Days 1-3 in Britain!

Hi Folks!

Day One

So, you are probably wondering what I have been up to since Sunday. Dad and I left Stettler Sunday morning and headed for the Calgary airport. On my way out of Stettler we stopped at Tim Hortons for my last Double Double of the year. When we got to Calgary airport we met up with Kathleen and her parents, checked in, and went to Montana's for lunch. After lunch we went through security and we were on our way!

We jumped on our flight and said goodbye to Canada for the next 365 days. The next 8 hours was the longest flight I have ever been on. By the way, I am still recovering from my jet lag. When we arrived in Manchester at 7 AM (we got there a little early) or, 12 AM Alberta time, we had a little bit of time before catching our train so Kathleen and I had breakfast and played crib. We spend our next 2 1/2 hours of the day on the train to London. When we got to London we took "the Tube" to the station closest to our hostel.

After settling into our Hostel we started to walk around London to see the sights. That afternoon we went to Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and the Tower of London. By the way, Tower Bridge is usually mistaken for London Bridge. Tower Bridge is the one with the towers. Who'd a thunk eh? By this time the day was winding to a close so we headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

Day Two

That morning we got up, had breakfast, and hea

ded out to see more of London. This time we headed the opposite direction out of our hostel and visited a few more places. We started of by walking down the river Thames and headed towards our first destination-- Big Ben and the Parliament buildings. We took a tour of the parliament building and saw the Lords chambers, the MP chambers (can you believe they have more than 800 MP's in the UK?), and the Great Hall (up in the rafters they found old tennis balls believed to be dated back as far as Richard the First).

After leaving the Parliament building we walked through the park and headed towards Buckingham Palace (the Queen's house is a pretty nice place). After Buckingham Palace we went for lunch and then bought tickets for the London Aquarium and the London Eye. We went to the aquarium first, and saw sharks, octopus, and many other sorts of sea life. After the Aquarium we walked across the street to the London Eye. The London Eye, if you don't know, is basically a giant ferris wheel. "Eye" is a very good name for it as it gives you a birds eye view of all of London.

When we got off the London Eye we headed back down the river Thames and headed back to the hostel. On the way back we stopped at a Pizza Express. I ordered the Romano Pizza, which is just like our pizza only a lot thinner and wider and no tomato sauce. When the waitress brought it out it wasn't cut into pieces and I was very unsure what to do. Don't get me wrong, it was one of the best pizza's I've ever had, but since I didn't know that it was customary to cut your own pizza with a knife and fork I had to tear it apart with my fingers, and I could just see all the Brits staring at me wondering what this crazy Canuck was doing. After supper we continued our way to the hostel, got to the hostel, and went to bed.

Day 3

Yesterday we got up, had breakfast, took the train to Bowling Green Lane and had our orientation with BUNAC. In orientation we talked about banking, finding jobs, finding accommodations (no problem for us, because we already had one), traveling on tours, phones, and National Insurance numbers. From orientation we headed to get our bank accounts opened. Kathleen and I were both lucky enough to be able to open accounts right away. After the bank we headed for the train, and departed for Suffolk. An hour and a half later we arrived in Melton. Our new landlady, Hilary, picked us up from the train station and took us to our new home. We dropped off our bags and then went for supper with Kathleen's new boss Karin and her family. Karin's parter Bean and and I talked a lot about Rome and different traveling, while her son Alexander made us supper (which was a delicious chicken breast with banana inside) and told me a lot about his local Rugby club. After supper we had tea, talked some more, and then Hilary came and picked us up and brought us back home.

Well, thats my first 3 days in the UK. So, until next time,

Rocky.