Day 1 - London

Day 1! A mix of excitement and exhaustion filled our group as we boarded our very nice tour bus to take a whirl wind tour of Westminster, London. And when I say whirl wind, I mean it. It seemed like no time at all as we whipped around the city, seeing sights like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and many others. Really, I felt like I was on the Knight Bus from Harry Potter...:) We stopped and got off at a few sights, taking in the beauty of Buckingham Palace, experiencing the immense magnificence of St. Paul's Cathedral, with its towering ceilings and immaculate detail, and reliving the extensive history at the Tower of London, where many were beheaded and then placed on stakes for the city to see, and prisoners held, awaiting their execution. It was interesting seeing inside the towers, because it was not simply low life, minimal crime prisoners that were held there. These were high class people who committed acts of treason, or worse. It was easy to tell how educated these prisoners were from the carvings and inscriptions on the walls. Bible verses and carefully intricate drawings were imprinted into the stones, along with counts from a few of how long they had been there, since the prisoners were never told of the execution date. The torture of it was the fact that they had no idea when it was coming.

While at the Tower of London, a few of us ate a little restaurant, taking a break from touring the monarchy's torture chambers. This lovely little restaurant, filled with little British delicasies was where I made my horrific discovery. This is an IMPORTANT thing to remember. Please take this into consideration. You don't want to end up in the frantic position I was in, thousands of miles away from home.

**MAKE SURE ALL PREPAID VISAS CAN BE USED INTERNATIONALLY!!**

I know, it sound ridiculously obvious. I am ashamed to even say that I made this mistake. But, I tell all you lovely readers so that you may learn from my mistakes, and not make this foolish decision.

So here's how I discovered it:

Checking out at this little restaurant, I was greeted by a sweet little British accent who told me my total. I decided to use one of my prepaid visas, each with about $200 on them. (However, when converting to pounds, it's actually a lot less than that) Well, when I handed my visa to this British woman and she swiped it, a terrible little beeping noise emitted from the machine, and she said "I'm sorry, it's been declined." I said, "Oh, well that's strange. Could you maybe try it again?" She obligingly did, but the same thing happened again. She then inspected my visa closely and said, "I'm sorry ma'am, but this is only valid in the U.S." I gaped at the fine print on my card, amazed at how I (or my mother, who ordered the visa for me) could possibly have missed what seemed so obvious now. I began to feel frantic. What was I going to do?! I only had 80 pounds in cash to last me 3 more days! I paid for my food in pounds, found a table, and quickly began to call my mother's phone, aggravated at her not answering until I realized that of course it was still very early in the morning back in Arkansas.

Well, finally she and my dad answered my panicked texts, and set about trying to do something about it. But unfortunately, to my dismay, there was not much to be done. Since it was only valid in the U.S., it wasn't like I could go to an ATM and withdraw money (although I did try that a few times) and my parents couldn't wire money to me (although they tried). It seemed hopeless. That was until Carly, her mother and a few other girls in our group sat down with me, calmed me down, and Carly's mom Heather (one of the teachers in charge of the trip) insisted that she would help me if I ran out of money and I could just pay her back when we got home. Although I was still internally punching myself for my idiotic mistake, I began to think, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. And in all honesty, I was right!

A tip for traveling internationally: **You don't need as much spending money as you think you do.

I got by the whole time in England on less then 80 pounds, and I only had to borrow from Heather twice, for a 5 pound lunch and small shopping trip on our last day. And when in Paris, with my 150 euros, I didn't borrow any at all. Now, part of this might have been the fact that we really didn't have much shopping time set aside really at all, besides gift and souvenir shops of course. But my $400 on my visas definitely would have been overkill, and not all used.

I am thankful for this experience, because it taught me how to be smart with my money, and ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT! However, the only downside is the fact that getting a refund back in the States as been a real pain in the butt.

Aside from the money issue, Day 1 in London was a successful one! After our day tour, we headed to our hotel to unpack a little and rest. The hotel was nice, although small. But that's how it's going to be anywhere in Europe, really. Its true when they say: Everything's bigger in America. We just have the space to do it. When you're in a small city on a an island that would literally fit inside Texas almost 3 times, there's not a lot of room for simple luxuries like more then one wall outlet or floor space to get dressed in the morning! Hehe...(Not kidding about the outlets)

Already, I was experiencing culture I had never seen before and I was loving it! I can't wait to post more stories (and helpful tips through my mistakes) soon!

Cheers!
Em

The Flight to London

Before this trip, I had never been on an international flight before. The longest flight I had ever experinced was to Seattle, and that was a five hour flight. Now, I thought that was a big flight. There were 2 aisles and the chairs were separated by groups of two, then three, then two. But this flight to London was something else. As soon as I boarded, I was amazed. This thing was huge! The outer aisles had rows of three and the inner aisle had a row of six! The plane itself was really long and divided into a couple sections, depending on how much you paid for your ticket. And dividing each section was what looked like a mini-bar where the flight attendants prepared drinks and got the food ready for in-flight service. 

It's inevitable. We have to talk about airplane food. 

Now, let me just set things straight. This was not your stereotypical, bland, TV dinner style airplane food that comedians make lame jokes about being so bad. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food tasted (and how much it filled me up!) About two hours into the flight, we were given the option between chicken or pasta. I chose the pasta, although the chicken did sound good as well. What I was handed was a 4 course meal, but in travel size! Besides the pasta, this magnificent tray held a salad with dressing, a bread roll, crackers, laughing cow cheese, and a brownie. And it all tasted great! 

I assume in-flight meals have changed in the last 20 years, so maybe those comedians were on to something then, but the next time you get an airplane meal, prepare to be amazed. (Unless, of course, you're a frequent flyer and your reading this laughing at my silly bewilderment of food...)

Next thing on the list that impressed me about this flight was the TV screens on the back of the chairs! You could watch movies or TV shows, play video games, chat with other seats in the plane, and track your progress, altitude, or even temperature of where you were in the flight. I know, pretty impressive. So the first couple of hours, I watched the movie "The Book of Life" on my mini TV, and then thought I could easily fall asleep since I had eaten a big meal, taken Dramamine, and it was now 10:00 at night.

Unfortunately, my body did not react quite the way I had hoped. I tossed and turned in and out of a half-awake state for many hours, always getting comfortable and then minutes later having to switch positions, I wanted to get up and walk around the plane, but the man next to me was sound asleep and I really didn't want to disturb him. So, I toughed it out for the next couple hours, feeling very uncomfortable, knowing I would be exhausted the next day when we landed at 9:00 AM. But eventually, light started to flood the cabin and the rest of the passengers slowly started to wake up. My friend Carly was sitting next to me, and about an hour before we landed, we did our makeup and got our stuff ready to take off the plane. I was definitely ready to stretch my legs. 

Well, the time had come. We got off the plane, went through customs, and finally set foot into our week long adventure. It was so surreal. I was actually in London! Other then the sleeplessness, which had been my own fault, the plane ride wasn't actually all that bad. I will be returning soon with more stories from my wonderful adventure.

As always, happy travels!

Cheerio!

Emily

I'm back...for real this time!

I apologize for my lack of appearance... It's been crazy the past couple of weeks, and I got caught up with how hectic everything was! The musical that we just did at my school took up most of my time and after that was over, it took a little bit of adjusting to get back into the flow of things. I took two days off from school this week because of sickness...but I'm feeling better and am trying to put this time to good use!

I definitely should have posted when the trip was a little fresher in my mind, but you know how it is. Hopefully I'll be able to describe my experiences well enough for you to imagine. :)