A year ago: London

 London was our first trip on our own, which meant that it was a complete adventure! I think I covered the main stories in my post last year:
http://outsidethekartause.blogspot.com/2011/02/london.html

No first trip on your own would be complete without missing a bus or two. However, our morning did not begin with us missing the 5:50am bus, but me almost missing the fire alarm! There was an alarm (I thought for someone to wake up) going off at 3:15am and I was praying that someone would turn it off when Julie said to me and Claire, "you guys, I think that's the fire alarm" to which Claire and I groaned and asked, "why are they giving us a drill now?!?!" So we waited outside for 10 minutes during which the fire trucks came. It turns out that some cables were smoking, but it was safe enough that we could go back inside. Thank goodness!

So then we go to bed again, wake up at 5am for the 5:50 am bus which took us to the train station where we picked up our Vorteils cards, ran up to the platform, and missed the train by 10 seconds. And that was just the beginning. We also got on a train late, the wrong one, and had to run to our gate at the airport! Thank goodness we didn't have EU/UK passports, so we had the short lines for passport control!

What a fun time we had! It was great being in an English speaking country (so we could ask for directions-- really helpful when you don't have a city map!), but we found that we missed the Kartause. There's no place like home-away-from-home!

Regina, Julie, me, and Kita checking out the landmark red telephone booth!
I  think this is my favorite picture from the whole trip.

I'm a groundling at the Globe Theatre! Now, where is Shakespeare?

Kita, Claire, and Julie at the Pub in London where we enjoyed Fish 'n' Chips.
That is, after we enjoyed hot chocolate... and ketchup...

Me, Regina, and Julie "feed the birds" on the steps of St. Paul's for tuppence a bag.