Wednesday, July 31, 2013

England! Well, London

Finally, as promised, here are some of the highlights from my trip to London! It was so big, beautiful and amazing; I could see myself living there quite happily. The museums are giant and awe inspiring, Stonehenge was surreal and majestic and city life was bustling and exciting.
The hostel I stayed at was very friendly and helpful and kept clean and tidy. If you are ever looking for very affordable, good accommodations in London then seek out Journeys Hostel in King's Cross/St. Pancras. It's just up the street from the Underground, which is the best way to get around the city. The Tube and walking were my main forms of transportation, though I did take the bus as well which was pretty good.

 Tower Bridge. 

 London Tower. Not actually one tower but four as you can see. 

 London Bridge. Fairly ordinary considering there is a song about it. 

 Looking down the Thames. 

 Natural History Museum. Bear in mind, this is merely the main hall. The rest of the museum branches out into six other wings that are bigger than this. This place is huge. 

 Natural History Museum from the outside, the west wing. 

 Trafalgar Square. Not usually this busy but there was a Pride Parade going on. 

 If you make a right from Trafalgar you will end up here. Their fish n chips are sooooo good. 

 St. Paul's Cathedral. They won't let you take pictures inside but take my word for it, it's beautiful. 

 Parliament Building. 

 Big Ben. 

 London Eye. This, along with Parliament and West Minster Abbey are within a couple blocks of each other. This is West Minster Abbey below. 

 Sadly, I was there on a Sunday so it was closed to the public. I never made it back to see the inside. 

 I took myself out to dinner at one of my favorite chefs restaurants. It was a little pricey (to be expected) but so delicious. Well worth it. Unfortunately, there was no siting of Mr. Oliver but I am still glad I went. 

 A friendly squirrel in the Royal Garden. 

 Stonehenge. This was really the only overcast day for my whole trip. It was hot and humid the rest of the time. Leave it to me to go somewhere that is notably dreary during it's few sunny weeks of the year. 

 The British Museum. Again, huge and beautiful. I often just stood in awe of these amazing places. 

 I had heard about this cafe from another blog and just had to seek it out. Though it is not a tribute to the John Hughes cult film it was still a cute and friendly place. Their apple cinnamon waffles were to die for. 

Just to give an idea of the sort of atmosphere you would be walking into. 

So those were some of my favorite bits of London. I will probably put up more detailed posts of other parts of the trip as you could only really appreciate them as their own post. There was so much to see, I didn't want to make one long boring post about it. If you have any questions you would like to ask about my trip, feel free. Cheers!