Going abroad is one of my favorite things to do. Although going through the airport, is a bit of a hassle it's all worth it when you land in another country, ready to start a new adventure. Maybe a long six hour road trip doesn't seem so unnecessary when you arrive at your destination.
I've only really been to four countries (five if you count that 5 hour stop in Amsterdam), but those few times made me want to go to so many more. This summer I didn't travel out of the country but I did travel to a lot of places in the United States and I loved everyone one of them.
I've traveled abroad to England, Germany, Canada, Amsterdam(I stayed in the airport for this one but I'm counting it anyway) and Mexico. Over the summer I visited, Washington D.C, Buffalo and Boston. A New York City girl in Boston sounds like a good story to tell, but that's in the next edition, right now I'm going to tell you about my trip to England.
I'm about to hit you with the line "ever since I was a little kid" but hey, it's true every since I was a little kid I wanted to go to England. The thought of royalty, wizards, having a magical nanny and getting whisked away to another land by a boy who never aged sounded pretty good to me. As I grew up, I learned about England's history and the beautiful landmarks. I always watched movies and thought "I want to go there". When I flew to Germany I flew over England and honestly, I thought that was the closest I would ever get to actually being there.
Finally in the spring semester of my freshman year of college, I was able to go. I jumped at the chance of taking a quarter course where you were able to visit the place you were learning about. Getting to learn about one of your favorite places, getting to visit it, and gaining three credits? Sign me up.
I was excited from the get go, even the airport was exciting to me. Let's not get started with how excited I was to even be on the plane. When the flight attendant came around to ask us if we had "rubbish" my friend and I giggled to each other.
When we got there it was go, go, go we left our things and went on to explore.
As we arrived at the Covent Garden (which I had written my paper on) I was in awe of how nice it was. It's a giant market which also houses small street vendors and performers. I stopped to snap a picture of a group playing "Uptown Funk" with clarinets and violins (ahh the power of music or should I say Bruno Mars?).
So we decided to go get some cheeky nandos (this wasn't a meme back when we visited but it is now so why not throw it in here?)
The next day we visited St. Paul's Cathedral.
Somehow after climbing 257 steps up to the whispering gallery one of the workers convinced us to go all the way up to the top. What they forgot to mention is that when you go up you have to go all the way up, you can't come down when you feel like you can't go up anymore steps.
It wasn't a bad walk but the thing is, I am deftly afraid of heights and seeing as we were 111 meters off the ground (about 365 feet) that didn't sit well with me. The second level (the stone gallery) wasn't too bad. I even managed to get pretty good pictures.
When we got to the last level I was shaking like crazy but I managed to make it through (how? I don't know). The last level was the golden gallery and I also got a good picture from the last level even though my hand was shaking pretty badly.
Oh look! It's the London eye.
At the end of it, I was pretty proud of myself but vowed to never do it again, once was enough for me.
After that we headed to Camden market, lunch on our own and were allowed to have free time. This is when my friend Caitlin and I went crazy, we knew where we wanted to go and how to get there. We knew the tube system like the back of our hands and with our oyster cards in hand we set off to the places we wanted to visit.
First stop, Big Ben and the London eye. We really only visited Big Ben because we were going to visit and get to ride the London eye with the rest of the group the next day but it was across the Thames river so we couldn't resist taking photos of it.
I was still kind of hesitant about getting on the London eye because of my fear of heights but it was something I always wanted to do so I was determined to get on it.
Big Ben is so magnificent up close and not to mention it is massive. After seeing it in so many movies I couldn't believe that I was seeing it in real life.
We then got on the tube again and headed to Buckingham Palace.
MTV welcome to my crib (I wish).
The next day we went to Tower Bridge which a lot of people mistake for being the London Bridge but it's not (trust me).
The Tower Bridge got it's name from the Tower of London which we also visited on that day. The Tower of London was home to many of England's monarchs. There are many components to it but the White Tower stands in the middle, the Tower of London also houses many of the crown jewels.
The whole group then proceeded to walk across the Tower Bridge and to the London eye. Thankfully we beat the crowds and boarded the pod without any problems. As we were taken up I was surprised that I was not afraid, then I realized if I looked over the water I was fine but if I looked at the ground I freaked out. Maybe I thought that if I fell into the water I would survive so I wasn't too afraid.
The view from the London eye was so beautiful, it was a usual cloudy day in London but nevertheless beautiful. I got to see Big Ben and the rest of City of London with an aerial view.
You could say we were looking down on the clouds (inside joke). I honestly would get on the London eye again if I ever went back to London. We then had some more free time so Caitlin, two other girls from the group and I decided to go to the Natural History Museum and then back to Covent Garden because that same night we were going to see the Charlie and the Chocolate factory play.
I was so excited to see the play because Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorite books when I was younger. The play but a spin on the story and the musical numbers were terrific. I almost cried when in the end they sang "Pure Imagination" as Willy Wonka and Charlie were getting in his invisible elevator.
And here my friends is where I end this part of my trip to London. I still have a lot to write about, a trip to Stone Hedge and Bath (I am convinced that I'm gonna live there one day), Hampton Court, the British Museum and The Harry Potter Studio (Yes, I did say Harry Potter).
Until the next edition!
