During March break, in my grade 12th year, I went to Europe with a group of friends from my reserve, along with a few chaperones. We travelled to London, England, and throughout France. I have so many memories throughout this trip. Alot of my good memories about grade 12 have come from this trip.
Our trip started out on Friday, March 09, 2001 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. From there, we travelled to Pearson airport in Toronto, and then finally Heathrow airport in London. This was my first flying esperience, at least that I can remember. Apparently, my mom said that I flew from Toronto to Thunder Bay when I as a baby, but I really don't remember that. I was so nervous, flying such a long distance, and over water. I was sure the plane was going to crash, and I was going to die. lol. The person sitting next to me, Cindy, was one of the chaperones of the group and she assured me it wasn't going to happen. I was still scared none the less. I ended up loading myself up with gravol and slept a good deal of the way from Toronto to London. I was in the middle row, so it wasn't any use staying awake to see the ocean as we flew over top of it. lol.
When we landed in London, it was early in the morning, and our tour guide, who was holding up her own name instead of our name, left the airport without us. Since we had no freakign clue where we were going, we stayed at te airport for 3 hours! We were feeling all gross, disgusting, and really tired. Finally, she came back for us, and we got to the hotel safe and sound. When we got to the hotel, we were pleased. The name of the hotel was called "The Grand Hotel", and it looked really nice from the outside. It wasn't, however, as noce on the inside. Don't get me wrong, I've stayed at worse looking hotels, but this one had 2 double beds, and a pair of bunk beds. I, ofcourse got stuck sleeping on the bottom bunk, but I didn't mind, as long as I didn't get stuck on the top. That would have sucked completely. I ended up sharing a room with my 2 cousins Erin and Shelly, and a friend, Annie. I didn't mind getting put with them. In fact, I think it made my trip hella better. lol. After we got checked in and everything, I was really in need of a shower. I felt so gross, and dirty, it wasn't even funny, but our tour guide informed us, we had to get cleaned up and back downstairs in less then 1/2 an hour for our tour of London. There was no way any of us were gonna be able to shower and get ready in that time, so we went to our room, changed our clothes, and left.
The bus tour was pretty exciting. We got to see many of the famous sites of London, such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and London Bridge. It was really nice. We stopped for quick photo opportunities at each stop before gettign back on the bus to tour the rest of London.
After the bus tour, we went on a walking tour of London. We went to the Apple Market, and Picadilly Circus. I loved Picadilly! It was awesome, all the street performers were cool, and the food was pretty good too. Erin got pretty embarrassed a couple of times here, but I won't get into too much detail about that right now. hehehe.