Thursday August 2nd, 1007

Thursday August 2nd, 2007

We got up at 6am, and headed out to the town of Calais. There we dropped our car off, and got picked up by a big tour bus and began our trip to Engand! Poor Ed, our old man tour guide, had to say everything in like 5 differeng languages. Between each translation he'd let our a sigh, a grunt, and clear his throat. We were known as "ah, Canadians". We were going to cross the North Sea to England by Ferry, but there wasnt one available for today, so instead we decided to take the tunnel under the water. Shelby was dissapointed because we thought we'd be driving, but instead we drove onto a train carrt, and a huge train pulled us through the tunnel at 140m/hr with 6500hp. It was an average of 35meters below sea level, but closer to England, it drops to 75meters. We got to London at 10:30am France Time, 9:30am England time. Shelby saw a red phone booth, and she was basically on my lap trying to catch a picture of it, after a huge strain, she barely got a picture of it. Then we turned a corner and there was a line of 9 of them in a row, 3 meters apart. The bus was silent, and Shelby and I burst out laughing. They bus dropped us off, and we headed out to explore Loooondon. We visited Lizzy's Castle (Buchingham Palace), Big Ben, Trefalgar Square, National Art Musium, The Harbour, Picadily Circus, Cleopatra's Needle, St. James' Palace, Westminster Bridge, House Of Parliament, Covent Garden, and we had lunch in a Canadian Memorial Park. We were eating on a park bench infront of this flat statue thinger. We decided to go play on it, and pull eachother down the slope. After doing so for like...15minutes while lots of people drove by, mom came and was like, "this is a war monument, you cant play on here". Sure enough there was a large plaque that we must have stepped right on that said "Canada Memorial. As A Mark Of Respect Please Keep Off The Monument". Woopsie. Siri fed this one pigeon so many waffles, im surprised it didnt burst and die in front of us. We went back and peered through the gates of the Buckingham Palace and stared at the guards who didnt smile. I would be so good at that job. We walked around this park for awhile, and all of a sudden Siri screamed. A bird pooped on her head, HAHAHA. We said it must have been that first pigeon getting her back for feeding it too much and making it sick. Then we went to Westminster Abbey which is the church that every king or queen has been crowned since William the Conquerer. (Just so everyone knows, this information may be slighty incorrect. Im just writing from what the tour guide man told us, and what i remember). Then we walked forever. I saw a Marriott. What a lovely reminder of what i left back home. We crossed the bridge, and walked down the river edge through an area that reminded me of the Fringe. There were people posing as statues, and performing weird skits. One guy was playing his guitar laying down behind his back, another girl was dressed as a doll, and would rotate and be freaky, another man was painted all blue playing a guitar, a girl was drawing a picture of Big Ben (that was AMAZING) on the cement with sidewalk chalk, an old man was SO CUTE playing his harmonica, and this young boy had these 4 glass balls, and were...i dont know how to explain it...playing with them? He was really good, and it was really cool. There was this statue right beside him that had a pigeon on its head. I was looking at it when we realized it blinked! The statue was a man, and he had a pet pigeon. His costume was amazing. There was this huuuuuge ferris wheel, and beside it there were these 3 crazy people advertising a river cruise. They were dressed oddly with camel-toe enhancing outfits, and scuba gear. They were crazy, so we got a picture with them. We walked and saw Big Ben close up. The face of the clock is 7meters across. We wer super hungry, so we decided to get something to eat. Shelby was adament about getting McDonalds, so we found one. First off...they didnt even know what McChicken sauce was. 2nd, Siri's hamburger had no bottom. It was still yummy tho. It came out to 15POUNDS, so that converted into canadian dollars (x2.5) was a $37.50 Mcdonalds meal. HAHA. We went the Trefalgar Square where we climbed up on the giant lion statues, then we fed the pigeons. If you held food in your hand the pigeons would land on your arm. Shelby was like "omgomgomgomg get if off. get if off!" It wasnt very enjoyable at first. The next day there was a huge festival that was going to take place in Trefalgar Square, so they were rehearsing. We watched the acrobatics, and they were crazy good. It started to rain, and after dad said "it looks like we're going to get some weather" 50 times, we decided to go into the National Art Museum. I was never a huge art fan, but some of the paintings were freaking amazing, and I may have been converted. They dated back to the 1400's. Shelby decided to lean over the roap and attempt to touch a painting (what a dumbass). She wasnt able to because the security guard was on her in a second. She appologized and he said NO WORRIES. He was really nice, unlike the experience i had with one of the guards. To make a long story short, i took a picture and it wasnt appreciated. "YOU WERE CAUGHT IN ROOM NINE..." She didnt seem to care that we took a picture, it was more that her job was so boring she wanted a bit of action. Then, Siri was just holding her camera, and she marched over and told her it had to be in her bag. I guess us Sestak girl's werent overly appreciated in that museum. We were then going to go to the world's largest toy store, but then we had to get back to our bus that was leaving soon. WE SAW A HARRY POTTER DOUBLE DECKER BUS. If anyone cares. Anyways, then we caught our tour bus at 6:00pm (London time) and headed to the tunnel back to France. I attempted to sleep on Siri, but she wasnt a very good cushion. Shes not fat enough. We got back to Poperidge around midnight.