of the guard took place. From there I worked my way towards the Thames and the city of Westminster. The first stop was westminster cathedral. Huge stained glass windows, thousands of lit candles and an incredibly eerie silence made for a pretty epic experience. From the cathedral I managed to dissect my way through thousands upon thousands of sightseers to Westminster Abbey. Again my lack of funds meant I was restricted to an exterior view only. This however didn't take anything away from the incredible architecture of the place. Next to the abbey rounding up my days exploring was big ben, exactly as I had seen it in movies and exactly as I had pictured it being.
Later that night TJ (my London mate) took me out on the town in piccadilly circus. After consuming half a bottle of gin, many, many cheap vodka & cokes in the fashion of one Ollie Palmer, I found myself solo in the middle of London with no clue as to where home was. Fortunately I was able pull out some kiwi charm even Angus "Mac'n"Donald would have been proud of and found some ladies. By some act of grace, one of them lived in the same suburb I was staying and kindly let me share a taxi with them to a bus stop which I was informed would take me home. Two hours later with sunshine beating down on me I stumbled inside to bed.
After a day of recovery I caught a train to the Tower of London, furthur to the East. The tower itself was pretty cool, but the tower bridge certainly added to the experience. Across the bridge I visited the borough market where I had never seen so many crazy types of fruit/veg, fish and meat. Heaps of entertainers lined the pier round to the Eye of London making for a lovely day out in mid 20 degree heat. This unfortunately brought an end to my time in the UK. A cool city with immaculate females, an epic transport system and some very cool touristy sites, if not slightly too large and crowded.
Immediately after embarking on my flight out of London, I had a pretty good idea I was heading to the land of Sweden. Surrounded by several gorgeous blonde haired, blue eyed females I didnt even realize we had taken off until we touched down. After being dropped off in town by the bus, I had to wait 30 minutes for my not so big expat brother Blair to show up. In those minutes I met the Swedish love of my life, saw some really crazy drunken man try and fight someone and really started to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
My day and a half in Gothenburg Sweden was spent getting absolutely mortal (apparantly 7% beers don't agree with me), almost getting arrested, visiting a gnarly moose family in the center of town, and spending a day at Liseburg, the Gothenburg theme park. It was nice seeing my brother and his girlfriend again but I was definitely ready to seal the deal and get to Iceland.
ICELAND!
Finally I touched down in Iceland last night after many days of sightseeing to be greeted by foul weather and strange speaking Nordic folk. The entire bus ride from the airport to Reykjavik I was wondering what the f**k have I done. On a trip that took upwards of an hour there was not a single sign of a tree and hundreds of miles of barren rock filled wasteland.
Later that night over a tasty cigar (20 for $70!), I had a good chat to a nice Dutchman at the hostel I had checked in to, whom had been living over here for the past 6 months. He filled me in on some of the finer details I would need to know while residing here, very handy.
Later on tired and hungry I asked the woman at the hostel counter what her recommendations were for some cheap takeaway food, she suggested dominos and I agreed with thoughts of a $6.90 student pizza in mind. The man showed up and charged me 2500 ISK (approx. $27). FML.
Today I ventured into the city center, somewhat getting my bearings. I withdrew the maximum amount possible from an ATM (20000ISK), with which I only managed to pay off half the cost of my 5 day field trip that begins tomorrow. Still with no friends, I was getting a little disheartened at my monetary situation and dreading paying for my next meal. I decided to take a trip to the supermarket just to see whether or not I was truly done for $$ bill wise. A pack of $2 doritos, a $5 6 pack of my good friends 500ml PILSNER and a cheap pasta dinner later and I'm certainly feeling a lot better about myself.
Should be some cool pics coming from my field trip.
Stay classy.
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