WOW. London was amazing. There is so much to do and see. I saw a ton, but I still feel like I just scratched the surface! Oh, and the best part… I did it all by myself! It was so fun traveling alone, and I am so proud of myself that nothing crazy went wrong! So.. from the beginning:
Last Thursday and Friday during the day were not that exciting. I was actually super productive and got a ton of work done on my two papers that are due this week! Yay for me!
On Friday after my classes, I left straight for the airport for my flight that left at 5pm. I think I might have fallen asleep on the airplane, but there was this huge guy next to me who kept bumping me and the man behind me had such heinous breath that I could smell it every time I laid my head against the window (aka. prime sleeping position). At least it was only a hour and half flight! Then I had to hop on a train to the city, and I was supposed to get off at London Liverpool Street… however we stopped at some station and a ton of people were getting off, so I got off too… at the wrong stop. Oops! Luckily I only had to wait about 5 minutes for another train to come, so it was really no problem. When I did get to Liverpool Street Station, I made sure to ask if it was the right one haha.
When I got off the train, I was super confused because in London you have to scan your ticket before and after you get off of the train or tube, so there was this mad rush of people around me and I had no idea what was going on. Luckily this man working noticed my freaking out face and got me the right ticket I needed :)
I had to take the tube, which is the underground trains in London, to my hostel, and it looked super confusing at first. After riding it a couple times though, it was super easy to figure out. I made it to my hostel around 8:30pm, and I stayed in a female dorm with 21 beds. I thought it would be super noisy, but it was actually really quiet in the room.
My hostel: Palmers Lodge Swiss Cottage
The room I stayed in.
My bed! This was my first real hostel experience, so I had no idea what to expect. It was a pretty nice place, although I wasn’t really there much.
So Friday night I was planning on meeting Gabi’s friend Abby who is studying abroad in London for the semester, and who I met when she visited Gabi in Copenhagen for a week back in February. However she had to reschedule at the last minute, so I decided to go down to the restaurant at my hostel instead. I got some fish and chips and a beer and sat down with a couple of Australian guys. They both just moved to London and are staying here for two years. It was crazy because they didn’t really have a plan, one of them doesn’t even have a job, and they were going to look for an apartment the next day. They were pretty hilarious though, and they taught me some new Australian phrases. One of the guys was surprised that I didn’t talk like a valley girl and say “like totally” all of the time… but he totally fulfilled my stereotype of an Australian.. surfer, blonde hair, funny accent. I hung out with them until like 2am at the bar in the hostel, so it felt like 3am to me and I was dead tired.
Of course, I can never sleep-in, so I woke up at 7:30am on Saturday morning. It looked gorgeous outside though, so I got ready as fast as possible, and headed to Regent’s Park so I could kill some time before I had to meet Abby at 10:30. It was perfect outside, warm and sunny! I couldn’t have been in a better mood :) My ultimate favorite thing about London is how many parks there are… one-fifth of the city is green space! That is one thing I wish there was more of in Copenhagen.
The park was so beautiful!
As I was walking, I saw the cutest little white curly haired dog playing in the flowers, and her owner was this sweet old little English man. I told him I loved his dog, and then ended up having this 20 minute conversation about our dogs and how much I miss my shelties because I am studying abroad in Denmark. My favorite thing was when I told him I had shelties, and he said in a British accent, “Oh they are just lovely dogs!” He was so sweet! Then he told me I had to go look at these awesome trees down the trail that looked like huge umbrellas :)
I seriously could have spent hours there, but I had other things to see! I met Abby at Borough Street Market at 10:30. It is this awesome street market full of delicious cheeses, desserts, breads, oils, everything any food lover would ever want!
We tried a ton of samples, and I ended up getting a chicken wrap for lunch. Most of all, I just loved looking at how amazing all of the desserts looked! Good thing I wasn’t hungry or I would have gotten sick from eating so many of them haha.
Those things stacked up are grilled cheese sandwiches… look at all of that cheese!!! OMG.
I thought the English Muffins in the back looked awesome. They were like 3 inches tall!
After the market, Abby showed me where a lot of the main sights in London are, like Big Ben and the London Eye, which I didn’t go on because I am a poor student.
The nice thing about London though is that they most of the museums are free, so next we went to the British Museum because I wanted to see the collection of Egyptian mummies! I also saw the Rosetta Stone, which I didn’t even know was there!
Seriously this place was massive, and I don’t even think we saw a fourth of it. You could probably spend an entire day here, but were only there for about an hour and a half I think.
