London: Day 4 - defeated tourist

Today, I think exhaustion has start to hit.  Work is crazy and trying to get everything that I would like to wrapped up before I leave Friday morning is not looking like the easiest task - especially because I'm not going to sit at the office all night missing out on stuff in this city!  But I'll make it work.

Tonight I headed to the London Eye (after taking the awesome ferry again).   I had already bought my ticket online, so that was nice and saved me from waiting in one line!  

Headed first into the 4D experience about the London Eye.  I wasn't sure what to think about "4D", but I guess that means it's not just on the screen, but really touches you.  Because there were real life bubbles popping and lights going off and confetti being thrown.  It was pretty neat.  Worth the 4 minutes of my life!

Waiting in line *yes, I feel like all I do is wait in lines* to get on the London Eye.

But this scene made it worth the wait!

It was a pretty amazing structure.   When I was first riding in and saw it from the car, I was terrified and thought it was a fast ferris wheel.  But nope, it moves pretty slow that you can barely feel it moving.  And I only got afraid a few times when it stopped randomly!

Then I just took lots of pictures.  LOTS.  So sorry.  It was just so pretty.

Everyone at the office was making fun of me because I was going to go on Monday night and actually stood in a rather long line to get my ticket, but then realized by the time I finally got on it, it would likely be dark and I really wanted to time it perfect so that I was going up when it was light still and down when the sun was setting/it was getting dark. 

Well - apparently I did time it perfect, because that was exactly what happened and it was beautiful!

The car in front of us was a party of women that someone brought on champagne & appetizers (it must have been like a package or something, but it was pretty cool!).

Selfie (I only got one of these - unlike the crazy foreign girl that stood there for 15 minutes snapping God knows how many pictures of herself.  So weird!)

Headed down!

Waterloo train station (which I eventually got majorly lost in/around)

If I would have just got on the tube and gone back to my flat after that, it probably would have been a good call.  Instead, I had googled where this Yo Sushi place was that I visited on Sunday (but didn't eat at) and I was determined to find it.  I had the google location brought up on my phone, but that apparently wasn't good enough.  My sense of direction in that area (had never gone exploring on that side of the river with really no plan) was useless.  I walked the wrong way for awhile and it was starting to get cold.  I knew I eventually was going to get back on the tube at Waterloo, so I just gave up and decided to head back.  When I finally bit the bullet and turned on the data on my phone so Google maps could guide me there (yes, even though it's a company phone, I'm still cheap and feel bad for spending loads of $$ on data).  Apparently, that couldn't even help me.  I wandered for what I felt like was an hour and still couldn't find it.  By this point I was starving.  And hadn't been on the tube route I was thinking I needed to take back ever, so I figured to start that path and I'd find something along the way.

Well - I got on the right tube, but oh my goodness.  The map is for sure not to scale.  I had to walk so long to get to my train (guess that's what I get for going to the biggest station in London to get on) and then when I got off, I had to walk forever through all these tunnels and up and down all the escalators to FINALLY emerge on the streets again!  It was crazy.  I was getting pretty discouraged (and still hungry) and my legs were hurting from walking.  So I was feeling like a defeated tourist.

One of the billion escalators I walked up

 When I finally started walking streets I was familiar with and saw the building that our office was in - I'm not going to lie, I felt so much better!!  I just wanted to get back!

But then the search for food began.  And since the area I'm staying in is very heavy with tourists and workers during the day, there is not much open at night.  Or let me put it this way, not much open that is good that also takes Amex.  Haha.  Still dealing with this.  Almost over.

I even went into 2 places on my walk back thinking I could just grab take out or something, but one was a super swanky bar that didn't do take out (and I didn't want to sit in alone) and then the other was a pub that smelled bad that I walked in and walked out.  At that point, all I wanted was a burger.  I would have taken McDonald's at that point.

But I decided to just be safe and get it over with, I'd start walking back to my flat and just go to Wagamama (where I'd been Sunday night AND we are having for lunch in our office tomorrow).  But decided I'd just get a salad I'd been eyeing there.  

However, I wanted a burger?  Well - I walked up and guess what I saw?  Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  Very similar in my opinion to Blanc Burgers in KC.

I ordered a completely delicious Avocado, Bacon burger with skinny fries and it was amazing.  I walked back home, read a few chapters from my book and was satisfied.  

Still feeling like a somewhat defeated tourist today, but I'm going to try to go to bed early, hoping that shakes off tomorrow for my last day of work in the office here!

Tomorrow's plans?  One of my coworkers from Lenexa is also here with his wife and son and they are going to see the Lion King tomorrow night and wanted to see if I wanted to tag along.  I thought about it because it was so nice of them to ask, but then I think I'm going to take the tube to Notting Hill and just walk around.  I'm sure there will be nothing too exciting to see, but for some reason, I am so close to it that I kind of just want to say that I've been there.  Plus, I've seen the Lion King on Broadway when it came to KC.  I'm sure the KC Music Hall is NOTHING like a London Broadway experience and if it was Wicked, I'd go again in a heartbeat, but I think I'll stick to flying solo and enjoy one last night alone before I head back to KC on Friday morning.  (OMG - I'm so excited to go home and see my boys and sleep in my own bed!!)