This past Thursday was St. Thomas's day in Spain, so the majority of my friends were planning on taking the extra day as an opportunity to travel Europe. A lot of the CIDE students went to Barcelona, some went to Italy, and 4 friends and I went to London! Jacklyn, Ashley, Kelly Nina, and I embarked on our (longer than anticipated) journey to England on Wednesday night after classes. After taking many modes of transportation (metro, bus, plane, more busses...), we arrived at the "Smart Hyde Park View" hostel, right across from, no surprise here, Hyde Park at around midnight. Our room in the hostel was so small, with 3 bunk beds crammed into the room (the bunk beds, mind you, were for 5-ft tall people). It was nice, though, because we had the room to ourselves, with our own bathroom, and were given breakfast each morning- consisting of toast, jam, and cereal. Can't escape the carbs in Europe, that's for sure.
So: first day, what a day. Friday morning, we took it easy in order to recover from traveling, and didn't get going until around 11am. We headed out to take the Big Bus tour of London- a tourist-y thing to do, but it allowed us to see all the sites and learn about them before hopping off and exploring London more in-depth. After riding on the bus for about 2 hours, having seen sites from the hospital in which the Princes were born to Trafalgar Square and Big Ben, we got off the bus to explore on foot.
We walked past Big Ben, which really wasn't as big as expected, but beautiful nonetheless. Westminster Abbey was a bit pricey to see from the inside, but we were able to see the inside of a smaller church right next to the Abbey. After seeing the sites in Parliament and walking past the home of the Prime Minister, we headed to Trafalgar Square where Jacklyn and I decided to take a picture with one of the big bronze lions. The task of hoisting ourselves onto the ledge and onto the lion proved more difficult than anticipated, and, even though Jacklyn won't admit it, she definitely would have fallen if I hadn't pulled her up.
Jacklyn and I with the Trafalgar Lion.
We continued on our self-guided tour, stopping by some of the guards sitting on horses outside the Cavalry museum. One of the horses wasn't the happiest when we tried to take its picture, and I'm pretty sure he would have bitten Jacklyn had she not escaped in time. However, our mission of finding and distracting one of the guards that isn't allowed to move was unsuccessful, to Jacklyn's dissappointment.
On the way to our next destination, Buckingham Palace, we stopped at a small deli-style restaurant. Little did we know that it was recommended by none other than Simon Cowle himself! Apparently he thought the bacon sandwiches were the best in London- but I saw no such sandwich. After filling up on an italian panini (so relieved to have some real, good food!), we made our way to the Palace.
After the Buckingham, which was gorgeous, we headed back through St. James's Park. We ran into a slight mishap here, though, due to Kelly's fear of birds. When I say fear, I literally mean she is deathly afraid. Little did we know that we were walking through a park with the most birds- pigeons mostly- that I have ever seen. Looking back, I think we even chose to take the "Birdcage Walk" path. Needless to say, we had to walk along the outside of St. James's Park.
We headed back to Parliament to catch the Big Bus tour again and take advantage of the free river cruise that was included in our tickets. We drove across the London Bridge (and unwillingly had to sing "London Bridge is Falling Down" at the request- more like command- of our tour guide) and ended at the Tower of London where we were to catch our boat. The cruise was short, but enjoyable with all of my friends onboard joking that we were on a "Booze Cruise". If it was a booze cruise, it was a bit lacking, but we made the most of it.
"Booze Cruise Twenty Ten!"
The boat dropped us off by the London Eye at around dusk. The sky was such a pretty color, especially against the lights of the buildings.
From the boat, we made our way to the London Eye to take advantage of seeing the entire city from above. Apparently, the London Eye- basically just a giant, enclosed ferris wheel- was only supposed to be a temporary feature. However, what was meant to last for two years has now been in place for ten, and I'm glad for that. With our tickets, we first saw a 4-D show about the London Eye, and then boarded. We really made out, given that we had the pod virtually to ourselves save one couple. Thinking that the picture would be taken of all of us at the beginning of the ride, we made fools of ourselves in front of the couple on-board with us by standing in place, posing for the picture for about three minutes. In any case, the view was amazing and my fear of heights wasn't a barrier at all. By this time, nighttime had fallen and the city was lit up with the lights from buildings, reflecting on the water. We could see everything from the top of the Eye, and it was that view that has me saying it was my favorite part of London.
From here, we made our way on foot to the Hard Rock Café to sit and enjoy the end of the night with a good ole American cheeseburger! Taking from my dad and uncle's tastes, I also ordered a Stella. Only learned from the best. Sidenote: Did you know that Hard Rock London was the original??
Made our way in style to the Hard Rock. This was surprisingly
one of the few times it rained the entire trip!! In London!
As you can see, we really tried to make the most of our trip. This was only the first DAY!
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