Last night I was asleep quite early due to the jetlag. Also due to the jetlag I woke up ridiculously early this morning. I managed to get back to sleep after a while, but I was still up and out of bed before 7. Our stay here includes breakfast, so I took my kindle and sat by myself in a corner of the dining room and ate way too much food. I felt like I really needed it though, like I was still refuelling on proper food after the flight.
I met up with the other girls for our trip into the city. After walking out the door of the hotel, we realised we didn't actually know where we were going... The excitement was over-riding most other things at this point. After a quick conference with the receptionist, we wandered down the street to Watford Junction to catch the overground in to London Euston. By the time we got to the train station my face was numb and my ears hurt. We were a little excited and a little apprehensive with the realisation that the weather now is pleasant spring weather, and that our poor little noses will have to adjust to being so cold outdoors.
The train ride in to London was entertaining. It was so packed we were squished in standing up with the locals, which included two young gentlemen who were so happy and in such a good mood. My good eavesdropping skills (of the conversation happening directly behind my head) informed me that they had had an extremely good night the night before, and that they were in no fit state to return to work on Monday, because they would just spend 8 hours moving a mouse around and fake typing. They were laughing so often and so hard at their memories of the night before and their own wit during the conversation that they were crying. This, of course, set us girls off too, however a few stern older men among the other close passengers refused to be amused. I was on the verge of offering the two young men tissues, but I thought that might tip them over the edge completely given that they could barely stand from laughing so much. It was really nice to see people so genuinely happy.
Once in Euston station we transferred onto the tube (insert lame tourist excitement here), where I got a picture with a man who was asleep, sprawling across a few seats. We went across to Waterloo station, which in itself is so big there are shops and cafes, complete with a busker singing the song. From here we walked back out into the cold and over to the London Eye. Man that thing is huge. No way would you get me up there! But some fun Eye-hat selfies were taken, and the girls made the decision to come back and ride it when we move over here (the line was rather long). We walked along the river front (cue more famous-landmark-selfies), past the aquarium, and up to the bridge across to Big Ben. In a random coincidence, the entire bridge was closed to traffic due to a marathon happening through the city. This allowed us plenty of time and space to look around and take more pictures. We stayed and watched a bit of the marathon, and it really struck me how supportive the crowd were. Every time someone went past, every single spectator cheered them on (not just a polite clap either, there was a lot of noise and fuss made for every participant). I've never seen the like before, it was lovely!
We met up with one of the girl's friends who is living and teaching here now, and made the decision to walk over to Buckingham Palace. We ended up following the path of the marathon, so we got to see even more of it, and the feel of the crowd was electric. I really enjoyed looking at all the architecture along the way - so different to back home! - and we lusted over the units with their little courtyards and views of St James's Park. Through St James's Park we went, admiring the trees, flowers, birds and squirrels.
I had a bit of a giggle at the people sitting on the park benches along the paths, underneath the hug trees - they really were like scenes straight out of a movie or tv show! We also had a giggle at a duck who decided to be very offended by the other ducks standing near-by, to the point of chasing them away (ducks are ridiculous when they're cranky!). The area around Buckingham Palace was also closed off and re-directed for the marathon, but we found our way through. It was a bit disappointing to discover the truth behind the stories that the guards are inside the gates now, but we did manage to get some pics anyway (yet more selfies!). It was so surreal to be standing in a place you see on the screen so often. The Palace is so beautiful and so mysterious - we all resolved to go for a proper tour when we're here later in the year.
Back through St Jame's we went, over toward Piccadilly Circus. This was a different path to the one we took in, and included patches of apparently-random daffodils that were popping up here and there amongst the lawn. Out into the street, with many an excited exclamation at various buildings (including The Ritz!). We had a (not quite so) quick stop in Fortnum and Mason for a bit of shopping (any of my friends will tell you of our love of tea!), where I bought a cute little tote bag. This tote bag is in fact a 'bag for life', meaning that if it gets damaged or worn at any stage in the future, I simply take it back and they replace it with whatever design is new at the time! A very handy investment for when we live here I think!
We stopped for lunch at Jamie's Diner, which is dinosaur themed and adorable. The food was really good (I had the beef burger, sweet potato fries and a vanilla milkshake with strawberry syrup), and the rest was well deserved. From there we went on to Trafalgar Square, which was unfortunately packed with the aftermath of the marathon. We didn't get too many tourist-y photos here because it was so busy, and we decided not to go in to the museum. At this stage we figure we need to head back to the hotel to start preparing for the actual reason why we are here - our day of job interviews tomorrow.
The friendly dinosaur companion of Jamie's Diner
Overall it was a jam-packed day (I almost bought some jam from Fortum and Mason too lolol), but we got to see a few of the main sights and had a very good stretch of our poor transit-tightened legs (over 15000 steps in total!).
Tonight will be prep for tomorrow. We were meant to have some sort of briefing this evening, but we've received no information about it, so we will head down into Watford for dinner later on. Tomorrow we will be up and out the door by 6.30am for a day of interviewing with schools, trying to impress them enough that they want to hire us. Wish us luck!
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