They Really Do Exist!

I wasn't sure whether or not the Monty Python guys made it up or if British women actually possess the power to talk in an incredibly high pitch. This I discovered was a fact of nature at my hostel in London when a woman about 60 walked in and started speaking to her son(?). I couldn't keep my eyes and ears off her in total disbelief! It was amazing. It was such a thrill.
Well, on the whole, London was London. I got in around 12nn from my flight from Cork, took an express train to the main train station and the "tube" two stops to my hostel where I promptly crashed for a couple of hours before going to check out the neighborhood. I feel kind of silly because I ended up at a Borders bookstore about 5 blocks away. I enjoyed a huge cup of British Starbucks coffee with my Big Ben London guide until I was approached by a chatty Londoner who had his own opinions on what I should and shouldn't spend time on. I quickly retreated to my hostel where I met my roommates, an Italian named Guilia and a German, Franziska, and some others. We left for a pub about 20 minutes later and after starting to convert the amount we were spending in pound Sterling into our native currencies, left to go to the local grocery store and stock up on some cheap drinks. The rest of my days in London followed a similar pattern: rolling out of bed, checking out the sites, heading back to the hostel to my new little family and then some celebratory drinks. I went to Regent's Park, a beautifully landscaped park designed in the 1800s for London's upper class, Madame Tussauds, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye, Covent Gardens, Trafalger Square, Picadilly Circus, Tate Modern, Globe Theatre (where I saw "Antony and Cleopatra"), London Tower (my favorite), and some other more or less interesting places. By the time I left on Saturday I was $100 over budget and satisfied that although I didn't see half of the more interesting places, I covered the basics and that I can always return. Cheers!