Greenwich...

Last night some classmates and I hopped on the Tube headed to a neighborhood called Southall, which is supposed to be kind of a "Little India." With none of us being familiar with zone differences, we ended up in zone 4, two zones out of our prepaid card range, so we were locked in on the other side of the turnstiles. Somehow we managed to get out, but then found out that in order to properly pay the extra zone fees, it would have cost an additional 4 pounds each, so we were let back in and just went home! :( We ended up eating at an Indian place right down the street, which was pretty good, but considering we were all starving before we left, the hour-long diversion and the half an hour wait after we ordered our food was nearly too much to handle! Luckily the food was awesome! We generally all shared, and what they called chicken curry was much more like the chicken tikka masala another classmate and I are used to at home. YUM! We also ordered some lamb byrhani, muhr tikka masala and chicken kormah (sp?) and I'm missing one other one. Of course, I still can't wait to hit my favorite Indian restaurant when I get home! :)

Today was tiring, but a lot of fun! Two of our instructors and five other classmates and I took a riverbus on the Thames to Greenwich (pronounced Grenitch...still takes me a second to remember to pronounce it correctly). We left at 9am and didn't return until after 4pm. Greenwich is a very cute town. We walked up to the observatory and stood on the Prime Meridian! The view from the top was so pretty! There was a church steeple that poked through the clouds so beautifully...it reminded me of the Disneyland Castle! :D Unfortunately I couldn't get a very good picture of it!

This was actually the journey on the way home. It was tooooo cold on the way there to think of anything else but keeping my fingers warm. Luckily one of my instructors was willing to part with their extra sweater! :) Brrrrr

According to our tour guide, the small white building in the center called The Mayflower Pub is near the landing where our pilgrim fathers set sail on the original Mayflower!

This one made me think of home! Not the yacht in the front, but the small building to the left that says, "Phoenix Wharf."

I really enjoyed this view of the Tower Bridge from the other side! The sliced, hard-boiled egg building is one of my favorites as well! (I have to laugh, because I still feel like I'm rocking back and forth as I write this!)

Here is another one of my favorite buildings...the best view I've seen of it yet. And the structure in front of it is the Tower of London where the Crown Jewels are kept.

Here's another picture of it. I haven't toured this yet, but hope to do so soon!

Remember the boat from Pirates of the Caribbean? Our tour guide informed us that this...has nothing to do with that! :P Cute ship though!

This is the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, which was closed shortly after opening for extensive repairs due to poor planning. Oooops!

Tomorrow we go see The Woman in Black! Tonight, I think I need to drink some coffee and get started on some reading that I managed to neglect all weekend! I'll look forward to telling you more as it happens! :) TTYL