New Address!!

Megan Wells or Devin Black
Flat 4
28-29 Cartwright Gardens
London WC1H 9EH

August 29, 2009

Today we got up and headed to our first market in London. We went to an afro/Caribbean market this week. This was a part of London that was nothing like where we have been in London. We walked around and ate a Jamaican patties mine with chicken and Devin's with lamb. It was good but would not want to eat it every day! We then walked around and bought our fruits and vegetables for the week. Devin also bought some fresh salmon and some fresh lamb meet at the market. We bought all this stuff for under twenty pounds! It was a fun day just to walk around and look at everything!

August 27, 2009

Today Devin had class so Heather and I headed to the airport. We got to the airport after the hour long tube ride we got all the paperwork turned in and now we just needed to wait for Heather's escort to come and get her. Finally they came and got her and I had to wait until the plane was airborne for me to leave the airport. So the plane was delayed almost an hour so I had to wait there the entire time. I finally was told the plane took off so I was free to leave. I headed back to the tube for the hour train ride back home.

I came home and met Devin and we were both exhausted we took a nap. We got up and cleaned the flat and went to the grocery store!

August 26, 2009

Today we were walking out the front door of our flat building to take Heather to the airport we noticed a large amount of people in the street. We looked closer and it looked like they were filming a movie! We were walking down the sidewalk to go to the Russell Square tube station and a guy in a yellow vest staff stopped us to see if we would mind waiting on the side of the road for a few minutes while they filmed a scene. Devin looked at the guy like he was crazy and asked how long it would take. The guy told Devin not too long so we stood there just watching, Devin then looked at that black and white thing that they snap in front of the camera and say "action" and it said Blitz. So we were standing there and had no idea what that movie was or what it was about and Devin turned to me and said, "hey you know that movie you were watching last night (Italian Job) there is the guy from it." He said oh wow its Jason Statham! He was right in front of us! We continued on and headed to the tube station.

We made it to the airport after the hour tube ride and come to find out that Heather could not be an unaccompanied minor being on the last flight of the day. So they had to reschedule her flight for the next day and they were going to keep her luggage for the night. So we headed back to the tube to head home for the evening.

When we got home they were still filming the movie but they had moved to the intersection next to our street where they were filming an action scene. By this time they were a bunch of people watching so I figure I should get some pictures!! He was so close to me... I could almost touch him. Jason looked mad the entire time and Devin said that he was in character! We stood around and watched some of the action!

We went to bed early since we had to be at the airport early the next morning!

August 25, 2009

Today we went to the London Bridge. When I think of the London Bridge I think of that song that we would sing as little kids. I would have thought that this would be a spectacular bridge that would show what London is all about. Actually the London bridge is the most simple bridge I have seen in London.

The Modern London Bridge was built to be functional and long-lived, and, as such, it is noticeably less decorated than other Thames bridges. It is 928 feet long and cost over four million pounds to build. A bridge has existed at or near the present site over the period from the Roman occupation of the area, nearly 2,000 years ago. In 1984, the British warship HMS Jupiter collided with London Bridge, causing significant damage to both ship and bridge. On Remembrance Day 2004, various London bridges were furnished with red lighting as part of a night-time flight along the river by wartime aircraft. London Bridge was the one bridge not subsequently stripped of the illuminations, which are switched on at night.

Simple but beautiful!

August 24, 2009

Today we decided to go to the British Museum. This is so close to our flat we can walk to it. We walk that way and pass a small little hotdog stand that smells AMAZING, which sadly is not. When we were first in London searching for a place to live we were tired and hungry so we stopped to get one of these and it did not live up to its wonderful smell. The sausage and hotdogs here have a strange texture. So we got to the museum which is huge! Most of the public museums are free in London so we just walked right in. We only had time to make it through one floor before it closed and we had to leave. We made it to the Rosetta Stone, which was cool to see in person! We also went through the Egyptian and Greek artifacts.

When the museum closed we decided we should go bowling! We took the tube to Queen's Bowling. We got a drink at the bar and then went to our lane. We did not have to wear bowling shoes... what a great idea.. as long as you were wearing flats or runners you did not need to wear the bowling shoes. We played our one game for free... Devin won, Megan second, and Heather came in third! Next Devin and Heather wanted to try out the ice skating! I decided to pass and just watch! I am glad that I did since their feet were hurting the next day.

