London Calling

I cannot tell you how long London had been on my must-see list. It was one of those cities that I knew I had to get to, somehow, while I was studying abroad. It is barely a 45 minute flight from Amsterdam- quite literally a hop, skip, and a jump, so short that you spend more time in the customs line than you do actually flying (the UK and Ireland are not part of the Schengen Area, so you do not get to bypass customs like you do in most European countries).

Luckily, one of my best friends (let’s be real, my best friend) was spending a few months in England, and gave me the perfect excuse opportunity to visit.

After a very looooong train ride from Gatwick into London and a mad dash to find WiFi (and find Kenzie), we were finally in London- we, as in Clarissa and I, since she had come to visit me in Amsterdam and had agreed to a little weekend jaunt across the channel.

Once we had dropped our backpacks and freshened up from the plane, we hit the road. With no particular plan, we hopped on the tube after purchasing our Oyster cards (basically London’s version of a MetroCard), ending up at the corner of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. As we walked by the palace, we realized we had arrived just when the Changing of the Guard started. Let me just say- it is not as exciting as it sounds. I’m so glad we happened to walk by, rather than planning to wait outside, because it is just a bunch of soldiers walking around. They don’t do anything, nothing happens, just walking. Now I can say I have seen the Changing of the Guard, and it didn’t postpone any other part of the trip.

If you go to London and don’t take a photo inside a telephone booth, did you really go to London (hint: the answer is no)??

After wandering around London for a bit (read: getting lost), we made our way to ‘the V&A,’ or the Victoria and Albert Museum. Some people hate museums, but I absolutely love them. You get to learn so much about that particular country’s culture and history; I would say we got our fair share of culture while in London!

Chihuly glass in the entrance of the V&A.

The courtyard of the V&A.

Yes, those are giant pillows that you can lay on while you admire the sculptures.

After wandering around the V&A (I could spend days inside looking at everything), we left for our next museum- the London Museum of Natural History.

Dippy the Diplodocus skeleton.

Hogwarts???

Seriously, this place looks like the Hogwarts set, it’s insane.

Feeling exhausted from traveling and museum-ing all day, we called it quits for the day, ready to pack up and hit the road the next morning.

You know that She and Him song, London? “Ooooh, London, where the clouds never go away, I keep my coat on from September till May.” That was a pretty accurate description of our second day in London- it poured during our (thankfully short) walk to the British Museum, but the gloomy British weather made a perfect excuse to spend a little extra time exploring the biggest museum in the world.

I didn’t take too many photos, since I have this weird, guilty feeling about taking photos in museums. If I really love a painting, I’ll snap a photo on my phone, but I rarely take my camera out. So, our second day in London is short of photos, especially since we spent our rainy afternoon on the couch watching Harry Potter- what could be more British?

Sunday, our last day, was our tourist day. Clarissa and I had saved all of our tourist spots for the last day, saving Kenzie from having to navigate the crowds with us. After a tearful goodbye (miss you, Kenz), we headed off to see Big Ben.

 

I promise it wasn’t all gloom and doom! Our first day was bright, sunny, and hot, but sadly did not last through the weekend.

One more, just to be sure!

Trafalgar Square- a little too crowded for our taste, we didn’t stay long.

Outfit details: Beaded blazer, Sfera (from Barcelona). Jeans, Scotch and Soda (I hate jeans and I cannot get enough of these, they’ve converted me!). Shoes, Converse (the perfect travel shoe!). Sunglasses, Ray-Ban.

The Millennium Bridge. They had to rebuild it after it swayed too much! These are things you learn when you travel with an architecture major.

The London Eye.

Aaaand back over the bridge to Parliament.

Westminster Abbey, which was unfortunately closed, since it was Sunday and services were going on. Oh well- another excuse to return!

I was afraid that I wouldn’t like London. If I had to compare it to another city, I would say it is New York with a few extra hundred years of history. It is busy, crowded, touristy, metropolitan, cosmopolitan, and slightly overwhelming. But I loved it! I would love to go back and just walk around, explore, and see the 19302894279 things that I didn’t have time for. That’s the best and worst part about study abroad- you get to visit all of these amazing cities, but you barely have time to see anything beyond the major sites, and you crave to return. For my next European adventure, I’d say London is definitely calling my name!