The mummy of Cleopatra! She was really short, and she died when she was only 17!
After the museum, we headed to a coffee shop for some caffeine. In London, they have take-out prices and eat-in prices, and it is always cheaper to take-out. That is SOOO different from Copenhagen, where Danish people basically freak out if they don’t have a nice place to slowly enjoy their meal. I actually found myself really missing that, and I think I am kind of adopting that attitude as well! Every I ate in London, I found myself looking for a nice little place to enjoy my meal instead of eating it on the run like I do at home.
After coffee, Abby showed me where the main shopping was on Oxford Street. I went into a couple of stores, became super overwhelmed, and decided to go to Hyde Park instead. I could hardly even walk in the stores because there were so many people! I couldn’t imagine living in a place like that. Visiting is awesome, but the hustle and bustle of a big city is just too much for me. It makes me so happy I decided to study in Copenhagen, which doesn’t really feel like a huge place to me. It’s so cozy :)
Anyway, Hyde Park is amazing… and massive. I walked around it for like 3 hours, and my legs were killing by the end.
After the park, I decided to go to Harrods, which is a massive department store in London. They literally have everything, but unfortunately I could only look around for 20 minutes because I had a ticket to go see Wicked! I have been wanting to see this musical forever, so when I saw it was going to be showing in London, I immediately bought a ticket. I was in the front section, and I got it for half price because it was a single seat!
I absolutely loved the show! The singing was incredible! My friends have been playing this soundtrack since we were like juniors in high school, so I am glad I finally got to see it since it isn’t showing in Chicago anymore. I actually have had one of the songs stuck in my head for the past 24 hours now. After the show though, I was pretty much a zombie, and it was all I could do to make it back to my hostel on the tube and collapse on my bed.
On Sunday, I decided to go on a walking tour of London because I look at all the buildings and really have no idea what I am even looking at! It started at 10:30am at one of the tube stations by Big Ben/Parliament. There was about ten people total, and it was led by this nice old woman named Helena. She knew a lot of history and it was awesome being able to know a little more than “wow, that building is cool.” They offer a TON of different tours, but I went on the London Tour, which is basically an overview of the most popular sights in London.
Fun fact #1: Everyone calls this tower Big Ben, but it is actually the bell inside that is called Big Ben. It is at one end of parliament and Victoria tower below is at the other end.
We also saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Royal Park, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalger Square, and Convent Garden. Here are some pics:
Buckingham Palace… unfortunately the Queen wasn’t home because the UK flag was flying.
The tour was supposed to last 2 hours, but ended up going until 1:30! Afterwards, I headed over to the Tower of London which was started in the 1080’s by William the Conqueror and added onto by several other monarchs throughout history. Over the years, it was a palace and also held many prisoners. It is also where the royal family’s crown jewels are kept! I looked around the tower, which has a ton of info and stuff to look at for about two hours. It was very interesting! Below is a picture of the London Bridge from the tower.
The tower. You can walk along the tower walls and go inside a bunch of the buildings. The coolest part is the etchings on the walls made by the prisoners who were kept there.
After the Tower, I went window shopping for awhile, then I met up with Abby at this pub called The Anchor for fish and chips! Then we walked along Millennium Bridge, and I went home to get about 3 hours of sleep before I had to leave my hostel at 3am to catch my flight back to Copenhagen!
View from Millennium Bridge
So one thing that is annoying about London, the tube doesn’t run between 12:30am and 5am, so I had to take a night bus to a station to catch the train to get to the airport for my 7am flight. I actually had to take two buses, and I figured they would have free transfers, so I only had enough change to pay for one bus fare. Well, turns out they don’t have free transfers, so at 4:30am this morning I was running around the city of London trying to find any sort of store that was open so I could break a 10 pound bill!! I couldn’t find anything or anyone who had change, so I ended up finding a taxi and having to pay a 10 pound fare to the station. Bahhh 8 pounds down the drain. Oh well. So now I know next time I go to London and I won’t make that stupid mistake again.
The flight and everything else went very smoothly, and now I am at DIS waiting for my Danish class to start. I am so tired since I have only had three hours of sleep, and once class is over I am going straight home for a nap! I had such a great time in London though!! So much fuN!
Oh and one more thing that made me super excited… they actually jaywalk in London, a TON! I didn’t have to feel bad about jaywalking like I do in Copenhagen haha. I even have proof:
Oh yeah, and they also are very tourist friendly and try to help the jaywalkers so they don’t get hit by a car since they drive on the other side of the street:
Ok time for class now!
Hej Hej!
Emily
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