  

After visiting 3 countries, it was time to head back to Liverpool.  It was a great week, but I am now exhausted!  Ta and Cheers!