Day 16 - London

Emily and I woke up early to pack.  The other two girls sharing our room (from Uruguay) were also packing.  Four girls trying to pack in the 12 inches between two bunk beds slowed us down immensely.  We left later than planned and barely fit into the elevator together with all of our gear.  After leaving our stuff in storage, we made a brief stop at the water pump from which the cholera epidemic spread in the 1850s, then left in search of a nice yet affordable breakfast place.  We rejected the few expensive ones in proximity.  Then we couldn’t find any places to eat at all!  We gave up and carried on, and it wasn’t until almost city center that we happened upon a charming French place where we ordered traditional English breakfast.  There were fresh roses on every table, and Emily and I shared a romantic exchange of bacon.

We had many plans for the day, none of which we got around to on our aching feet.  Definitely booking a bus tour in the next city.  A little more wandering and we rushed to meet Emily’s friend Catriona for tea at Fortnum & Mason’s, the premiere tea shop in London rumored to supply the queen herself.  The store itself is enormous (three stories) with chandeliers, endless varieties of tea, tea cookies, confectionaries, teapots and tea cup sets, and every sort of tea accessory imaginable.  We were escorted upstairs for our reservation, where we ordered the Jubilee Tea.  This year is the queen’s diamond jubilee (60 years!), for which Fortnum & Mason blended a unique “Jubilee Tea.”  Tea was served in personal tea pots with tiered plates of scones and pastries with sweet cream and jam for each person.  It was lovely!  After this experience I could use no other adjective but “lovely” and tried picking up an accent.

We took our tired feet shopping on Oxford Street where we found one expensive discount store and, against all odds, one affordable discount store!  I bought pants for ₤3 ($5).  We picked up our backpacks, and I emptied out my wallet buying an underground pass to Catriona’s house.  We caught our train and clumsily arranged our luggage in the aisle.  Catriona’s mom picked us up from the underground station to save us from the 10 minute walk to the house, which would have been about 10 minutes too much.  We stayed up having tea (with milk, of course) and Catriona’s mom made us all snack plates as we hadn’t eaten since tea time.  We were exhausted, but stayed up late chatting about England and the queen and other oddities before retiring to our best night of sleep yet.