First Day in London (:

My first day in London was amazing! Shannon, an old family friend, picked me up from Heathrow airport. As soon as we were together, we promptly went to get myself an “oyster” card; my pass to ride all of the tubes, buses, and trains to get around in London. We hopped on a tube that went straight to my hostel (which by the way is on Gray’s Inn Road right in the heart of the city and King’s Cross), where we checked in my bags. As soon as we did that, we immediately left to start exploring the city. I could not believe 1, how tightly packed EVERYTHING in the city is, and 2, how ancient EVERYTHING looked. It was amazing!! One thing I noticed that greatly differed from the States is that all space is utilized here. In the U.S., if for example, a building is being unused, it will simply be knocked down and the land will be cleared for something else to be built. And, we unknowingly have so much space in between our buildings and houses. This is absolutely not the case in London. The university my friend goes to is actually an old jail! It was unused, so instead of tearing the building down, it was ‘renovated’ to become a university. All houses that are “unused” are turned into hostels, cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, you name it. And everything is so compact! First of all, the housing sizes are incredibly small; a standard flat is the size of an American closet! And, the buildings, such as the cafes and restaurants that line the streets are mostly extremely tiny and very close together; you would be amazed at how many stores can fit into a small section. You would absolutely never find something so squished in the United States. As for the look of the buildings, every single one of the buildings in London are old; originating from the 1500-1800’s! I was stunned at how beautiful and ornate the architecture all is. In the United States, it is very rare to come across such a building, and when you do, you clearly want to take a picture because it’s so rare! Here, I was finding myself taking pictures of EVERYTHING because these buildings weren’t rare, they were every building! It is going to take me a while to adjust. I took 200 pictures today alone! Shannon was the best tour guide ever! I didn’t realize how large London was, and despite the vast size, I saw SO much today! We rode the tubes and buses all across town, and I even rode on a red double-decker bus. We went through the British museum, which is the largest museum I have ever been in in my life. It has so many artifacts that it was overwhelming. It would take you years to truly appreciate every piece held inside that building. This museum is also home to the Rosetta Stone, which is remarkable. I saw Trafalgar square, incredibly beautiful, Big Ben, which is massive, Picadilly Circus, the London Eye, which is by far the hugest ferris wheel on the planet that I will never get on, Thames River, Westminster Abbey, Almost every countries “ambassador/congress/parliament” building, the ---“place with big fountain”----, tons of castles that former royalty have lived in or own, tudor buildings, the British Library, which is SO big, and I ate at a Portuguese chain restaurant in Europe called Nando’s. Another thing I found fascinating about London is the amount of diversity represented in the country. Not only were there parliament buildings for every country as mentioned above, but you could literally see every one of those ethnicities represented as you walked down the street. I heard so many accents and different languages being spoken around me, different clothing styles, skin colors and facial features. I think that is the coolest thing ever.
Although I don’t think I could never live here, it is quite beautiful to admire from afar. I would strongly urge everyone to make it here at least once in their lifetime. There is an abundance of history carved into each building, literally, and it is truly fascinating.