London

Finally getting around to posting these. We had an especially long bus ride from Munich to Venice so lots of writing was done, enjoy! 

I felt at home as soon as I saw London, it wasn't only that I was finally in an English speaking country but there was something about the building style and shops that also reminded me of home. There was also a lot about London I loved because it was completely new to me, yet familiar. When I went to Kensington it reminded me of a Jane Austen novel with all the beautiful (and expensive) town houses. Webminster Abby was lovely because it was exactly like I saw on tv. I always wanted to hear the choir in real life and it definitely lived up to my expectations. You can go in for services for free so I didn't need to pay or anything. I also loved the sandwiche and coffee shops. My favourite was pret-a-manger (ready to eat in French). It had a good selection of sandwichs that were freshly made that day as well as chips, some soups and, tea and coffee, of course. I think I ate lunch there everyday. It was sort of magical and surreal to see things I'd only seen in the movies or photos in real life. Things were so much bigger than I imagined them and I kind of felt like I was in a movie.

The hostel we stayed in could've been better, but we chose something at the last minute. It was in an old run down tavern. I thought it had a lot of character, but Gabe seemed less than impressed. The beds were comfortable enough, although it did lack atmosphere. Still the staff was very helpful and friendly. The first girl I met was a New Zealander and the first thing she said to me was oh your Canadian, I love Canadians. So I think we got off to the right start. 

It was very nice and quiet before Gabe came, I realized she probably wouldn't have the patience for wandering around a museum for a day so I tried to get lots of museum time in before she arrived. The museums in London were probably my favourite. They were free and just as good as museums I've seen in other cities. The best one in my opinion was the Victoria and Albert Museum. I felt like I was walking around someone's (very large and very grand) home. Unfortunately I ran out of time when I was there so I couldn't see everything. I tried to fit the natural history museum into the same day (also amazing, my favourite was the earth section and the sea creatures). 

When Gabe arrived I took her around to the palace first, after dropping off her heavy load of course. Unfortunately we never saw the queen (she wasn't home), but we did see lots of interesting birds (Pelicans!) and I took her to prete a manger (which she approved of). She had a little bit of a hard time stomaching the price since the pound is about double the Canadian dollar right now. I had to point out that yes it is more but Londoners are also going to have higher incomes to match the higher living cost. Plus London is just expensive. 

I managed to cut costs by buying the subway pass (Oyster card) and not eating out a lot. We did have some interesting food in London besides prete a manger. I ate Indian food, which was different than home, but still delicious. I wa happy too because even though it cost s little more I managed to get two meals out of it. We also tried the fish and chips. Gabe was especially sad to see most chip shops had premade food kept under a heater. The chips were chips, you can't really do those wrong, but the fish didn't taste fresh and the batter had lost its crunchiness, it was basically stale. 

We did have one delicious (although expensive) meal in a pub at kings cross. We both got meat pies and mashed potatoes with kale and a beer of course! Definitely the best meal in London. The other really good meal was classic English breakfasts and bread and cheese from the market in the park. 

Just as the weather started to get bad it was time to go to Paris, where to say the least we really started to have an adventure!