London day 1 and 2

Riki

So.... here we are! I can not believe that we finally
arrived. When the flight attendant/stewardess
gave us the boarding passI told myself: "here we
go!".

"Here we go!"

I couldn't almost sleep tonight, it was already
eight o'clock in the evening and I hadn't still
packed my bag/ suitcase: the raincoat, the
umbrella, my favourite pair of walking/hiking
boots, t-shirts, jeans and underwear, a lot of
underwear... anyway, we'll have to wash our
clothes at least a couple of times...

We've had to check our suitcases because
they were too big to be hand/carry-on
luggage and when we arrived to Heathrow
airport we had to wait almost one hour for
our checked luggage. It's such a big airport!
But we were not really tired because it was a
direct flight (not even a three-hour flight).

The departuretime was 13:30 p.m. and the
arrival time was 15:00 p.m. (local time) so we
had to set our clocks backwards. That is the
beginning of a long list of differences in this
country... but I'm ready!

Lisa

Today, was a long day... We are in the hostel now, in the centre of
London!!! We chose this hostel because it was placed in the heart of
Soho, the bohemian London and it's going to be funny....

London is a really big city, and it's the most populous city in the United
Kingdom. The metropolitan area has over 13 million inhabitants, three
times the population of Madrid! We took the Piccadilly Line to Oakwood
and we stopped in Piccadilly Circus, the nearest stop to our hostel. The
London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the
world and it's called the Tube. It's really big but we were lucky because we
didn't have to change at any station... anyway, I had time to take a lot of
pictures :)

The neighborhood where we are going to stay these days is very lively
and attractive. There a lot of coffee shops, cinemas, pubs and quirky
shops. And a great alternative nightlife... I love it!!

Quique

I knew it was not going to be easy... When we took the plane in Madrid
Barajas airport, there were 1264 kilometres long from London, but when we
arrived to Heathrow airport we were 786 miles from Madrid (1 kilometer is
equivalent to 0.6214 miles). Then I looked at my watch: 16:30 P.M. But it was not
16:30 p.m. anymore, it was 15:30 p.m... When we finally arrived to the Metro, it
was not the Metro anymore, it was called the Tube.

And at last, when we arrived to the ticket office one euro was not one euro
anymore, it was one Pound! So, we went to the Travel Information Center
placed in the underground station and they told us where the Currency
Exchange Office was...Peter, the man who was working there. explained us
that 1 pound equals to 1.25 euro. Too many changes for the first day! Luckily I
have my conversion calculator...

DAY 2

Quique

We set the alarm clock at eight o'clock in the morning but we
slept till nine because we were really tired because of the trip...
so we had to hurry up because the breakfast time finished at
half past nine.

English people get up really early in the morning! Today it was
the first day and we went to visit the side of London that we had
already seen a thousand times in pictures and films: The Big Ben
and The Thames river! Our first stop was Buckingham Palace
because Lisa wanted to film the Changing of the Guard and use
this video to make a performance with us. so Riki and I would
have to learn the movements and make a Copy of them later...

Alice, the woman from the reception desk told us that it took
place everyday at 11:30 a.m. and it could last around 45 minutes. I
thought it was going to be boring: 45 minutes!, but we liked it a
lot, they looked like little toy soldiers

The Buckingham Palace is the residence of
the royal family, a great mansion surrounded
by the Buckingham Palace Garden, the largest
private garden in the city. That means that
Queen Elizabeth II lives there! I wouldn't mind
to live there...

Riki

First day - first full English breakfast: bacon, sausages and
eggs. I didn't have time to taste the "beans on toast" because
we woke up a little bit late and we had to take a quick
breakfast. but I'll do it tomorrow! Today we went everywhere on
foot. I put on my walking boots and we went to the City of
Westminster. We spent 45 minutes imitating the movements of
the Royal Guard and we were so tired that we decided to go to
Hyde Parkto eat a sandwich, they call it "lunch time"...

Then, we went to the English Parliament, the Palace of
Westminster! We went across the Thames river and we saw the
Parliament and the Big Ben.

There is also another tower called the Victoria Tower and a
huge gothic church: The Westminster Abbey, the burial site
for English monarchs... So. when they die, they stay in the
neighborhood!

The Parliament contains over 1100 rooms, but we only visited the Lords
Chamber (the red one, which is used for the most important national
ceremonies) and the Commons Chamber (the green one and less
luxurious.... which is the meeting place of Members of Parliament).

When we went out we were really tired! We met Nicola, an Italian guy who
was studying Politics at University and he was studying for his next exam.
He explained us that only Members of the Lords are allowed to enter into
the Lords Chamber, but otherwise, the monarch never comes into the
Commons Chamber. A place for everyone and everyone in his place! He
told many interesting things..

Lisa

I'm exhausted! We walked a lot... London is a big city! but, luckily it was
sunny and we could sit in Hyde Park under the sun, there were a lot of
people! I've filmed my first video: the Changing of The Guard. I’m going to
download my pictures.

Quique and Riki were practicing the choreography a lot. I'm going to make
a good film! I also took a lot of photos, the best views of the city. The
Parliament is an amazing building that lies on the bank of the River
Thames. The building was built in the eleventh century an it was
destroyed two times by fire! Although, the new palace seems quite old
anyway... Nicola seems a nice guy. He had an Erasmus grant and he has
been living in London for one year, he knows everything from the city. He
promised us that he would show us funny places in London this weekend.
I'm going to download my pictures. I'll continue writing tomorrow, we have
a lot of things to do!