August 23, 2009

Today was rainy so we slept in! We watched some TV and then decided to go find something to do. We went to Trafalgar Square to find the London Brass Rubbing Centre. This was a huge beautiful square with two fountains and The Monument. We were not sure what this was so we figured that we should go give it a try. We came to the building that was called Crypt it was a small little building that had a beautiful staircase that led to the basement.

We headed downstairs to see what brass rubbing was all about. We got to the desk and the lady told us to pick our brass form. We picked it out and then she put a piece of black paper on the form, then we picked out the color we needed to rub with. We started our rubbing and saw our final piece of artwork!

August 22, 2009

Today we went walking around town and took the tube to find the bike tour! We found the place and we rented bikes for an hour and rode them around town. This was fun but I do not like riding the bikes in the London traffic, so we stayed on the path with little traffic. We rode our bikes near St. Pauls Cathedral which is absolutely stunning! Later we walked down near the Thames River again and walked around, there were street performers and skate boarders. There were a bunch of trees down by the river and they were all wrapped with a red paper with white polka dots, this looked so cool.

We walked along the river and then walked around Big Ben and Parliament. This is so big in person! LOL

August 21, 2009

Today Devin's class was canceled so we headed out on a day of sight seeing! We headed to the Thames River. We went to see the HMS Belfast which was launched in 1938 and served in WW2 and the Korean War. It is the only example of the great fleets of big gun armoured warships built for the Royal Navy in the first half of the twentieth century. We explored the nine decks and even saw the massive boiler and engine rooms, we saw the kitchen, medical area, bunks, and chapel. This was a huge ship and we could have walked around for hours on it.

When we left the ship we walked along the river and saw The globe. Shakespeare's Globe is a unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of performance and education. This was neat and I hope to go back and see a performance in the building while staying in London!

Next we kept walking along the river and stopped at the Tate Modern Museum. The Tate displays the national collection of international modern art. The art was strange and very unique! The museum also had pieces of art by Picasso and Matisse. Some of the art took up the entire rooms. The front of the museum is a very tall old chimney. We walked through the museum and then headed to find the starting point of our boat cruise.

Finally we got on the boat which was right under the London Eye. We took the boat ride and headed home! It has been a long day and we are all tired!

August 20, 2009

Today Devin had class so Heather and I waited for Chris to come over to head to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.

Yes, I said Chris. Chris is a good friend of mine from Yukon, Ok. We were sitting in the flat the night before and our door phone rang, our flats are all locked so there is a key pad on the front door for you to call a flat to see if the person is home. Devin answered the phone and he asked for Megan Wells... Devin said yea who is this... he said this is Chris McCullough. I got on the phone and asked how he got this number and he said I am at the front door. So I did not know how to let him in so I ran up to the door. Chris happened to be traveling Europe for 30 and was in London and not only London but only one block away from our flat. That just blows my mind! I could not believe it.

So when Chris made it over we headed out. When we got to buckingham Palace it was filling fast with tourists! We stood by the gate and admired the guards in their red coats and their bear skin hats! We were pushed out of the way for most of the changing of the guards but I was able to hold Heather up to see and get some pictures!

Next we were off to the Queens Gallery! This was amazing it was full of china sets and pictures and jewelry all part of the Queens collection. This was neat but no pictures were allowed!

Finally our last stop of the day was the Royal Mews, this is where the royal horses are kept. We saw the stalls, the buggy, the royal carts pulled by the horses, and we even got to see some of the horses. After this we headed home and met Devin for dinner!

August 19, 2009

Devin's little sister is visiting us in London from Ripley, NY. She got in last night late so we did not do much when she got here. For the most bang for our buck we got the London Pass to see the most that we can while Heather is here. Today we are headed to the London Zoo. The zoo was fabulous! They had wonderful aquarium with tons of fish and sharks. They also had great gorilla, zebra, giraffe, lion, and tigers. The animals were so close it was if we could almost touch them. We walked around the zoo until they were closing. We headed to the tube and bought some fresh fruit from a small stand outside the station. We came home and cooked spaghetti and salad for dinner! We were all exhausted so Devin and Heather went to get a movie to watch. Then headed to bed!

August 17, 2009

So we moved into out flat and we have some things that the flat came with! It came with dishes and some pots and pans. So we had to go buy some towels and blankets and stuff like that. They have this really neat store here... its called Argos. You walk into the store and go look in this huge catalog and search for items that you need, I think it looks like the thick JCPenny catalog that I remember mom getting when we were younger. So we find the items and then write the numbers down on the paper, then we take the paper up to the counter and pay for our items, we get a number and then sit in a waiting area until they call your number. When your number is called then you go to the counter and they have all your items ready for you to take home.

