London with Melissa- January 30th

I'm on the bus, heading back to Oxford after spending the day in London. Melissa came in yesterday afternoon to see a little bit of where I live. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had another class and was forced to leave her on the bus on her way to City Centre while I attempted to learn about ethics from an Italian man with the thickest accent I've ever heard. After I got out, I met up with her again downtown and we were going to go shopping, but most of the stores were closing. We headed back to my house, ate some food, then got dressed to go to the pub. Our original plan was to stop at Dew Drop Inn and go out from there, but everyone was already there so we had a few pints each. By the time we met up with Carleigh and Natalie at O'Neill's, it was dead and we were sufficiently drunk. On our way back home, McDonald's sounded so good that we had to stop and eat, saying how disgusted we were with ourselves the entire time. But it was delicious, I won't lie. We woke up today, showered, and headed into City Centre. Since our bus didn't leave until noon, we grabbed some food at Starbucks (what's wrong with me?) and then did some intense discount shopping. It was wonderful. I love Primark. Barely catching our bus, we took the hour and half ride to London. Through beautiful countryside, we had wonderful conversation and I remembered yet again why I love Melissa. When we got into the city, we bought bus tickets for the day and, after backtracking a lot, got on a bus and went to Notting Hill. It was beautiful, and I think that Bath now has a rival for places I would live in England. We went to Portabello Market, but the normal market days are Friday and Saturday so there wasn't as much stuff there. However, there were some good little souvenir shops. I bought two t-shirts, one that is white an has the underground symbol on it that says “London, England” in cool font. The other shirt I bought from this man who was selling very hippie and earthy clothes. It is, of course, a military green shirt with a giant black peace sign on it. I felt very at home, it was amazing. After taking a million pictures and wishing that we could buy everything that we saw, Mel and I took the bus back to town and headed to her hostel. Recommendation for anyone looking for a hostel in London: The Generator. As soon as you walk in, you feel like you're in a space ship. It is awesome. Everything is brightly colored and there are neon lights everywhere (especially at night, I'm guessing). It's under 10 USD a night, which is amazing. Anyway, we ended up talking to two of the girls staying in there, one from Canada who had been in Europe for about a year and a half, and Felicity, a girl from Australia who was traveling around for a month. Since Mel and I were starving, we ran down the road and grabbed some take away (note: it is not called “to go”, it's called “take away”, and it is cheaper to take away than it is to stay in since they don't really tip in Europe and it is added into the eating in charge). Coming back to the room, we discovered that Felicity was a big Harry Potter freak. So the three of us headed to King's Cross Station and took a bunch of hilarious pictures at Platform 9 ¾, where they have conveniently put a cart halfway through the wall (if you read HP, you will get this; if you don't, that's sad). As we were leaving, Mel thought she saw Daniel Radcliffe (HP) so we basically chased down some poor 40-year-old man who looked nothing like DR up close. But it was funny and a good experience. Then we headed to Victoria to catch my bus back to Oxford. While I was waiting (I sent them off, I felt bad that they would have to wait with me for so long after taking me to the station) a man from Dublin came up to me on the verge of tears, asking me if I spoke English. When I said yes, he explained that he and his wife went to Paris for the week and thought they had just enough money to make it back home. However, the exchange rate from euros to pounds gyped them about 5 pounds, which they desperately needed. I spotted him the spare, and he profusely thanked me. I figure, if he was lying, a) he is a very good liar, and b) at least I did my part. While talking to him I missed the driver of my bus coming in and saying that we were loading so when I looked back half the people waiting were gone. I asked the man next to me if they were loading and he said yes so I ran to the bus. The driver tried to open the door but I was standing in the way so he just kind of stared at me with his hand on the button until I moved. I felt like an idiot but whatever, I'm getting really used to it. So now I'm on the bus, ready to fall asleep. I love England. My first trip out of the country is tomorrow night-- we are going to Scotland!!! I'm super excited. I'll update with that when I get back.