Journal 43 Thursday: I kept waking up all night due to the whole "I have to make this train or I won't have enough time" type thing. We after falling asleep at 1, waking up at 3, 4, and 5:30, I finally got up at 5:50 to shower. Problem was that 7 out of the 9 people in our room were getting up at that same time. So I actually had to WAIT for a shower that morning... what the hell. I finally finished off the bottle of shampoo I had been using for three months. I thought I'd be out long before the last day of my trip. So now I FINALLY had that extra space in my bag... for all those souvenirs I didn't buy. We changed, packed, and headed out. Caught a bus to the station for 1.60Euro and then bought postcards at the station shop since the place at the hostel was closed. Got on our train and sat down for the three hour ride. Chris and I had to keep putting our bags on our laps because at a couple points the train was completely full. As we neared the Brussels Midi Station we passed by the Red-Light for that area. There were more girls there at 10am then there were in Amsterdam the night before; it was hilarious. After arriving at the station we checked the boards for departure times. I was going to London, and Chris was going to Paris. It turned out I had missed a train to London by only 15 minutes... which meant I had about an hour and a half before I could go. So we went to the ticket counter since we needed tickets for these trains. I had to pay 60Euros, WTF, 60Euros!!! I couldn't believe it. I would have been the same price to fly to London, if not cheaper. Well, I paid because I had to be in London by that afternoon; and to add insult to injury, my train wasn't leaving for 2 1/2 hours. Chris only had to pay 10Euros to get to Paris, the bastard; and he was leaving in 15minutes. So I walked Chris to his train, said goodbye and wished him luck, then tried to figure out what I was going to do for two hours. I walked around the train station looking at the little stores and stuff. I considered buying a magazine or something, but I only had 5Euros left and decided I was thirsty instead. They had a little grocery mart there were I was able to buy Lime Fanta, Papaya Fanta, and a Coke (in case the Fanta sucked). I also bought two chocolate croissants. The croissants were really good though, they just had a ton of chocolate on the outside rather than inside. Once on the train I sat and read my tour guide book during the 2 1/2 ride to Waterloo. Fortunately I know my way around Waterloo, and customs isn't as big a deal there because of the European Union. I pretty much just walked through everything, bought my day pass for the Tube, and hoped on. It was such a relief to be sitting back on the Tube again. This country was home to me for the last three months almost; it's that familiarity that made it comfortable. I got off at Goodge Street for the last time, and walked to School. I walked in to the AIFS office "HEYYY!" I yelled. "Hellooo" "Look! It's the Third" "Hey you! How are you?" were all the responses I got. I talked to everyone briefly about my trip and then asked if it was ok for me to check my email. They said yes so I jumped online to check my email, bank accounts, and email my family letting them know I was in London. I also checked my mail-mail; I had received a letter from Katie while I was gone. She sent me pictures and a card saying hello; and if anyone didn't already know... Katie's HOT. After that I said my goodbyes, shared my website address with the staff so they could see my pictures from the going away party, and then left. I went across the street to buy a sweater to bring home. They were 22Pounds though, I thought they were only 16 for some reason. I could justify spending $32 on a sweater, but couldn't bring myself to pay $44. So instead I just bought another shirt since I know that I'll get use out of that. I then walked over to picked up my checked bag from the hotel-bag-storage I used before I left. It took me a while to find my ticket since I couldn't remember where in my wallet I put the damn thing. After that was the post office to buy stamps. I had a whole stack of postcards for Theresa (since that was what she wanted from Europe) but I didn't have her address... I would have to call home for it. Now it was time to get to my hostel and check in, then I had errands to run. The Picadilly Backpackers Hostel was... decent. The guy at the counter was kind of a pig in my opinion. He was hitting on every girl that walked in. Before I checked in there was a blonde who had just checked in, in front of me. The guy was hitting on her, she made a comment about her sisters arriving later that afternoon. He said "Oh you have sisters?" "Yes, we're triplets" she replied. "Triplets?!? We should have an orgy!" he said with a smile. "Yeah.... we should... " she muttered, and walked out. Anyway, I got my room key and made my way to my room. Dropped off my bags, and then realized I should re-pack while it was still light out. I basically unpacked everything from both bags, decided what I would be wearing the next three days, and re-packed accordingly. After finally getting everything sorted, then packed in the easiest-to-access way, I left to run errands. I walked down to Leister Square and realized they were preparing for another movie premiere. Tonight was going to "A Series of Unfortunate Events"; this opening I would definitely show for, I would get to see Jim Carey. I walked through the Square and bought a bad piece of pizza from the "only good pizza place" that Jay would always go too. I figured it was my last night in England and I should have one more bad piece of pizza for old time's sake. I should have passed on it. After eating cliff bars, drinking