Goodbye Europe

Day three in Tunbridge wells we headed south to Hastings with Ryan's parents for lunch. Here we were treated to a view of the English coast line. After walking around for a while we stopped for lunch - Fish & Chips.


A hill in Hastings.

Following lunch, we found an arcade/games place on the pier where we all gambled away some change at one of those games where you try to knock pennies off a ledge. At least it was an entertaining way to lose some money, but keep in mind that bumping the machine sets off an alarm!


The pier that bankrupted us. Most of it is closed because they are worried about it collapsing.

That night we headed to Tonbridge for a dinner with a large group of Ryan's family. They are definitely an entertaining group of people, and it was great to meet all of you. Afterwards we parted ways and Ryan and I took a cab back to our hotel for our last night in Tonbridge wells.

In the morning Ryan's parents picked us up from our hotel and took us to the train station where we would head back to London (and they would fly home). It was good to see some familiar faces and we both are very grateful for all of the hospitality! Thank you!

In London we checked into our hotel which was quite nice and in a great location, and then headed out for the day. We had still not seen Picadilly Circus (which had been compared to Times Square), so that was our destination for the day.


Some of the advertising at the Circus.

It's not quite as tall as Times Square, but is a busy area with lots to do. There are theatre & comedy show promoters everywhere, lots of shops, and lots of restaurants. We had lunch here, and afterwards tried a "99" ice cream cone which was pretty good.

That night, England was playing France in the Rugby World Cup in a game that would decide who went to the finals. We went to an English pub for dinner & beers and watched this game. Neither of us know anything about Rugby but it was still entertaining, especially since England won!

The next day we decided it was time to get a decent aerial view of the city of London, so we made the short tube trip over to the London Eye. It's quite expensive, but you do get a 30 minute journey with great views of the city in all directions (even though it was a bit smoggy).


Some of the city in the background...


A view from the top where you can see one of the capsules we were in.


Ryan shows us The London Eye from the ground.

At night we went back down to the Picadilly Circus area for dinner, and then found a night club to go to (since it was our last night in London, AND Europe). Cover was a bit pricey, and after we were there for maybe 20 minutes they announced that the bar was closing soon. Apparently on Sunday nights they stop serving alcohol at 12:30am, but stay open until 3am - what a joke!

Today we left our bags at one of the train stations and went to Oxford Street to do some shopping (or "Window Shopping" given our budget). Since we have my laptop now, we decided it would be good to find somewhere to kill some time before our flight. Since Starbucks charges for wireless Internet, we stopped at McDonald's where it is free (this is where we are now). We're just killing another hour before hopping on the train to Heathrow for our 10pm flight to Singapore.

We're both a bit surprised at how fast the last 2 months have gone, but know we have seen a ton of sights in such a short time on this trip. We're now ready to move on, and are both excited about seeing a bit of Asia on our way to Australia. The most disappointing thing is that it's not long before we have to find jobs again!

Anyways - good bye from Europe, the next time you hear from us will be from Singapore.