So I just realized how far behind I am with trying to post to this. I promise to do much better in the future. For now, here's the end to my adventures in London.

On Saturday, September 13^th, James, Zoe, Ryan and I went to Cardiff, the capitol city of Wales. We got up early in the morning, headed back out to Paddington Station and started our two hour train ride into Wales. When we got into Cardiff, around 10:30, we set off for Cardiff Bay. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was nice to be along a large body of water. The whole Bay area was really beautiful and fun to explore. We found the Visitor’s Center by the bay, which was shaped like a torpedo or zeppelin. We picked up a better map of the area and proceeded to walk to the Millennium Center. There was a massive water fountain that was pretty cool to look at. From there we went to the Dr.Who exhibition. Dr. Who is an English science fiction show that is popular in England and the States. There were costumes from the show as well as different villains that are featured on the show, which was pretty cool. We had lunch at a Chinese buffet in Cardiff Bay and then walked up to the heart of Cardiff. We went up to Cardiff Castle, which is actually two parts. The first was the main house, which we had a guided tour of. There was literally gold foil to decorate the ceilings, which was a little crazy. The family who owned the house was incredibly wealthy. When it was no longer reasonable to have the house they gave it to the city of Cardiff, who turned it into a museum and a way to raise funds for the city. There is also a much older part of the castle that has been there for many centuries. We were allowed to go up into it and look around, which, while there wasn’t much there besides the remains of the building, it was still pretty cool. The steps were really narrow and steep in parts, but it was still a lot of fun. While we were up on top of the old chapel we noticed a nice looking park right next to the castle, so we walked over there and went through part of it, which was really pretty. There was a really creaky bridge that you could feel moving while we walked over it. From there we set off to find St. Fagan’s National History Museum, which, on the map, looked really close, but after walking for 25 minutes and not encountering it, we decided to turn back. We found out after we got home that it was about 5 miles away from where we were. We went to dinner at the Prince of Wales pub, which is a member of the Weatherspoons chain of pubs, which have a really good reputation. The food was really good and well priced, which was really good. After we were done dinner, we walked back to the train station and were back in London by 9. Overall it was a really nice day. We got to see a good bit in Cardiff and the weather was wonderful.

The next day completed the absolutely perfect weekend. We slept in for a while. When we woke up I made my first attempt at English pancakes, which are quite a bit different than pancakes from home. After that we decided to go out to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. There were a lot of people there and we couldn’t really see too much, but the music was really good. After that we sat in Green Park and tried to figure out what we were going to do next. It was a really nice day outside, and after having run all over the UK the previous day, it was nice to take a few minutes to just chill out. We finally decided we would go and check out a place called Covent Garden, which is like a huge flea market. There were dancers and really awesome musicians, as well as good deals on scarves, food, and post cards. We spend a couple of hours there and then decided we wanted to go to Hyde Park, which is a fairly massive, well-known park. We found a bench by a fountain and just sat there for a while. There was an Andrew Lloyd Webber festival going on not too far from where we were, so I got to listen to “Music of the Night” from the Phantom of the Opera, while sitting in a park, by a fountain, on a bench in the sun. It was a pretty awesome experience and one that I am not going to forget any time soon, or ever. We left our bench and walked over to Speaker’s Corner, which is where anyone with anything to say can set up a foot stool and tell people what they think. It was an ….interesting….experience. There were your basic over zealous religious people, one of whom told us that only people in yellow shirts could go to heaven. He mostly said this because Zoe was wearing a yellow shirt, which meant that James, Ryan and I are just out of luck apparently. There were also a guy and a girl with signs that said “Free Hugs” which I thought was pretty cool, mostly because I’d heard of the Free Hugs campaign before. We also got to see the Marble Arch, which is one of the signature pieces of Hyde Park.

Monday wasn’t really that exciting. We had class in the morning and then didn’t do too much in the afternoon. Our seminar did get cookies from the dining hall at Gettysburg, under the oath that we would take pictures with the cookies at landmarks around the area and wherever we were traveling during our week off. That night the entire seminar went out for dinner at Kahn’s, which was a really good Indian restaurant.

Tuesday we went to Westminster Abbey. I loved it. The architecture was really beautiful and there were all kinds of people buried there; anyone from Isaac Newton to several Kings and Queens of England, including Queen Elizabeth I. We spent a good couple of hours in there just wandering around and looking at everyone who had been buried in the abbey over the years. That night, we did a pot luck dinner with our entire seminar group, where each room brought something to eat and we all shared. It was really fun and the food was excellent.

Wednesday we had class in the morning and then opted for taking the afternoon off. We have all been getting a little burnt out from running around all the time and have taken the opportunity to relax for a while in preparation for next weeks adventures, which I’ll get to shortly. That night we went on a walking pub tour of the south bank of the Thames. It was pretty cool to get another look at the history of London and of the different aspects of it.

Thursday was our last, real, day of class. After it wrapped up, we mostly concentrated on packing and getting ourselves ready for our week of travel. We did go out and see The Mousetrap, which is the longest running play in London. It’s a murder mystery and at the end, the audience is sworn to secrecy as to the ending, so I won’t go into any more detail, other than that it was pretty cool.

Friday we had class late, and only for about 45 minutes, just to wrap everything up and go over check out procedure. That night, James, Ryan, Zoe and I went out for dinner at the Hard Rock Café in London, which is the original. We had a pretty good time.