American Wildcat Finally Discovers London

We're taking a break at the Roebuck for a little bit, and we should be heading the Eye in a little bit. Anyway, on to yesterday's travels.

Saturday
I had to wake up around 8:30 in order to get ready to leave as we had to be out of our rooms by 9:30 for some reason. I went down and turned in my keys and card, so they won't be charging me 50 pounds. Most of the group made it down, but Matt was absent for some reason. John J and I went up to his room in order to see if he was awake. He had just got up about 10 minutes before we got to his room, so he was still packing (oops). After getting him downstairs finally, we went to the covered market and found some breakfast. Laura had a train to catch at 12:07 to Yorkshire (she was going to the Bronte house), so we had to let her go. The Porter called for a cab (we were able to leave our suitcases in the Porter's Lodge), and we hugged her goodbye. It was sad. Then, we headed to the Ashmolean (an art gallery in Oxford) for a little while before getting our own cab to the train station around 4. There were two trains at 3:55 and 4, so we had our choice. However, when we got on the first train, a man told us that the next train was the express train to London, so we got off and waited another 5 minutes. Yet, the speaker said that the train was full. Therefore, we missed both trains. Luckily, lots of people like London, so the next one came in around 20 minutes. It wasn't the express train as we ended up in London around 6. From there, John J and I went to King's College as Matt headed to West London and Ashley to her hotel outside of the Paddington Station. We were pretty tired after carrying everything, so we decided to come to the Roebuck for a drink and to check our email. Jill was already there, so she came with us. After drinking and eating (the fish and chips here are really good), we decided to go see London at night. Oh my God! What a sight to see (I'll try to put up pictures at some point, but my camera doesn't do night very well). Until now, I had almost felt like I was just in another part of the US, but after seeing the Parliament Houses and Big Ben lit up, I knew I had arrived. Tingling sensations and all. It was really cool. You hear and see these things in textbooks and on TV, but when you see it in person, it is incredible. At that point, I knew I was in London. We walked around for a little longer down toward London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. All of which are pretty cool at night (although London Bridge is rather unspectacular and the pink light illuminating it was a bit odd). Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are really cool, and we'll definitely make another trip there during the day. Around 12, we were all really tired, so we came back to the hotel. I can't wait to see the rest of London.

Observations:
- Blinking yellow lights on streetlights mean "You can go, but watch for pedestrians" apparently.
- Southwark (where the hotel is) and Central London look completely different. Like not even close.
- The three main American fast-food places are Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and Burger King. I haven't seen any others (although I did see a Tumbleweed today -- who would've thought?)