London

London was not what I was expecting. This is for many reasons, the foremost of which is that it was my first time traveling for the sake of traveling, in complete control of my own actions. Basically, I was an adult in the real world and it was scary. It was exhilarating and fun and I learned a lot, but it was also very stressful. I learned that I am not a very carefree traveler, as much as I might like to be; I get stressed about transportation problems, or worried about spending too much money, and then I get snappy at people. My travel buddies Austin and Josie didn't appreciate this very much. The fact that it rained the entire time we were there didn't help either.

But apart from those few things, I did really like London. It had a lot to offer, when we could find it. It's very different from Paris (I compared the cities a lot since they're the only European cities I've visited now) and I think I prefer Paris. Which is a good thing that I'm studying here then! London is a lot more spread out, so it's harder to get places easily. At least they all spoke English so there was no language barrier in this foreign country. Now that I've reflected and all that, I'll tell you what I actually did!

DAY 1:

We flew in nice and early, then took a bus to somewhere in London. We didn't actually have a plan for the day. But the bus's first stop was Baker Street, so you know what that means! Oh yeah, Sherlock Holmes Museum. It was super overpriced for a tiny three-story house, but there were real objects from the time period the story is set in, so that was really cool to see.

I took so many more pictures than I can upload here.

Next, we wandered through Regent's Park, and decided that our next stop was King's Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4. (It was a very nerdy day.) After figuring out the Underground situation, and having to buy an "Oyster" card and put money on it to get places, we were on our way. We got to King's Cross and stood in line to take our pictures at the trolley that was halfway in the wall. As the line progressed, I got more and more excited. This was one of my childhood dreams that I was going to accomplish; something I had dreamed about for years. And it was right in front of me. By the time I got to the front of the line, there were actual tears in my eyes from excitement. The scarf-holding man seemed concerned, although not in the I-hope-she's-okay way but the that-girl-has-problems way. You'd think he'd be more used to super fans, working where he does. But I got my picture, and at the shop that's right there, I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (it's what I've decided to collect from the countries I go to), as well as a Hufflepuff mug (Hufflepuff pride!) and a super touristy overpriced ticket to Platfrom 9 3/4!

King's Cross!

Tears

Before going up, the scarf guy said: "It doesn't actually go into the wall, you know."
I was tearful and excited, not an imbecile, sassy scarf holder.

Next, we took the Underground once more, this time to the British Library. There, we saw so many historical documents. All the better, it was free! All museums in England that are owned by the state are free. There were Leonardo de Vinci's workbooks, Beethoven's original symphonies, Galileo's notebooks, the Magna Carta... I couldn't believe how much history and power I was surrounded by in one room.

I didn't get a picture of any of the cool historical things, but here's a lot of
pretty books, and many students being studious!

We then decided to finally make our way to our hostel, for which we had to take a Tube ride, then a 20 minute train ride. We were not very central. Our hostel was equipped with the bare essentials: beds, showers, a kitchen. It wasn't spectacular, but it was cheap. We went to bed early, to the sound of a live band at the pub that was directly below our hostel.

Home sweet home

DAY 2:

This day was not great. We saw basic tourist things, but they weren't really that incredible; it was rainy and windy and overall not super enjoyable. But sometimes it's easy to forget that traveling is not always super fun - you have your flop days.

We got up and went to Covent Gardens, where there was supposed to be a market. But contrary to it's name, Covent Garden's does not have gardens. We didn't really do anything there. We made our way to the British Museum, which was really cool. There was, like the British Library, so much history and power. It was huge though, so we couldn't possibly see as much as we wanted to. Then we went to Westminster and saw the pretty facades. However it was 18 pounds (roughly $25) to enter, so we passed on that. Then we saw the House of Parliament and Big Ben - also cool to look at, but not much more to it than that. We then headed down the road for Buckingham Palace. I apologize for how awful I am about to sound: I've seen better palaces. Honestly though, after seeing the Luxembourg Palace on a regular basis, and having visited Versailles twice, Buckingham palace seemed almost plain. I realize it's an entire different country and people, with different customs towards royalty, but I never thought I would get desensitized to royal buildings. (Okay I'm done being pretentious and horribly now, I'm sorry.)

