Wow It’s been a crazy 6 days! I’ve been meaning to blog but things have gotten so nuts I haven’t had time, I will do better though!

So our first stop was London and my overall impression was meh? I don’t know if it was because it was our first stop or because it wasn’t foreign enough, but London wasn’t all that exciting for me. Don’t get me wrong I still had fun, but it just wasn’t super exciting and not an experience I’m necessarily looking to repeat again. I feel like American culture has spread into the big cities so much that it was like going to a bigger, older Seattle. It was cool and there was a lot to see and do but I didn’t really feel like I was discovering something different. I think next time I go to the UK I will stick to the countryside.

What did we do though?

The first day in London, after struggling a little to get out of the airport and to our airbnb, we went straight to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter set tour, which was amazing and a childhood dream come true. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t just gotten off like 18 hours of flights and waiting in airports, but it was a lot of fun, and we got to drink butterbeer and make a broomstick hover and that’s all I really needed.

 

The second day was much crazier and we did a lot in one day.

We visited Westminster Abbey

The National Gallery

Trafalgar Square

And got lost at the mall. The Abbey was incredibly beautiful and the first overwhelming moment of the trip. The monumental idea of the nearly 1,000 years of history the Abbey Holds was intoxicating. The National Gallery was also interesting, but art isn’t really my thing, my companions enjoyed it much more than I did. Trafalgar Square was really intriguing and I wish we had spent more time in the square. The statues were cool, but I really enjoyed all of the street artists. We then attempted to go to the mall in order to buy flip flops (which apparently aren’t sold in August) and get a very specific Ice-Cream, long story short we ended up at the wrong mall and were all pretty miserable by the time we got home.

Our last day in London we kept pretty simple. We went to the Imperial War Rooms, which as a history major may I say, was the greatest experience. I truly enjoyed how much history was packed into the place, and how historically accurate it was kept.

Afterwards we went the British Museum and saw some of the archeological artifacts that were found at the sights we’ll be visiting in Greece.

We then took a boat cruise from Parliament Square to Greenwich and stood on the prime meridian, which was an unexpected adventure but probably the most enjoyable experience we had in London.

We stopped by a British Pub on the way home, took a picture in front of Big Ben and then went to sleep as our flight to Paris left at 6 o’clock the next morning.

The best part about London was the transportation, it was incredibly easy to get from one location to another on the tube. However, if you go to London try to stay in a place more central, we stayed in the suburbs which made things more difficult and transportation more expensive. London is also surprisingly clean despite there not being any garbage cans on the street. The worst part about London, again, was how similar the culture was. Call it Globalization or whatever but London really seems to pander to Americans and while it was fun, I could have probably gone to New York and gotten the same experience.
Our next stop was Paris (I know I’m soooooo behind) and I will write another post before I get settled in Rome!

Visit again soon!
Nicole