European Adventure

Where to start on our amazing trip to Europe?
Well, as a wise Julia Andrews once said, "Let's start at the very begining, thats a very good place to start." For me it all started in 6th grade when I fell in love with history. My love for people and cultures grew throughout my formal and infomal education. I loved learning about the familiar history of my English heritage as well as the thousands of other various cultures that have graced the world stage. When I went to BYU I looked into a various study abroad trips and really wanted the experience to see what life was like away from home. But I found my true love a little too quickly to join the university study programs. As graduation loomed near Tim and I wanted to go on a trip to end things with a bang. We may never have this much freedom and time to travel and despite the fact that I am 6 months pregant, we many never have this much energy again. So we went for it!
On April 28th we set off from the SLC airport on our way to our first destination; London. I am pleased to say I handled the plane ride rather well and after a layover in Chicago we were on our way to London.
We arrived in London on Tuesday April 29th. Right from the airport I could feel we were in a different country. The accents sounded so funny and the people looked (and smelled) different than I was used to. There I had my first encounter with the spartan London "WC" an adventure that continued throughout our trip. We set off to find the tube station and to attempt to navigate our way to the hostel. Luckly everything was still written in English and we found our way to the correct tube line and train. I hate to brag, but I really did catch on to the transportation systems rather well.
Our hotel could not have been better situated right next to the major Earl's Court station. While its location was great, the Court Hotel did have something to be desired in the way of room size and bathrooms. Our room barely fit our bed and we soon got used to the one way path around the bed to the sink. They did have a pretty good breakfast there and it was the only place with a TV (not that we cared to watch).
Our first day in London the weather stayed pretty warm and sunny, but we soon got used to this dodgy pattern. We started off our afternoon with a quick walk around the area. Then we hopped onto the tube and after only one wrong train set off to find the BYU London center. While we did find the place it was a rather pointless trip.
Next we headed to the British Museum to see some cool old stuff. And see it we did. We started with mummies from ancient Egypt and African masks. Our jetlag soon talked us out of anymore museuming, but we vowed to return later for the real museum experience. Too tired to anything more than sit, we headed to the Theater District to see a play. We payed a few extra pounds and landed great seats for Les Mis. While we waited for the show, we went in search of cheap food, a difficult quest in pricy London. After much futile searching we sighted the golden arches and settled from a hamberger and fries from McDonalds. McDonald's is a pretty classy joint in Europe by the way. They have flat screen tvs and are not the pigstys I've seen in the states. We killed time and ate our fries really slow because we thought we had a long time before our play started. It turned out that my watch was wrong and we made it back just in time. The show was amazing and I found myself crying at the end. I love the message "to love another person is to see the face of God." Tim really liked it too.