tonight was probably one of the best nights of my LIFE!.... will get to that later....
first - this morning - got to sleep in (i love sundays!)... i slept until about 11/11:30ish, did some paper reading (read all the lancaster stuff - going to be SO much fun!) in bed and then got up/showered/dressed. we headed to the pancake house across the street (My Old Dutch Pancake House)..... it was SO delicious! i got a waffle with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. it wasn't what i expected - it was better. the waffle was a lot denser/heavier than ours at home - almost like a donut. ice cream tasted soooo good! haven't had it in forever. and the chocolate syrup.... was.... to die for. not hershey's - oh no.... this was thick belgian goodness in a bowl. mmmmmmm
after the pancake house, we came back to IES and i did a bit of work (my readings and work on the double major) and then took a half hour nap - i think sleeping in makes me MORE tired.
around 7, steve, katie, amanda, jess, dave and i met downstairs and headed for the thames festival. now, i was thinking this would be something little with some cute stands and whatever..... but, we got off the tube at blackfriars and on the bridge there was this massive parade... colors EVERYWHERE! everything moving, lots of people (LOTS) and music... basically like no parade i've ever been to before! we watched that for about a half hour and then kept going - wanted to see other things! we walked all along the south bank between blackfriars and the london tower bridge... there were pretty many stands (i'm guessing there were more yesterday/today during the day) but still a good amount - food, clothing, jewelry etc etc etc ... we walked down pretty far and then turned around to head back for the fireworks.... amanda and i bought cookies on the way back (they were reduced to 1L!), katie and jess got potatoes, steve and dave got hamburgers.... a good food night! hehe
now, as if this wasn't all good enough..... we headed back to see the fireworks. we had NO idea where they were going to be put off or where to stand (there were sooo many people - mostly on the blackfriars bridge looking over the thames to the west) so we headed there. we decided to stand along the bank wall, but... as we got closer, i saw a gate to go down to the beach (this 'beach' is covered by the thames at high tide.... but at night, low tide, it's about 20ish yards from the wall to the water).... seeing a few people down there, i suggested we go down - best thought EVER..... we ended up standing right next to the water and practically directly under the fireworks (turns out they were shooting them off from barges on the water).... we could not have asked for a more perfect view!!!! the display was FANTASTIC - about 20ish minutes of non-stop fireworks (i took video and pictures!) it was beautiful!!!
after they were over, we walked back along the river and made our way to the tube and home...
it was a pretty simple day, not too too packed with things..... but, this was probably one of the most memorable for me. standing under fireworks, along the thames river, IN LONDON!!!!.... i don't know how i'm going to go home. it's going to be sooo hard!
