Por Fin...English!

What this means is, finally everything was clear to me because I went to London during the weekend of April 8 - 11. Therefore, EVERYTHING WAS IN ENGLISH!!!! (Can you tell that I was pretty excited?!?) Well, this was my first trip where I traveled alone. And no Drew, I have friends, but some of my friends went to Denmark for the weekend to stay with friends there, and I didn't want to go because it's really expensive and I wanted to go to London more. Therefore, I was like, "I'm going! Even if I have to go alone!"...so I went alone :-) I wasn't too concerned though, because, like I've already established, everyone speaks English. Well, I FINALLY got to the city center of London, after waiting forever to clear border control at the airport (because England is not part of the European Union, you have to go through border control), and figuring out which bus to take, around 2 a.m. Because it was so late, the bus I planned on taking was not running. Fabulous. And I seriously could NOT figure out what bus I needed to take to get to my hostel because I didn't have a map of the city. Therefore, I had to resort to taking a taxi...unfortunately. It was a little bit expensive, but I just wanted to get to the hostel. Got there, checked in, and slept :-)

The next morning, after VERY little sleep, I got ready and was out the door and ready to explore London. I didn't really have a great ciy map and we all know my directional skills, so I was basically flying by the seat of my pants. Also, one of the great things about traveling alone is that I can do/see whatever I want, whenever I want. What freedom! Hahaha! Anyway, I walked around a LOT and so I was able to so a lot of things, including random things along the way. In this one day, I was able to see Big Ben, the Parliment building, Westminster Abbey (but I didn't tour it because it was really expensive), a well-known fountain (I forget the name, but I definitely remember that it was at the fountain where the most picky couple that I have ever met asked me to take their picture. I was like, "Sure!" Then they started being UBER picky about the shot, and the angle, and the background, and on and on..... I was like, "I'm pretty sure I know how to take a picture!!!! And if you are going to be so picky, don't ask me!). After that, I walked down by the river and saw the London Eye, but again, didn't go up in it because it was really expensive....and I'm on a budget. After, I have to admit that I ate McDonald's for lunch. Yes, McDonald's. I was so excited for American-like fast food you have no idea. I mean, I took full advantage of all of the food that I can't get in Spain. Other examples: Quiznos, bagels, and cookies (like home-made type cookies. In fact, I think I had a cookie every day). It's so weird how we forget everyone in the world doesn't eat the same things that we eat on a regular basis. After that wonderful fast-food lunch, I was on a hunt to find Buckingham Palace, which turned out to be kind of disappointing, in my opinion. Maybe I missed something, but I thought that it would be cooler to see in person, but it was kind of just there. From there, I wanted to find the infamous, one and only Harrod's. Yeah. I found it, went inside to look around, but left quickly because I'm pretty sure that I can't even afford to buy a pair of socks from there :-) Then, I went to the King's Crossing station. All you Harry Potter fans know why....because Harry gets to the Hogwart's Express by platform 9 & 3/4 at the King's Crossing station! Hahahaha! They have a platform 9 & 3/4 for people to take pictures. So of course I had to go! From there, I found Shakespeare's Globe Theater and saw THEE London Bridge. Basically, after all of that, I was exhausted, so it was back to the hostel for the night.

Next day, my first tourist attraction was the Tower of London. My friend told me that it was really cool, so I spent the money to tour it. That tourned out to be great advice, because I spent about 3 hours touring the museum. It's just so interesting to learn all of the history that took place there and there is so much to see due to the fact that you can tour practically all of the castle-like buildings. At a restaurant there, I figured that I should have an afternoon tea while I was there, because it seemed like an English thing to do. I mean, I don't even like tea, but it's what they do there, right? After I was done, I was going to go to Hyde Park, but I was looking at the map of the tube, and I saw a stop called Wimbledon. I was thinking, "Do you think that's where they host the Wimbledon tennis open?" So, I asked someone on the train, and he was like, "Of course!" So that's how I randomly got to go to visit the tennis stadium where they host the Wimbledon Open :-) It was so exciting to be where all of the tennis greats come to play!!! And I don't know how I never thought to go there in the first place, but I'm glad that I happened upon it :-) Went off to find dinner after that, and then back to the hostel for bed.

For my last day in London, I didn't have much time, but I got to go to Abby Road!!! You know, the famous Beatle's place. I have to admit that I don't really know why it's famous (I think the Beatle's have an album with this name, but I'm not sure). I was able to get a photo of me crossing the road too, just like them :-) After that, I returned to the center to take a stroll through Hyde Park. Then I went to the airport. Well, getting there was quite difficult, but that's a LONG story. I finally got there and was in a hurry, and of course, I got stopped by security and they ended up throwing away my shampoo, hair gel, and toothpaste. It was obviously my fault, but I was still a little frustrated, becuase clearly, my shampoo isn't dangerous. Whatever! I made my flight (though just barely) and was able to get back to Sevilla without any more problems :-) First trip alone = success!


Lesson: London has ice cream cones with two openings on top for two scoops of ice cream to sit next to each other instead of on top of each other! Hahaha! I was like, "Woah! I have to get one of those!" Hahahaha!

Lesson: Knowing another language is extremely handy if you want people to leave you alone. Just start speaking to them in another language and they will be so shocked they will walk away!

Lesson: Grocery stores are seriously the way to go for cheap food. I just discovered that you can buy a pre-made sandwhich and things to go with it for super cheap. I was able to buy a sandwhich, chips, a drink, and a cookie for around 3 pounds.

Lesson: I think that London (and the UK in general) just wants to be different. I mean, they drive on the wrong side of the road, they want to have their own currency (whose exchange rate with the dollar is horrible), and they use a completely different outlet/plug thing too.