British Museum

Rosetta Stone - one of the many impressive items we saw

Big Ben

Westminster

Buckingham Palace

It was also raining throughout our exploration, so none of use were too happy. For lunch though, we found a really cute restaurant, and it was cozy and not crowded, so that was really nice. I also had my first British drink! I got an ale, because I felt it was appropriately British. I drank the whole thing, and it wasn't as awful as I was expecting! I still definitely prefer French wine though. This lunch was just so cozy and unexpected, that it was probably the best part of the day. 

We walked around a bit more, then returned to the hostel. For dinner, we got frozen pizzas from the food co-op down the street. A friendly guy (possibly the owner?) from the hostel suggested that we take the bus to Brixton, where there's music or something on Saturday nights. We did this, but couldn't seem to find the music when we arrived. What we did find, however, was much more amusing. There were many 20-somethings walking around in different groups, all wearing onesies. We could not figure out what it was for. We tried following some for a bit, but everyone was going toward and coming from different directions. It was pleasantly confusing, and seemed a fitting way to end the day.

Brixton library - sadly no photos of the mysterious onesie people

DAY 3: (Happy Mother's Day!)

Much better day. We went to the science museum, because Josie is a Computer Science major and wanted to see the computing exhibit that had there. I was up for it, but I learned that British science museums (or this one at least) are much less interactive and child-play oriented than American ones. We then hopped across the street to the Victoria and Albert Museum. We didn't actually know what was going to be there, but it was free, so we figured we might as well. It turned out to be really cool. We saw Islamic art, some history of fashion, and some history of jewelry; in short: pretty things. And there was a lot more to it we didn't see. Next, also in the same area, was the Natural History Museum. We left after ten minutes because it was just too crowded to be enjoyable.

Victoria and Albert Museum Entrance

This cool spaghetti sculpture thing was in the V&A museum, and
there's one in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as well - connections!

We then headed over to Harrods, which is this huge, super expensive department store. It was beautiful. I just wanted to see it, and we were thinking of getting tea there. But the line was long and it was really expensive, so we just went down the street to a cute placed called "Luna." We had our obligatory cup of tea in London, and I was very content with the day. We walked around for a bit, got some dinner in Chinatown, then went to a pub on the West End! It was another British thing we wanted to do. We all got a pint of ale. We all were not very pleased with it. So we headed back to our hostel, hung out in the pub there, and talked (no ale) while listening to the open-mic night singers.

Harrods!

My "cuppa" as they say

DAY 4:

We didn't really have that much time, so we went to Charing Cross Road, where there are a much of bookstores. We went to one that Josie's British friend recommended, and it was cute! I always love a good bookstore. Then, we walked to Victoria station, which was quite a hike, and took our bus to the airport! And there goes London.

Overall, the trip had it's really great moments, but also it's really stressful and frustrating moments. I pretty much know that when/if I ever return to London, it will be when I am not a student on a budget, because even if the museums are free, it is an expensive city. And it taught me a lesson about traveling (and maybe life as well) that can be frustrating to learn: as much as you want to plan every exciting and cool moment, it's the parts that happen by accident that can be the most fun. Seeing Westminster and Buckingham Palace was cool, but it felt more authentic when we stumbled out of the rain, into a cute restaurant; going to Brixton to look for music and nightlife was an adventure, but we definitely didn't expect to see hoards of people in onesies. You want to be able to control everything that happens (or maybe that's just me) but when you don't, really fun and surprising things can happen.

But during this trip, I also realized how much I love Paris. I had kind of wondered if the reason Paris was my favorite city was because I hadn't really had anything to compare it to. But now that I have, I feel more confident with my opinions. I love Paris; I love how some streets are crazy crowded, while some are super silent and peaceful; I love the consistent Haussman architecture; I love how not confusing the metro is. I was so grateful and happy to get to visit London, but I was also thrilled to return to the city I now call home: Paris.