Blue and Rainbow Pride

Saturday saw me all over London and experiencing several different elements of what this great city has to offer. I began the day by heading to Stamford Bridge. This was on my to do list before I left and I'm so very glad that I made the trip across town. Stamford Bridge, for all of you who are confused, is the stadium of my football (soccer) team, Chelsea Football Club. After seeing the stadium several times on television, I knew I needed to see it in person.

Home Locker room

Front of Stamford Bridge

I arrived at the stadium around 11:15 a.m. and just made it into the 12 p.m. tour. Our tour guide, Niall, took us on an hour tour of the stadium. He took us into the media room, where we could sit at the front table and have our picture taken. Then we saw the away and home dressing rooms, that latter of which was much more hospitable. We ended the tour with a chance to sit in the Shed End and take great photos of the pitch (field). I then spent way more money than necessary at the stadium store and headed to the museum to see the Champions League Trophy. It was such an awesome experience and I really hope to return to England to actually see a game. 

Love Love Love

After spending almost three hours at Stamford Bridge, I met up with Melissa in Trafalgar Square, who had stumbled upon World Pride 2012. London was the host of the World Pride, an event that seems to occur every five years since 2000, but actually happens every six years. (All I know is that Wikipedia lies). There were thousands of people there, and reports inform us that 25,000 people attended the event. It was absolutely amazing to see so many people together in support of this issue. We saw many people dressed in drag and other crazy outfits. Suffice it to say, it was a really awesome experience.

World Pride 2012

Then we headed back to the dorms to clean up before making a trek to Harrods to meet up with Jenny. Our trip into Harrods was.....an experience. Harrods on a Saturday afternoon/evening is not the time be there if you dislike a large number of pretentious, rich people, who don't understand walking. Alas, we did not realize that and went anyway. We battled our way through the massive crowds and found ourselves in the upscale food court, where we purchased items for our Hyde Park picnic. Such items included Hot Chicken Schnitzel sandwiches, strawberries, classy BBQ chips, and Scottish Oatmeal Cookies. We once more braved the packed streets to get ourselves to Hyde Park. Here, we enjoyed our dinner along the Serpentine River and were serenaded by the dulcet tones of Drake.

After a short walk along the river, we headed towards the underground in search of a pub. We got off at a random stop near our dorm. The first pub we stumbled upon was The Tottenham and we decided to go there to get a few pints. Then we met genuine British men! Several of them in fact. Not all of the names were remembered but there was Luke, the really cocky half British/half Irish mongrel (his words, not mine) who was "dating a girl from Poland," had an interview with a Japanese company on Thursday (repeated to us several times during the evening), and could obviously drink better than an American man. He loved his face and didn't believe in compromise, unless it was compromising to do what he wanted to do. And he hates the Labour Party and know what will happen to the economy but he won't tell us. Then there was Jacket (we don't remember his name). We thought he looked dapper in his jacket, sweater, and pink shirt, but he thought he looked gay (once more, his words, not mine). I think there was a dude named Rob, David (with the aubergine jacket), and birthday boy. And a French girl.

It was another amazing day in London and after three beers (for me, two ciders for Melissa and Jenny), we headed back to the dorms to sleep once more.

- Kate