the first day sightseeing in london...

long awaited (by me only :P) and much delayed (again by me only :P) ...here goes my account of the first day i spent sightseeing in london

a windy, chilly day, it rained for the better part of the day starting early afternoon. my host practically made me wear her sneakers and jacket, and made me change from the summery skirt and strappy sandals before I left in the morning, and God bless her for that!!! I'd've frozen to death on my first day :P

first day on the national rail and tube. first destination : Buckingham palace - change of guards ceremony. train from clapham junction, platform 14 to the victoria station, from there walk to the buckingham palace, as always lost the way in the first attempt and went in the exact opposite direction, amazing how I manage to get lost on a 5 minutes walking distance :P Well I walked back, and met an indian lady,
her daughter and grandson , delightful company :). The place was so heavily crowded that I wondered if it was even worth it, and maybe it was because I was tired of tip toeing, I decided it wasn't after half an hr and so I turned around and took a walk along the st. james park instead. A beautiful park, and the weather actually made the walk more enjoyable. :) I then walked towards traffalgar sq., again in the exact opposite direction, and reached BigBen and the Houses of parliament instead. Took some pictures and walked on to traffalgar sq..

By now I was quite starved, so I bought a sandwich n juice along the way from a tesco metro where all the cashiers were asians?! , and a bangladeshi cashier played a prank on me asking for 13 pounds instead of 3. That was when I realised what it feels like to be tourist, its like you are holding a placard saying "I am a tourist" :P, a

Neways, ate my sandwich at the traffalgar sq. took a few pics and asked sm1 for westminster abbey, and realised it was next to bigben!! :D :D :D . So once more I was stabnding in the exact opposite directiion to where I wanted to go :P

I walked back, adn decided to walk across a bridge instead. In middle of the bridge i asked for directions, and well, was again in the opposite direction, :O

By now I was quite used to being me, so i just kept moving, crossed the bridge, came along the other side on thames, walked past the london eye with the intention of coming on same evening there, took a few pics a lot of ppl were doing these entertainment shows on the street and sm were dressed as statues!! neways, walked back across another bridge reached westminster abbey only to realise that it was time to meet a friend at tower bridge!

so I went back to the westminster station, found and bought "the film" for another friend, entered the platform , this time for the train going in the opposite direction, walked up the station again and went round the other way to the actual platform i wanted, hopped on the tube, had the rest of my sandwich, got off at

tower hill station, walked up the station to tower of london, where I did find my friend sitting there, waiting for me. First day all alone in london, getting the oppsoite direction 4 times since morning and still Only 20 min late :P, I felt really proud of me :P :P

to be continued...