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so, my uk trip was totally awesome up until about 1130a this morning.

edinburgh was fun with anna/ wandering on my own. i saw all the highlights from the castle to the palace and everything in between. i took pics of ppl and graffiti (there wasn't much) and a pub called 'white horse'. aww.

then at and i made our way on the train down to london. it was a sleepy but pretty trip. our days in london were sunny and relatively warm. it was great. we saw buckingham palace, trafalgar square, westminster abbey, and big ben. more than a few times we had to 'step in to the map' just like joey did on their friends trip to london. we also got to catch 'wicked' in the west end though tix to history boys were way out of my vacay price range. the wicked witch had an amazing voice and the cute boy from coyote ugly was in it. so yeah, anna and i had a good time and have tons of pictures with our big heads and tiny landmarks in the background. i'll put them up when i get back to the states.

anna left me on saturday night but it wasn't as lonely as i'd expected it to be. after wandering around leicester sq, catching a movie (good german- eh) and watching the drunks in covent garden i went back to the good old london bridge tube station. i made friends with my new hostel roomates and we got drinks at the hostel bar which is constantly smoky and filled with cricket fans. so yeah, a good time. on sunday i went to mass in st. paul's and then caught a bit of the st. patty's parade along hyde park. i did more touristy wandering and then eventually made it back to the hostel to crash. after a chat w/ the roomates we all passed out into afternoon naps. one of my roomates said she always took them (v. cool obvs, like me) and called them 'granny naps'. thought that was funny. back to the bar again and had a sunday roast that was pretty ick (bar food, what did i expect) but still a good time and lots of magners.

i got up this morning with big plans to stow my luggage, hit london and tower bridges and then make my way back to the hostel to pick up luggage and run to the airport. only after walking past london bridge and across the tower bridge i got lost looking for a tube station. i shouldve gotten on at tower bridge station but i didnt. anyways, finally made it back to the hostel and then no one could find the key to where my luggage was locked up. great. that took up more time. i got my luggage down the tube escalators and ran to catch a waiting train on the platform. only this train ended up having some sort of 'medical emergency'- i think someone was having a heart attack, and the ambulance took more than 15 min to get there. by this time i had 2.5 hrs before my plane left so i went up the escalators to take a different train/route to the airport. of course 10 million other ppl had the same idea so that platform was crammed with people and i didn't get on til a second train came through. eventually i got on the right train headed to the airport but by that point i knew it was a lost cause, there was no way i could make it as there was less than 2 hrs before my plane left. i got to the virgin queue about 45 min before my plane actually took off which was at least 15 min too late. poop.

no other boston flights avail so i had to choose between flying to nyc and figuring something out there or waiting a day and taking the tues morning flight out. i went for tuesday. tres annoying but less annoying then trying to find a way out of nyc it seems.

when i left heathrow to return to the city it was snowing. i had to find an internet cafe to book a room so i did that and then wandered around oxford street for a while. then when i was ready to get a tube out to my hostel the entire station was blocked up for some reason. and it was snowing/raining. so i wandered around more shops, drank tea and read a book, and then made it out to the edge of london to this new hostel. its cheaper/older than the other one we stayed in. this one reminds me of the old wing of tams dorms. funny.

i was going to try and upload pictures now but my camera wont connect so instead i've done this long long post. i'm pooped and probably heading to bed soon. flight is tomorrow at 3p but i'll definitely leave SUPER early this time. no more close calls, unfortunate events, etc. i AM flying back to boston tomorrow. cos london's been great, up until today, but now it's just really really gross and cold and i want to sleep in my own bed. yes.