Our second bout in London has been an amazing experience. After arriving from Stockholm, Adam and I had to go pick up our tickets from a very disorganized organization in perhaps the longest slowest line I have ever seen. Going from the airport to the ticket will call and then to our hostel took us 4.5 hours! Far too long. With all that said and done we settled into our last hostel of the trip. Clink78 used to be an old jail/courthouse so it made for vey interesting accommodations and common areas. Quite neat! That evening we heard that the opening ceremonies of the Olympics were to be broadcasted on large screens in Hyde Park for free. Apparently that was false information that we found out after walking around the entire venue for a few hours. We explored the souvenir store and then journeyed back to a pub by our hostel to watch the remainder of the opening ceremonies. From where we were we were able to see the sky glowing from the fireworks at the end of the ceremony while watching it on the tele. Pretty cools experience!
Our next day in London was by far the most memorable of the trip. We trained to Coventry, Uk to the football stadium to watch the Canadian women's soccer team take on South Africa as well as Sweden vs. Japan. It was a chilly day but that didn't put a damper on our excitement to be at the game. We sat in a large section of Canadians and ended up making some friends by the end of the game. Canada dominated South Africa 3-0!!
After returning to London Adam and I attempted to go to Olympic park which failed. You needed tickets to get past a certain point that we didn't have (side note: getting tickets if you are not an EU or UK resident is near impossible. Very stupid system). We snapped a few photos and moved on to Tower Bridge where the jumbo Olympic rings hang from the bridge. After a long day finally we cuddled up in our prison cell hostel for a good nights rest.
The next day started off at a slow pace. We attempted to show up at Earls Court, the beach volleyball venue, to see if we could snag some tickets... That ended unsuccessfully. Hyde park was our next destination to watch some of the games on the big screen... That also ended unsuccessfully. They charged to enter the area AND it started to pour! Bonus to this bad situation was we stumbled upon the women's cycling course and cheered on all the athletes that went by (in the pouring rain) but it was still quite neat! That evening we met up with some of our friends that we met in Greece from Saskatchewan and also found some other Canadian stranglers in the lobby of our hostel to go for some drinks. Drinks turned into many drinks and it ended up being a very fun night!
The next morning on the other hand was not as fun. Brett and Ty were flying out of London nice and early so we woke up to see them off. I cried inside to say bye to these two young stallions (hope you guys are reading this!). Adam and I caught the train to ipswitch to visit his friend Gemma and her family. Gemma showed us around the local village of Woodbridge where we ate at Kings Head Pub! Had some bangers and mash accompanied by some locally brewed cider. It was delicious!
Our second day with Gemma was spent touring Cambridge which included a walk around the village, the university campus and punting on the river. (definition: A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow, designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water. Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole). It was awesome!
Our last day in the UK was spent napping and watching the Olympics as Gemma and her family were at work all day. Adam and I were more than fine with doing nothing all day, it was very enjoyable.
Finally, today after a long day of travels we are waiting in Toronto airport for our flight to Winnipeg. Cannot wait to be home!!
Sad that the trip is over. It was amazing to see as much as we did and to spend that time with three fantastic boys (although disliked at times), I will miss them and our adventures!
Until next time :)
