The Europe Post...well the first one anyway...

Many have been asking for it, and some haven't but are still interested.  This is the long-awaited "Europe Post!"  It's where I will at least start to tell you about my experience on my 20-Day tour of Europe I had this past summer from June 7-27, 2008.

Day 1:  My friends, Kelly, Danielle, and Michelle, and I left Rochester in the early afternoon on June 7.  My parents drove us to the Minneapolis Airport and dropped us off so we could catch our flight.  Anyways, after the plane was delayed multiple times, and making us wait over 4 hours at the airport, we finally took off, heading for Chicago to catch our connecting flight to London.  On our way to Chicago, we were forced to make a major detour around a storm system that was between Minneapolis and Chicago, forcing us to fly all the way down to over Kentucky, or Missouri I think, before coming around and back up to Chicago, adding nearly an hour and a half to our flight!  Originally, our lay-over in Chicago would have been nearly 5 hours long, but because of the multiple delays of our previous flight, we landed in Chicago and had just 10 minutes before the London flight was scheduled to take off.  So immediately after disembarking our plane from Minneapolis, we literally sprinted through O'Hare Airport to our gate.  Luckily making it with plenty of time to spare, though we were some of the last people to board!

As it turns out, our flight to London was delayed as well, because of TORNADOES in the Chicago area, as well as along our flight plan.  So after waiting what I believe was almost an hour sitting, waiting in line for the runway, we were permitted to take off for our 11 hour over-night flight.  It was brutal.  We all took some sleep-aids, and everyone, minus myself was able to get some decent amount of sleep.

We arrived in London early in the morning on June 8th, and then started the long process of getting our luggage, customs, and making our way to our hostel.  We took the "Tube" or "Underground" from the airport, which is the oldest and first-ever built, subway system in the world!  We transferred once I think and got off at the station which was near the hostel.  After getting lost I think twice while trying to find it, and asking a very nice British lady for directions, we found our hostel, Palmer's Lodge and checked in, by this time it was around noon and we were all ready for a nice shower and clean clothes.

So we did that, and then met up to start hitting the sights!  We took the Tube again, which was incredibly cheap and easy to use, to Central London, and Trafalgar Square.  This was our first sight that truly confirmed for all of us that we really were in London:

It's the view of Big Ben from Trafalgar Square.  After taking it all in, and absorbing the fact that we were now 5000 miles from home, we started looking around for our tour-bus office.  After finding that, we went and got lunch, which was free with our bus tickets!  We got fish and chips...of course, at this awesome place called Sherlock Holmes Pub.

We then made up our minds to hit up the Eye of London, a gigantic ferris wheel in the middle of London, right on the Thames River.  I am pretty sure it is the world's largest one, and if not, it is for sure ONE of the biggest.  We got our tickets and boarded our "car" a big clear "pod" which they put about 12 people in.  The ride takes 30 minutes to get all the way around and the views are amazing.  We were also VERY fortunate that the two days we were in London were VERY sunny, clear and HOT, a rare kind of weather for England.  This is all of us when were near the top of the wheel, from left to right, Michelle, Danielle ("DK"), me, and Kelly.  See Big Ben and Parliment to the right!?

The second picture above was when we were on the descent of the wheel.  See the taller white building on the far left?  Well right next to it, to the right, the smaller, short building is none other than MI-6!  For those of you who don't know, MI-6 is to England, what the FBI or the CIA is to the U.S.A.  and it's also where James Bond is "employed" in the movies.

After the wheel, we saw a few more sights as the sun went down on our first day in Europe.  We stopped by Buckingham Palace, the Queen was even home!  Later that night, we went down to Picadilly Circus, London's answer to Time Square, though not quite as big or as busy, but just as cool and with all the huge, lit-up signs!  We then went back to the hostel very late, after riding a real red, double-decker bus, which was probably one of the most exciting and terrifying things any of us had done!  And fell asleep quickly, being so exhausted from our day of flying and sight-seeing!  Below is our hostel, Palmer's Lodge.  I had a better picture of it, but couldn't find it...  Anyways, it was rated in the top TEN hostels WORLDWIDE by its guests!  It was extremely nice, clean, quiet, and beautiful.  You didn't even feel like you were in a hostel!

And so concludes Day 1 of our Europe Trip.  Hopefully I'll be able to get more pictures and posts up soon about the rest of the trip!  Thanks for reading!