Hello, London!

Hello, everyone!

I am extremely sorry about the much delayed post. For anyone wondering why, let's just say that if you ever travel, make sure you have adapters for all of your electrical appliances, including your laptop....

Because of my technical difficulties, this is going to be one big lump of a post. Hope you don't mind. :)

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What a whirlwind my first time in London was! My time there was much too short, and you will definitely be seeing another post involving the city again. But let's start at the beginning of my journey:

ARRIVAL:

I would say that my flight experience was a 6 out of 10. I left LAX at 9:30 pm for the Heathrow Airport in London, England. My airline, Virgin Atlantic, actually had some decent airplane food, as I've heard some stories of airlines' not-so-awesome menus. The reason why I rated it on the lower side is due to the sleeping arrangement. There was no sleeping arrangement, really. Once the seat belt sign was turned off, there was a mad exodus of passengers in our section to other parts of the plane. In the meantime, Alyssa and I were scratching our heads in confusion. Only later, after a couple of hours of searching for the perfect (non-existent) position to sleep in our chairs, we realized that these people were finding empty seats for more sleeping room. I will definitely be following their lead on my flight home in 6 months.

Once we landed, our journey was fairly easy. Customs wasn't as strict as I had anticipated, and despite the long walk from the airport to the Tube station, it was easy to navigate the Tube. It was only when we needed to get off that we found ourselves in a pickle. The Picadilly Line we were taking has 5 zones. As we discovered, the busiest zone is Zone 1. And our stop was in Zone 1. You can probably guess that once we entered Zone 1, our car became jam-packed with Londoners. Before we knew it, our station was coming up. With myself in the lead, Alyssa and I pushed our way through the crowd of standing people to reach the Tube doors; however, we weren't quick enough. 

I can't tell you what came over me. I saw the Tube doors closing and just reacted. Rather than getting off on the next stop like the next guy, I shoved my suitcase in between the doors. Was this the best idea? Probably not, as the doors kept my suitcase sandwiched in between them, while all of my fellow Tube riders stared back at me, most likely in annoyance. I'm not sure, as I had my head down the entire time. If anyone wants their American identity displayed for everyone to see, just stick your suitcase between two closing doors like I did. After the longest 15 seconds of my life, the doors finally opened, allowing Alyssa and I to escape the disapproving eyes of the locals.

Nothing too exciting happened after the Tube situation. We made it to our hotel after a short time of looking at a map and settled in for our first night at the Harlingford Hotel. When we made it to the front steps of the hotel, there was a cat there to greet us! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.) Not only did the hotel have a cat, it also had a dog that we saw as we were checking in that night. Now that's what I call good service! 

Even though I didn't snap any shots of the animals, I did remember to take pictures of the hotel, as well as a little bit of the surrounding area the next day:

The Harlingford Hotel

Close up of the Harlingford Hotel

Neighboring Hotels

DAY 1:
My first night at the hotel was a bit rocky, and that can most likely be blamed on jet lag (or the hard mattress). Despite my lack of sleep, I was still excited for the day's activities. Alyssa and I started the day off right with a "full English breakfast" provided by the hotel. Mine consisted of scrambled eggs, a sausage, two pieces of bacon, hash browns, and many pieces of toast. And I ate it all. We also tried some coffee, which was still quite bitter after adding cream and sugar, so we ended up washing it down with juice.

Then it was time to explore some of the city! Except, we didn't really know where to go, so we ended up walking around the areas close to the hotel. The best sight we discovered was the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel:

The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, est. 1873

Continuing view of the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

The architecture in London has so much beautiful detail!

Later that day, we went to an orientation for our study abroad program, UCEAP, to learn more about life in England and how to thrive during our time overseas. After the orientation, they took us to eat at Byron Proper Hamburgers. Although it was more of an American meal than I was expecting for my first real dinner in London, I still enjoyed it. I had a "Classic Burger" with a fresh lemonade.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get some shuteye for a long but exciting day of exploring London.