fluids all day, the pizza felt like a brick in my stomach. I walked towards Trafalgar Square to check that out once more. As I did there was a street artist painting on the ground. He had already finished "The Last Supper" and was now starting on a new one. See that, I didn't have to worry about missing "The Last Supper" in Milan... I saw it in England. I then went back to Leister and waited for the Limo's to pull up for the movie. I saw all the other stars of the movie get out and make their way down the carpet. Merril Street (However you spell her name) was there too; I don't know if she's in the movie or not. Then a car with all black windows pulled up right near where I was standing; and Jim Carey jumped out. He ran around shaking hands, signed a few autographed, and started a wave. I had to listen to the really annoying bells on the Swiss building one more time too. I headed down to Oxford Street again too. I almost bought more clothes because of the clearances they were were having. I could have got more jeans for about $12 a pair... it was tempting, hahaha. I looked around to see to see if I could find any jackets similar to the one I saw in Germany, but didn't. I finally got bored and headed back to the hostel after picking up an "Undergound" sticker for me, and birthday present for Katie. I went back to the hostel that night with the intent to just work on my laptop for a bit and then try to get some sleep before my flight the next morning. As walked in there was a girl who was gettin dressed to go out that night. She said "Hi" and I said "Hi" back. We talked for a while and it turned out she was there with her sisters. They were all from Norway and were on vacation together for a few days in London. They invited me to go out with them that night to a bar. I first said "No thanks, I have to be up early for my plane". We kept talking though and soon her other sister walked in and joined in the conversation; they were two of triplets. We talked for a bit longer; they were going to Covent Gardens and had no idea how to get there. They were going to ask the guy at guy at the counter for directions and I joked that the guy would probably give them directions to his house instead since he already was hitting on their sister earlier that night. I told them I'd walk with them down to Covent since it was only a mile or so. We didn't end up leaving for a while because the two of them took a while getting ready. The second sister, Mary Ann, kept changing what she was wearing. Afterward she apologized for the strip tease...uh huh, yeah... I'm sorry too. Turns out that Mary Ann speaks Spanish, in addition to Norwegian and English, and studies in Spain. Kerry knows Norwegian, English, and French; and she's currently studying in France. I... know English. When they were finally ready we walked to Covent Gardens and I pointed out different areas we passed along the way. I figured they should at least know the basic area of where they were staying. We got to Covent and tried to find the bar that their sister was at. We walked all around and started asking people if they knew where it was. I let the girls do the talking because people were more likely to help a hot Norwegian girl then a scruffy looking american guy. Well we finally ended up finding the place that their sister was at; after we went into about 3 different other bars and pubs and asked directions. After a big round of hugs by all the girls we went to a restaurant down the street and picked up one of their other friends; a Spanish guy from Madrid who was currently trying to make it as a Shakespearian actor. From there we went back to Covent Gardens met up with some a Scot that they also knew and we were going to go to the bar their. The Scots best friends knew the bouncer, so we got in even though the place was full. There was a 4pound cover which sucked cuz I was pretty broke; but it was my last night in England so I can't complain. Once inside the we found a nice spot to stand, since there was absolutely no where to walk. I talked to the Spaniard for a while. He was really interested to talk to me knowing that I had just spent a few months in England for English Literature and had also studied quite a bit of Shakespeare. I never thought I'd be standing in a bar in England discussing Shakespeare with a Shakespearean actor that I had just met an hour before. The Scot, who's name I don't remember either, was buying everyone drinks and was happy to buy me a Coke when he heard I don't drink. His friend, who was much older (around 50 I think) kept saying "You seem like a nice boy, that's good you don't drink. You're a nice boy, don't change". We played the name game with the girls at one point. The Spaniard was 26, I guessed 24 and the girls guessed 22. I guessed the girls to be 22, I was right. The girls guess I was 25, and the Spaniard thought 24; they were shocked when I said that I was only 21. After chilling there til about 1 or so the girls were ready to go dancing, well, most of them. Mary Ann was pretty drunk, so she was going to go back to the hostel. The Scot paid for us to take a cab home, I volunteered to go back since I had to get up in the morning for my flight, and because I'm not about to let an extremely drunk Norwegian girl get in a cab and try to navigate a city she's never been in. We stood and waited for a cab for quite a while before actually getting one. The cabby got lost, I had to point and tell him where to go; Mary Ann got really irritated that he didn't know where we were going. But we made it back to the room, she crashed immediately, I put some stuff away and then laid down to get some sleep before the next morning.
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