Day 1, Continued

Ryan came and got me from my hostel and we headed to Zahrah's apartment.  I sat with Ryan while he had coffee and a lemon custard tart and we caught up on life.  Then we all went to Poppie's and had fish n' chips.  I had never had it before but it was really good.  Then we went to a local pub to get a drink... boy what a mistake it was to choose that place.  The 2 girls behind the bar were so rude to Sana and I- I can only assume that it was because we were American.  After being snubbed one too many times, we all left.  Ultimately, we ended up back at Zahrah's apartment building where we found that they were having a Queen's Jubilee party.  The highlight of the party... free cider and sandwiches of all sorts.  I had never had alcoholic cider before either, but it was delicious and ice cold.  Ryan, Sana, and I made mannnyy trips going back and forth from the lobby to the party to get more food/drinks.  We couldn't all go in because I was unable to be checked in by Zahrah due to there being too many of us.  Zahrah did not partake in the party because she has a paper that is due Friday that she was working on.  We met a whole bunch of people from all over the world and exchanged phone numbers with a few of them.  Several hours, and many liters of cider later, we all left, along w/ Zahrah and some of her friends.  We went to St. Peters Park to watch the televising of the Queen's Jubilee concert.  We didn't know who most of the artists were, but we sang and danced (and drank) anyway.  After leaving that concert we headed to my hostel so that I could get checked in.  I learned that my room has 5 sets of bunk beds in it.  The only one left was a top bunk, which I was happy about.  I changed my shoes, put my bag away, and off we went.  We went down to Soho to El Cantara, a restaurant with a shisha (hookah) terrace.  Sana and I split 2 appetizers- hummus and the 'table de queso'.  The queso app was delicious- 3 different strong cheese w/ crusty bread and some kind of apricot tasting jam.  Then we had some hookah and I had hot chocolate for dessert.  I find that while I am here I want hot chocolate every 10 minutes, but I will have to limit myself or I will gain all of my weight back.  After we were done at dinner the friends put me on my right bus and I headed off.... only to miss my stop and end up on the bus for 20 extra minutes - ending at a station several miles from my hostel.  I ran up to a local pub and asked for help.  The man advised me that I was in the right place and needed to go back and wait for the same exact bus that had let me off when it "terminated" at that station.  As it turns out, my original bus driver had simply stopped to take a smoke break; 20 mins later I was on my way back in the right decision. I finally arrived at my stop, and after asking 2 people how to get to my hostel, I made it there safely.  I unlocked my room to find that everyone was already in bed asleep- I felt so bad and very surprised.  So I climbed in as quietly as I could and passedddd out.

Overall, it was a great day.  Got a lot of exercise walking and spent some time outside.  I got to the point that I was really tired though, even started falling asleep at the hookah spot.  The biggest issue yesterday was my calves/feet.  I've now developed a blister on the bottom of my left heel, and my calves are just wrecked from the 5k Saturday.  I keep trying to rub them, but it does not seem to help.  Eurotrip shall go on though!  :P