London

My sister, Alexis, is in Europe right this very minute, and I'm soooo jealous! She's on a tour, which will last for about a month, and the tour goes to several European countries. My sister, Natalie, went on a similar tour when she was 20, and I did a study abroad program for four months when I was 20. The only countries I got to see were England and France, but the experiences I had, and the people I met, were invaluable. Lexi has been blogging about her travels, and I've had so many memories hit me. I thought I would scan a few of my pictures and memorabilia which compare to the things she has been doing.

The first thing she mentioned was going to Kensington Palace. The "London Center," where I stayed for those four months, was a few blocks away from Kensington Palace. It was one of the first places I went when I arrived. Princess Diana had died the day before our arrival, so when we went to visit, the palace, which is where she lived was swarming with people:

I'm willing to bet that every single person who lived in London at the time brought a bouquet of flowers and laid it at the gates outside the palace. She was so dearly beloved by the people of England. I should have taken a picture one week later - the flowers had piled up to be as tall as a person.

Lexi said that she and her new friends went back to their hotel and slept after that, which I can relate to. Jet lag sucks!! I wanted to go to the funeral procession for Diana, but I could not get out of bed. I had to get this picture taken to put with my tube pass, and you can see how out of it I was:

Um, I had some pretty large eyebrows at the time. :)

Lexi says she got pretty proficient in figuring out the underground subway system - the tube - which also brought back memories. Here is my copy of the tube map:

I love mass transit. We rode that thing everywhere. We always had black boogers, from all the dirt and soot down in the tube stations. Something really funny that is repeated over loudspeakers and is painted all over the platforms is the phrase, "Mind the Gap," which essentially means, "Watch out for the gap between the train and the platform." Because it's probably a foot or so from train to platform, and if you're not careful, your leg will fall in. My friends and I thought that sounded funny - Mind the Gap. This is a picture of me (on the left) and Melissa (on the right). Sorry for the horrible picture quality - this was before digital cameras:

Lex went to Big Ben on her second day in London, which is also one of the first things I did there. Another horrible-quality picture of me (on the left) and my friend Alicia (on the right):

I would show more pictures, but I don't want to bore you! I just thought it was fun to take a little trip down memory lane.