Thursday, July 9th

Derek, Kody and I headed out to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. I had already been with my family, but I decided it would be nice to go again because there was a strike going on the day I went with my family. I saw a bit more things and had more time to enjoy the paintings that I rushed by before. There was also less people at the Museum. It was nice to revisit the Van Gogh, Monet, and the Ugly Duchess, probably my most favorite painting of all time.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/quinten-massys-an-old-woman-the-ugly-duchess

We knew that we were going to go to the London Eye that night, suggested by Frank because the weather was nice, so we didn't want to go back to the flat because we were already somewhat close to the London Eye. So, instead we went to the Sherlock Holmes pub which was pretty neat. Oh, but I had to go to Boots first to get allergy medicine. It was my first time inside Boots and the chemists were very friendly. I also got antibiotics without a prescription.

At the pub, I got the Sherlock Holmes ale which was very delicious and also cheap. The boys had 2 beers and I just had one. There were not any seats inside so we sat outside across the street. Seemed kind of strange to walk so far away with their glasses, but that was our only option and there were also lots of people Derek had a funny moment with change and the bartender and I had a funny moment with the bartender because I ate an apple (I seem to always have many apples) and put my core in my glass. I'm cheap, yolo. There aren't any trash cans around (rubbish bins) because the IRA used to put bombs in them. So if you have trash you're just kind of stuck with it. Better than being bombed.

Derek, Kody and I were hungry, but not too hungry and also missing the US. We looked for a place to eat but couldn't find anything we felt like so decided to look for a McDonalds, and "found one" in the Waterloo station. We had trouble finding it, so Kody got a burrito and I got a lox bagel, but Derek found the McDonalds. I had a strawberry lemonade from McDonalds. There was a cute kid playing with me through this window. I was smiling at him and teasing him. I tried scaring him but the game had ended at that point. He was a cutie.

After that it was pretty close to 8 so we walked to the London Eye. I was stressed because we kept hopping in and out of line waiting for people and by 8:20 people were fed up so we got in line and were going to leave people. I was feeling so bad. The line was stressful. Eventually the stragglers caught up and managed to push themselves up to join our group! It was magical. It was the golden hour, we got lots of selfies and we also sang the hymn to the garnet and the gold up at the top looking down on London. It was wonderful. Phenomenological moment.