Day 16

Today Kelly's friend Katie came to London from Bristol to hang out and show us around town. We bought an all day train ticket so we could hop from one place to another with our guide (who doesn't like walking apparently). First, she took us to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen is presently (the flag on top of the palace is at half-mast if she is away). It was really cool to see the guards so stiff, marching back and forth every now and then so as to not pass out! It was a pretty hot day, don't know how they can stand there so still in a stuffy uniform holding a heavy rifle, and not die. We walked through St. James Park to get there, and that was just beautiful! There are so many cool parks just chillin in the middle of this big city, a nice place to sit and relax and get away from the hustle and bustle every now and then. After Buckingham, we went to the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. Passed by the London Bridge as well. We got talking about Fergie and how in her video for "London Bridge" she actually has Tower Bridge in the background. Shocking, right? Especially with her reputation of being an educated scholar...who spells "Tasty" wrong in a song just so that it will rhyme better. Oh to be stupid and get paid for it! Haha.

We walked around Oxford Street (the shopping area) for a bit, had a nice lunch in a small cafe, and then we were off to find Kelly's one souvenir desire: Urban Decay makeup. The first department store we came to didn't have it, and Katie just wanted to keep looking...but Mallory said she'd go ask the girl at the Chanel counter. Katie, being the posh epitomy of a British snob that she is (and we love her for it!), was completely embarrassed by the fact that she would even THINK to go ask the "Chanel girl" let alone actually do it! So she was out of there in a flash, and we met her outside. Silly Americans that we are, wouldn't know that such an act is forbidden...but we got what we wanted and knew where to find the makeup counter we were looking for. Debenhams. Kelly was ecstatic about the makeup, and we were all ecstatic about getting ice cream after!

London is not as dirty as we had expected, but it's still not as clean as we're used to. We discovered that trash bins are very few and far between in this city...thus why people just throw their garbage in the street...they probably get sick of holding it, not knowing when they will find a bin! So we asked Katie why there are no bins and she said that it's because people would put bombs in them. Hmmm, hadn't thought of that. But makes sense...and I guess they've just settled for dirty streets rather than getting blown up!

We got back to the hostel and had a short nap before getting up to play with makeup and go down to the bar/club they have in the hostel. We went to find food while Katie and Matt went to get their drink on. Funny thing is, when we got back...sober as we were...it seemed we were having more fun dancing and being crazy than the drunkies were, just sittin in the corner taking pictures! Go figure! After that got boring, we went to play a game of pool (someone had told Matt that there was only one cue stick...and that other people were already using it, so we had to wait for a while just to start...then later that night, come to find 3 other cue sticks lying around! Ha! Someone just must hate us or something). The teams were Mallory and Kelly against Katie and Matt...and...WE WON!!!

Katie went to bed pretty early, and Matt disappeared, so we just went in to the lounge area to people-watch and get our giggle on. We were talking about parenting and breastfeeding for some odd reason, and even more oddly...it attracted the attention of this Aussie named Wayne, whom, quite frankly, we couldn't figure out if he was gay or straight. He was a character nonetheless and invited himself over for a chat. I was actually convinced he was gay until this cute Welsh boy came over to join the conversation, and Wayne got all sorts of jealous. Hahaha did he really think he had game while talking about breastfeeding? Hahaha. Gareth, the Welshman, was cute but an annoying drunk...one of those that knows everything about everything and has to constantly be talking...yeah. So we got bored and went to bed (at 5am). Good thing church isn't till 2:30pm!!!