EuroTrip Day 16-18: London

May 12
Returning from Manchester by the early afternoon (see previous post), I had a shopping date with Nate at Camden Town.

I got a phone call (oh no, International roaming charges!) from Peter, that Nate didn't know where I was. My train was late, so I told him I would be there in 10 minutes at Euston. Good? No.

Nate wasn't at Euston Station. He was at Euston Square Station. The tube station. Not the train station. T'is ok, 30 minutes later, all was rectified and we were on our way to the marketplace.

A full day of shopping later (and Nate full of bags but empty on quid), we stopped at the Oxford Arms where I bought him a drink to soothe the pain of how much he spent. After a couple drinks, we headed up a bit to meet everyone at the Shakespeare's Wetherspoon for food and drink. There I met Robbie and Linda, Australian and German. There were 2 other French folk with us too but I don't remember their names.

The food was good and the company was better, but we split ways after a couple hours. Good thing too, because so desperately wanted a good night's rest.

May 13
My last full day in Europe, I wanted to soak it all in.

Peter didn't have to work, so he took me to all the sights I missed on the first day. London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, British Museum, Oxford Street, Knightsbridge etc. The only sucky thing about the day was that we had to pay (A LOT!) to get into Westminster Abbey to see the gravesites and memorials. Disappointing, because I remember checking online while still in Canada, and finding the exact location of Darwin's grave. Secondly because Nate told us it was free!!

Peter and I went to Harrods as well (where he works) so I could peruse the world famous store. Being the largest shop in London (over 1,000,000 sq ft) with world famous departments like the food hall. We also saw the monuments that were erected inside the store for Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. Unfortunately, I was at Harrods on May 12, 4 days after Mohamed Al-Fayed sold the sore to Qatar Holdings for £1.5billion.

After a full day, we went to Pier 1 for gourmet fish and chips. OH MY was it ever good!! No one else was able to join us (Robbie and Linda busy, Beverly AWOL, Nate hungover) but Dom did come after work to join us.

After dinner, the 3 of us headed across the way from Pier 1 to the absinthe bar for me to try it. I haven't ever seen a place anywhere in Canada that I've been that serves absinthe. Nor have I ever seen it at the LCBO or any other liquorstore, so I was pretty stoked to try it out.

Colour: green
Smell: licorice
Taste: licorice
After-taste: burn-y

Fantastic!

May 14
My last day in Europe, although most of it was spent at the airport. My flight was at 2pm, so that meant I had to start on my way there by 10am, leaving myself the paranoid 3 hours of "ample time" for anything and everything at the airport to go wrong.

My airplane was delayed 45 minutes, which meant I had even MORE time to waste at the airport. I paid 1 quid to use the internet for 10 minutes to let everyone know I'm delayed, especially Heather. I went into every single store at the shopping centre after the gate, and I ended up buying even more chocolate from the dutyfree. Thank goodness there is no limit on the amount of chocolate you bring back.

Speaking of which, as promised, the weight of my suitcase upon leaving Europe (see first EuroTrip post):
A whopping 47.2lb!!

More than triple the weight upon return. Have you done that?!?