So surprisingly Frances and Reg didn't make that much noise leaving this morning. Either that or I was super tired. I slept for another few hours after they left then got up and ready for the day.
I took a bus to Parliament Square so I could go to Westminster Abbey. This was pretty cool, although you couldn't take pictures, which was actually enforced. It's pretty big and elaborate, certainly larger and more decorative than Notre Dame. The audio guide had too much/progressed too slow - as was the case at the castles. Maybe I just walk through these places too fast. The Abbey contains the tombs and memorials of many British Monarchs as well as poets and artists (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Handel etc.). A glimpse at the cloisters afforded a fabulous view of the Victoria Tower of Westminster Palace, through snowfall. It was a really light and lovely snow - thank you London.
After the Abbey I took a bus back, had my leftover fish n' chips then started to pack my remaining stuff. So I managed to make everything fit with my backpack except my purse and one set of clothes (at this point I wasn't going to take my blanket or other things I had bought for the flat). So I went and bought a duffel bag (and topped up my phone) so now I have a large rolling, a medium rolling, a laptop case and a large duffel. The duffel is huge with all my crap but is packed somewhat loosely. When I'm in Brighton I'm going to try to repack it with more clothes, and put some of the hard stuff in my rolling, and hopefully make it a little smaller.
Once we all had some of our packing finished, Dawn, Ellie and I went to Vapiano one last time. It was totally delicious - I love that place.
The remainder of the evening was very interesting. We made many trips to the trash, emptying the fridge as we went. Then the fire alarm went off. This was just a cluster of incompetence. 1st there is no alarm in our flat, 2nd the alarm (old school bell) outside of our door wasn't ringing, 3rd when Dawn and I went to check it out no one saw a fire or anything, 4th the fire department didn't come until one of the girls from the other flat called the, 5th Marc wasn't answering his phone, 6th the firefighters couldn't shut the alarm off so they told us to call our maintenance man to come fix it. Overall I was not impressed and frankly didn't feel safe anymore. You couldn't hear the alarm at all in our kitchen or living room. When Ellie and I went outside, about 20 mins. after it started ringing, all the fireman said was "you should have been out by now." Thank god this is our last night and we're getting out of here.
After the fire fiasco we spent the rest of the night (until Ellie and Dawn left at 3:30) watching Harry Potter and eating the remaining food (mainly popcorn and peanut butter). Erin came down for a while too. Her flight to Rome got cancelled after 12 hours of waiting at Heathrow, they wouldn't help her book a new one and wouldn't give back her checked luggage, telling her to file a missing bag claim.
It was after hearing about her problems that we learned about how much of a s*** show Europe is at the moment. Snow everywhere is grounding planes - so at least half of the flights are not even being delayed, just flat out cancelled. When I went to bed Stacy's flight was still on but others on either side of her were cancelled.