We got pillows, a duvet cover, blanket, and later we would get more stuff!

Next we were headed to the grocery store - its called Waitrose and it is just down the street from our flat! Devin and I walk in there and we could stay there for hours. There are so many different things and most of them we have never even seen before! There are some weird things - I could not for the life of me find the eggs, they were on the baking isle next to the flour - no they do not keep the eggs in the refrigerator they just keep them on the shelf. The other thing is that the milk goes bad in about two days so you can only buy a really small container before it will go bad - we learned this the hard way with clumpy milk. The food here is really expensive but they have a Waitrose brand just like a wal-mart brand. It is much cheaper!

Heather gets here tonight at about 11pm and we get home really late. Off to bed!

August 16, 2009

So we stored some of our luggage at a hotel near Heathrow airport so we had to take the hour train ride to go get it! We get home from getting the luggage home and we start doing laundry. We have about eight loads to do! There is two washers and two dryers, they are really nice but the only problem is that they first setting on the dryer is for two hours... yes it really almost takes close to two hours to dry one load of laundry... so that makes the process even longer. The worst part is that they the hours are from 8am to 10pm... this would not be a problem if people would take their stuff out when it was done! So i took the stuff out of the dryer and put mine in.. then i went to go get it to see if it was about done around 10:15 and the dryer had shut off! Grr... so the clothes were still wet and had to do them all over again in the morning!

Did I mention that Devin's little sister comes tomorrow for a week to stay with us. We had to get this stuff done! Devin starts school in the morning!

August 15, 2009

We get up early and go to orientation for Devin. During the lunch break we go and look at a flat across town.... OMG this was the worst place I have ever seen. We tell them that we will think about it and get back to them. We never talked to them again - it was too far away and too nasty! So we go back to his school and while he finished his orientation I get a text message from someone that I had called earlier that day. I ask if they can show us a property - we meet him there and then we say we want to live there and they say that they can not do a short let for less than one year. He takes us to show us another property across town which is closer to the school and we get it!

This is the cutest street every! It is amazing all the flowers and the huge black doors. It is a studio flat. It is amazing - I think it is about 300sq ft and there is a futon that folds out to our bed. It has a small fridge and freezer and tv. We have out own bathroom and the laundry room is in the hall way! It is perfect When we look out our window there is a garden where we can walk out our window and hang out outside.

August 14, 2009

This is our first day in London! We have so much to do today! We wake up and have a wonderful English breakfast! Devin has to finish his final so I set out to find a place to live and figure out the cell phone situation. I have no idea what I am doing but I am glad that everyone speaks english! I get the phone situation under control and then start looking for a place to live.

I call on a few places and there is nothing that I can see today and nothing that is close enough to Devin's school. I go back to the hotel and start looking on craig's list. I make so may phone calls and send so many emails I forgot who all I called. It gets late and still have not heard from anyone about a place to live! We get some dinner and head to bed.

August 13, 2009

This is our last day in Sweden and the very last day of our 13 day travel! We wake up and go get out delicious breakfast! The sandwich and the hot tea. We have to go to the train station to catch a bus to the airport, it took 1:15 to get there. We fly to London today! We pull up to the airport and it did not even look like an airport, it was so small, there was one little cafe, two computers to check in. The strangest thing was there was a co-ed bathroom, it was very strange to walk into a bathroom and see a male washing his hands in the sinks.... lol. We boarded the plane and headed to London! We fly ryanair and the seats are small and they sell things during the entire flight. They even had smokeless cigarettes and Devin bought them to try. Two hours later we land in london. We get off and make our way to the UK border. We go to show our passports and they make us sit down and ask all types of questions. They asked all types of things from money to our jobs in the US and they even asked why Devin would want to study abroad. LOL Finally after about 45 minutes of talking and questions, they let us in. I honestly did not think they were going to let us in. We get our luggage and go find our bus! We had to take another bus again for about and hour to get to London.

We get off the bus on Baker street and start walking to find our hotel. We find it and we are right across the street from the British Museum. We are so tired we go find something to eat and then go to bed early! We have to find a place to live in three days. Devin's school starts in the morning so we will be crazy busy for the next few days!