London, Cont.

I'm very proud of myself for not having a glass of wine on the plane ride here, because it could have caused me to be seriously jetlagged. As it stands though, I feel amazing, since it's now 7 am, and I'm wide awake, showered and waiting for breakfast before I go on a bus tour. The 2 other girls in my hostel room came in REALLY late from the pub last night, and between the smell of stale beer coming from their direction, and the really strong BO from the black guy on the bunk above me, I needed to get up and out. Let's face it, when was the last time I was willingly awake at 7am in Canada?

Randy suggested the bus tour, and as much as I was apprehensive about sitting in a double decker bus with the stereotypically annoying American family on vacation, I've opted to go with it, since I only managed to walk from the Westend of London to the east yesterday, and my feet still kind of ache.

I saw Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and Big Ben on my own, and had a nice guy I met in a Starbucks show me the tower of London and the London Bridge before dinner last night.

I had this moment of feeling fiercely independent yesterday where I felt like I could manage to see the entire city on my own, with no help from anyone, but Randy's right that it's an easy way to see the sights. Plus, generally tour guides can tell you a little more about the sights than what you recall from history class or your own research.

I'm, as of yet, undecided about whether or not I should stay in London one more night, and am thinking, I should probably go to the St Pancras train station and check on availability for tonight's trains to Paris, and let that be the deciding factor.

I know that I've not seen even remotely a small portion of what this city can offer, but I also know I've managed to spend 60£ already on incidentals, and another $40 CAD on the hostel room, so it's a tossup. It definitely blows my $90CAD a day budget, but then I knew England would, so I shouldn't be so surprised.