Day 1: London

Well, I'm in a hostel at the moment stealing internet from a neighboring wireless that I managed to find the password for. My laptops heat feels amazing on my cold legs since I've spent the last 8hours hiking around in the bitter cold of the British wind. Its been fun, though we didn't really go see anything, we mainly spent it walking through Hyde Park which is right next to where Buckingham Palace is. From there we wandered around getting lost, taking wrong turns and just enjoying the views, what little we could see anyway. I tried to take as many photos as possible but in the night light it was hard to get my camera to focus on any of the buildings. We walked down Kensington to Sloane Road which has a ton of shopping and several pubs. We tried several of the later and couldn't find a table for three anywhere. So we cut over to Lowndes Square where we found a great little cafe that had one very over worked waitress. By then it was 18:00 and none of us had eaten since about 09:00. Colin and I had these wonderful Toasted Ham with Melted Cheese sandwiches and Tian had a ... something... lol I'll have to ask her. It was some sort of sandwich but I don't remember exactly what it was. For drinks Colin had some fancy latte thingy and I had some lovely Camomile Tea, Thank You Tiff tiff for introducing me to that lovely drink! After that we wondered around some more but decided that it would be better to head back since we were exhausted and I'm still a little jet lagged.... BUT instead of a quick walk home since we knew the way we had to go around Hyde Park, which was closed by the time we got there, and ran into a protesters gathering. It was sympathizers with Gaza, who has just recently been bombed by Israeli. So then we had to go even farther to get around all the Bobbies who were blocking off the streets... so least to say we had a very very long walk home. Looking at our maps we guessed we walked about 10mi total. Can't say I'm not staying active ;)

Until Next Time,

Tim Stone

PreTrip

Well, here we go! I'm excited, Tian's excited, and Colin just found out lol! He didn't know till Christmas morning when his parents finally decided that he should get his passport and plane tickets in a string of presents that had everything from traveling soaps to maps of London (which he sent me a text message thinking it was meant for me). So I've reserved our first hostel for the 12/29-1/1. Its called the Quest Hostel just North of Hyde Park. Its a little above where we want to go but it will have to do. I guess all the country side locals come into town this week and book just about everything up till New Years, would've had to call a week in advance to get a place closer.... From there we'll be heading North up to North Hampton to stay with my cousin Christy (Noel) Robinson (did I spell that right?) She married a charming british guy (Lee) and they have two young kids, Noah and Olivia. After that I don't know yet since we haven't decided if we are going to Scotland or not. Either way it should be exciting! I'll have pictures posted up some how once I've got em.

till next time!

The Rolling Stone ;)