I underestimated London

I am currently in London and so far it is exceeding my expectations. It's beautiful and has a lot of life to it! London wasn't really one of those cities I was dying to go to but thought, 'It's London! You can't go to Europe and not go to London.' So I put it on the to-do list but boy am I glad I did now. I love it! It's huge and everywhere there is something to see and enjoy. I arrived on February 1st from the west of England planning to meet Savannah at the airport but when she told me the date she was departing Canada neither of us thought about the time change so she was actually arriving on the 2nd. Thankfully we realized this before I got to the airport but my bus ticket was already booked so I headed that way anyway where my friend, Kelsey from Parksville was waiting for me. She had the day off from work so it actually worked out really nicely to be able to hang out with her for the day. She took me to Camden Town where they have the coolest market ever. And on the street they have buildings with very large and odd objects hanging from them like shoes and a spaceship. It's a good thing the dresses there only came in tiny little asian sizes otherwise I would have bought every one. And we went to this one store that you really have to see it to believe but basically, if you were from space and you liked flourescent colours you would shop here. It's wild and people actually wear this stuff! We then headed to an area called Covent Garden, no it is not a garden like I thought. It is another shopping area and a popular place for street performers/street theatre. We saw a very talented man, on a very tall unicycle while juggling big knives. He had a way with the crowd and was really fun to watch. Afterwards, though we sat down for a bit and were oh so priveledged to hear this man mouth off at Covent Garden for giving him barely any money as he chucked his money to the ground. I would have taken it.  It's February, guy, and half the crowd were kids. Geez!  The next day Savannah arrived and slept all day and all night so I was a computer nerd for a day and watched some TV. The day after that she was feeling normal so we hit the city and saw all the touristy sites like Trifalgar square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Tower of London and London Bridge. It was a beautiful sun shiny day so it was perfect for sightseeing and taking photos although my camera was running out of battery so I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked - story of my life. For those of you who know me well, you are probably rolling your eyes. Yesterday I took Savannah to the market, did that whole thing and then we had our homemade sandwich supper in Trifalgar square right before our big show! Yep, we saw "Thriller", a Michael Jackson broadway show (or west end show in London I am told) and it was amazing! Well, the dancing wasn't the best I've seen but I was astounded by the singing. Wow! Not bad for my first broadway. Today we went to Nottinghill, not really knowing much about it except that the movie Nottinghill was filmed there but we had no idea where the famous spots were so we walked along and found ourselves at Portobello Market. It was so busy, I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer but it was super cool.  About half way through I looked down a street and saw a shop called, "Books for Cooks" so I was intrigued and we headed down. Before we entered I looked to my left and lo and behold there was, "The Travel Bookshop". I wondered if that was THE Travel Bookshop and when we saw girls taking pictures of themselves outside the shop we knew it was the one! That was pretty exciting! After Nottinghill we went to the Imperial War Museum and got a little history in. We didn't have a whole lot of time but the time we did have was interesting. The tanks on the main floor and the planes hanging from the ceiling were pretty impressive. Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new journey - no more english speaking countries! It's time to think double time. We are heading to Paris next! I am not looking forward to pitpocketers, creepy men, and a foreign language but I am hoping the crepes, delicious pastries and the Eiffel Tower will weigh out all the negatives. 'Til next time, au revoir!