The City

Thursday 28 June, London

After bidding Jane (and Charing) farewell, it was train to London and walk to the Tourist Office for our London Passes and tube tickets, then tube to our hostel where we dumped our bags (that felt good) and went for a river cruise along the Thames, where we saw all kinds of interesting stuff, from the warehouse where they film The Bill to the multi-million pound wharf that they can't knock down, to the glass dome that isn't there anymore because they took it down to the country for safe keeping during the war, where it immediately got bombed. I won't even try to tell you about everything else - if you're in London, jump on the ferry. It's good value - especially if you get the cockney guide we had. We then tried to get half-price tickets to Phantom but they'd sold out for that night, and we couldn't book ahead, so we'll have to come back tomorrow.

Tubed back to the hostel, where dinner was a pita with chicken & stuff on it, from the local supermarket (quite yummy, really) and a chat with the guy sharing our room, a student from Sydney called Shannon who was studying in Ireland and spending his holidays wandering around the UK. We then had a shower in their (for want of a better word) bathroom... the place we stayed in was colourful but the bathrooms were dirty and gooey and we definitely wore our thongs. (That's flip-flops for you non-aussies.. get your minds out of the gutter.) Still, Emily (of 'Weee Neeeed Teeeeed' fame - see later) said her hostel smelled of urine, so I guess it could have been worse...