DAY 2:
This was by far the most exciting day abroad so far. Our group went to so many amazing places in day 2. But before we were able to experience these great sites, we had to face the dreaded rush hour in the Tube. With a group as large as 34 students, it's very easy to predict that something will go awry. As you can gather from my first experience with it, the Tube shows no mercy to its passengers. Essentially, the Tube cut our group in half with an unforgiving fashion as we all attempted to pile into a car. Thankfully, I was able to slip through right as the doors were closing at my heels. You would think the Tube was holding a grudge on me for delaying it with my suitcase only a day ago. 

Luckily, we were all able to join back together and reach our first destination, the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern is one of the most visited museums in the world, with more than 5 million people visiting it each year! Even though I'm not a big fan of museums in general, our tour guide made the visit a great experience. You could tell that he really knew his stuff; more than that, he explained the artwork that he showed us in a way that really made me appreciate them. He gave explanations for the paintings, such as what they were supposed to mean or represent, which I usually have trouble understanding on my own. If I had a tour guide like him every time I went to an art museum, I would enjoy them a whole lot more.

After visiting the Tate Modern, we headed to a big shopping center for 2 hours of free time. This included Alyssa and I finding something for lunch and purchasing UK mobiles. And too soon for my tired feet, we were off again to meet our local tour guides for a tour around London! We met them at Trafalgar Square:

Trafalgar Square

Fountain statue in Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

Lion statue in Trafalgar Square

Me with my favorite statue in Trafalgar Square.
Photo Credit: Alyssa McCarthy

The random blue rooster currently displayed in Trafalgar Square.

Our big group of 34 was divided into two groups, one going with each tour guide. My tour guide was an adorable older lady. She was short and sweet but also had a hilarious (but morbid) sense of humor. Many times throughout the tour she warned us not to do things that might get us shot, killed, etc. I'm still not sure if she was being serious or not. On our walk to our first major tourist destination, we saw many beautiful government buildings, as well as guards on horses! Be careful, though: the horses may kick or bite!

See, I wasn't lying about the kicking or biting!

Beautiful government buildings.

My first glimpse of Big Ben!

The London Eye! I need to come back to London so I can go on it!

Soon, we were crossing the street to see Big Ben. I know this is cliché to say, but Big Ben is beautiful! (Did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the famous tower, rather than the tower itself? I sure didn't.) If you are ever able to make it to England, you must see it, because pictures can't capture its beauty, in all seriousness. It was probably my favorite site that we were shown that day. 

A close up of Big Ben. My pictures couldn't capture the gold detailing of the tower. :(

Right down the road was the famous Westminster Abbey. I hope when I return to London I can take a tour inside of it, as I'm sure the inside is even more incredible than the outside was!

Westminster Abbey

Front doors to the Westminster Abbey

Side of the abbey

The abbey's grounds

The abbey's beautiful window detail

My other favorite site of the day was St. James' Park, which we were able to admire as we made our way to Buckingham Palace. I definitely want to come back here as well. There were so many pretty views, as well as an abundant wildlife!

The park's lake

A beautiful cottage by the lake

The squirrels here were so friendly. They were jumping up on the railings right in front of passersby!

This guy was ready for his closeup. 

The lake had quite a couple fountains, which were beautiful against the sunset

Another glimpse of the London Eye

Proof that I am alive and well. Hey, family! <3

Our last stop of our walking tour was Buckingham Palace. It is definitely as beautiful as everyone says. And quite grand! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Buckingham Palace

Side view of Buckingham Palace. It's crazy that some people pass by it every day!

Gorgeous gates around Buckingham Palace

We ended the tour by eating at Sartori's, where each table had meter long pizzas! We also got dessert! I had a raspberry, mango, and lemon sorbet, which was extremely refreshing!

This definitely hit the spot after a long day!

After our meal, we finished the day out by going to see One Man, Two Guvnors, which was a hilarious British play. I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to have a good laugh!

As this post is already so long, I am going to end it here for now. If you want to know about my journey to Leeds and my experiences so far at my host university, stay tuned for another post that will (hopefully) not be as lengthy. Thanks for reading!