First Real Day in London

After a relatively sleepless night, a rather unsatisfying breakfast and a long orientation session, we were finally given the opportunity to see London as the world sees it. We got on our coach (charter bus) and were given a very thorough tour of everything in our path from Hampstead all the way around London, ending in Trafalgar Square. The entire experience was surreal. I have been so used to seeing all these places in pictures and on TV or in movies that seeing the real things didn't really have as astounding an effect as one would think. I knew the places were real and were in front of me, but they seemed so oddly fantastic and unreal that it was hard to really appreciate their presence. The tour was very brief and very fast, so most of these famous places were looked at for mere seconds before we moved on. In all, we saw: Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Regents Park, The London Eye, The Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Harrods, Tower Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, The Strand, County Hall, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, Covent Garden, Borough Market, The Royal Albert Hall, Baker Street (where there is a Sherlock Holmes Museum) and of course, the Thames river. I got some good pictures of most of these places, however, my camera's battery died towards the end of the tour and so I was left to borrow a friend's camera to take the dozens of pictures that I wanted.
St. Paul's Cathedral was our one stop during the tour. The building is enormous and very impressive. The effects of the World War II bombing of London can still be seen on the walls; there are depressions and cracks in the wall at various places. While at the Cathedral, we experienced our very first rain in London! It was misting this morning when we left for breakfast, but this was real rain. It was very light and only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was enough to get us wet.
After the tour ended at Trafalgar Square, we proceeded to The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant for lunch. It was a really neat restaurant/pub. I was very experimental and tried a local dish- bubble and squeak. Basically it's mashed potatoes and cabbage mixed together and the mixture is baked. It's a mix between a quiche and a casserole. It was delicious and cheap. I also had to take advantage of the fact that it was a pub and ordered myself a very safe Captain Morgan's and Coke. It didn't do anything coupled with the food but I was thrilled not to have been carded.
After lunch, 4 of us set out to explore the area. We went in search of a Marks & Spencer to exchange currency. We passed through Regents Street, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and Oxford Street on our way to the store. The city was packed with tourists of all nationalities. The streets were lined with clothing stores and stores that sold fashion accessories. It took a lot not to walk into the several stores that had sales going on. After M&S, we walked around the area some more, dodging the rain as much as possible and having no real purpose in mind. We ultimately decided on visiting Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, but a crowded, hot, slow tube ride didn't give us enough time to do the place justice. So we returned to Hampstead via bus, a double decker one, shopped for dinner at a local grocery and made our way back to campus, incredibly tired and sore from the day's work.
And now to try and relax from the day, maybe get some sleep tonight, and not miss home too much.