Londons bright (and also bleak) history

Hey everybody!!

The last two days have flown by. We have literally been covering as much of the city as physically possible before we depart on Monday Morning.

Steve covered a lot of what we did yesterday, so I'm gonna pick up where he left off. Last night our good friend Tristan, a former co-counselor of ours and a London native met up with us here in town. We met him down where he is studying, Imperial College in South Kensington. We got some drinks with his hilarious friends and caught up for awhile. It was great to see him and also nice to experience "local" London away from the droves of tourists.

Today we set our sights on royalty, and hit up the changing of the guard ceremony at the famed Buckingham Palace. We followed the advice of Rick Steve's Europe guide and claimed a spot on the Victoria monument right in front of the palace and had a great view of the whole thing. The whole ceremony was...fun... not amazing... but definitely a required part of any respectable London itinerary. Our afternoon was spent relaxing in St. James park in central London, playing hacky sack and laughing our asses off.

Later, we toured the underground bunkers from which Winston Churchill directed the country during world war two. As an American, it is so easy to forget how terrifying that it must have been to live in London at the time. Facing constant bombing from the German air force and an almost certain invasion, Churchill instilled pride and confidence into the country from down in the bunkers. It was a fascinating look into something so recent in history.

This evening, at the generosity of my parents, we went to see a musical in the West End here in London. It was called "We Will Rock You" set to the music of Queen. It was really awesome, and we all forgot how much Queen meant to the British in the 80s and 90s- the audience was going nuts pretty much the whole time. It was a really great experience.

Now some updates:

-line of the day: "ay yo Akbar, get this man some jeans!" said by a store clerk to his employee while steve was shopping for pants (he messed up and only packed one pair that fits)

-played Hackey in a place called "Dean's yard" in the shadow of Westminster abbey (we found the name highly amusing)

-while taking a picture a random asian dude took our picture, apparently amused at our poses.

-Sami Marx has been trying to throw us off the trail the past few days, suggesting non-amazing sights and less-than-absolutely-delectable-markets. Nice try Sami!

Gotta run! Talk to you soon and enjoy the pics.



Changing of the guards





Jews at a church (Westminster Abbey)




Dean in London!