Home For a Rest

I finished my European adventure with a few days in London. Monday I mostly just walked around the town. It was a nice walk as London has a bunch of little parks to go through and the weather in London was really nice.

I have been looking for yarn and fabric for my sisters and I sort of dropped the ball while in Ireland so I wanted to make sure I got them something here. I found a store online and then figured out how to get there by subway. While changing station I was walking to my next station and a voice comes over the intercom and says, "there is an emergency, will all passengers please exit the station immediately." This message was then repeated over and over again. I talked to a guy at the entrance and he said that it was probably something really minor like a sandwich or a bag left behind. Eventually I found the store the store was a little on the high end as far as stores go. The store had a rug there for 18,500 pounds and a dress for 550 pounds. So in the end I failed in getting any fabric for my sisters. Oh well, I think I can get over it.

Tuesday (St. Patrick's day) I started the day with a free walking tour. I like the walking tours because they give you a chance to get a lot of the history of the city and you also get a better feel of the area as you have to walk around. After the tour I ran over to Tower Hill to try and make it to the Grim Reaper tour, another free tour. This was a tour that would take you to Whitechapel and take you through the streets that the Jack the Ripper killings took place at. Unfortunately I just missed the tour. So I walked around the Tower of London and then went over to Whitechapel just to see what the area looked like. I suppose I will just have to go back to London so I can go on the actual tour.

Eric and I then met up at the Portugeese church for mass (remember it's St. Patrick's day). It's a little weird how the catholic churches are done in London. It seems as though each church is for a certain ethnicity.This was the Portugeese church, by our hostel was the Italian church. The time for mass came and past without any mass starting. We looked at the schedule and realized they had cancelled mass here and had to go over to St. Patricks (the Irish chruch). We made it for the second half of mass and got some blessed shamrocks. Afterwards I went to a little bar that offered live music. I figured that it would be Irish music being St. Patrick's day and all but I was wrong. So I tried the little Irish pub close to our hostel for some music. The first song was Irish but after that no such luck.

Wednesday I went home. The question I keep on getting is, "Are you glad to go home?" I guess I can just answer that now. It was great to see so much of Europe. I really enjoyed the whole trip and was a little upset to leave. But I really am glad to go home. Being away from family and friends was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Just the occasional email or instant message conversation just doesn't really cut it. I look forward to going back to Europe but its great to be home.