London

After the chaos and planning, five of us girls were finally able to set out and make it to the marvelous city of London in the United Kingdom. At first I had not really had any high expectations for this trip since it wasn’t necessarily at the top of my bucket list. However, boy oh boy did it exceed to the top three most enjoyable places I have traveled to so far. Spain is still in for the win with Italy and London both tied for second. We left the morning of the Friday the 13^th, I know what you all are thinking, HELLO BAD LUCK. We literally spent almost the entire day traveling which wasn’t pleasant, but somehow we successfully made it to our hostel by 11PM that night. Getting to our hostel consisted of waiting over 30 minutes to get on a bus which then took us to a sketchy area where we got off. On the plus side we met another girl our age who is from Oregon and had been studying abroad in Italy. I was able to bond with her on the 45-minute bus ride, and we each shared our crazy adventures from Europe. We were also able to gave each other future tips from places we have traveled which was really beneficial especially with Dublin and Greece coming up! After we got off the first bus we were dropped off on some type of highway which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Luckily Lily spotted some buses from afar and we trotted our way over there. Right as we got over there a bus with the number we needed pulled up and we hopped on in. We were greeted but a very friendly bus driver who gave us one heck of a laugh. We waited for our stop patiently but we were all clearly exhausted in every way possible. After the last bus we then had about a 30-minute walk in this and that direction that lead us to our hostel. The neighborhood we were in was very quiet which freaked some of the girls out, but I found it peaceful and reminded me of the quiet streets back home in Kearney.

At last we arrived to our hostel and let me tell you, we were pretty impressed with ourselves for getting safely to our hostel IN LONDON without any bumps in the road. Of course we were starving (because food duh), so we found some food on a side street near where we were staying and yummmmmmmm it was some good fish and chips for only 4.10 pounds! We called it an early night, even though 1:30am is not early for this girl. We got up at a decent time the next morning because we couldn’t wait to get the heck out of our hostel, and slowly but surely we keep realizing that sometimes cheaper is not always better.

Saturday morning, we started off by having a traditional English breakfast. This consisted of eggs, toast, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, bacon, and finally some sausage. At this café we met yet another American that was from Virginia who had been writing songs in London. Her name was Amy, and that’s important solely because she could become famous someday (and we get to say that we met her). Once we finished eating our breakfast we made our way to the famous “Tube” that is used for transportation in London. We bought our oyster cards and tubed our way to see the Big Ben, the London Eye, and other famous touristy locations.  The atmosphere in these crowded areas were so energetic, I even think I forgot how nice and comforting it was to hear English and see friendly faces that smiled back! Although it was fun being the typical tourist, but the most mind-blowing part of this trip was seeing the Broadway show Wicked.

The traditional English Breakfast

The famous Big Ben

Big Ben in the background

Wicked the Broadway Production

Things I hadn’t preferred in London:

1.         Having to take the Tube almost EVERYWHERE

2.         $$$$$$$$$$

Things I absolutely fell in love with about London:

1.         Free water

2.         You paid as you ordered so you were guaranteed the option to pay separately

3.         People weren’t hounding you to buy stuff off the street

4.         Fish and Chips (and I don’t like seafood so that says something)

5.         Napping in a park

6.         WICKED

--As you can see, the list I have for pro’s in London clearly outweighs the con’s and that is why London is taking a close head-to-head tie with Italy. Don’t worry Spain, you are still my #1.

UNTIL NEXT TIME FOLKS