My Weekend in LONDON

So, London is a very visited city much like Rome and Madrid so I don't feel the need to recap EVERY moment of my trip, but I will just summarize a bit for you.

We flew Easyjet from Bilbao and landed in London Stansted at about 11 P.M. We then took the Terravision bus to Victoria station in downtown London, which took about 1 hour.


Our hostel was within walking distance of Victoria station, however, we didn't know exactly in what direction and the instructions provided by the hostel were a tad confusing..needless to say, we went the wrong direction at first and ended up lost in the richest neighborhood in London (in front of the mansion that we would later find out belongs to Sean Connery).

We eventually made it to the hostel (Astor Victoria) at 1 A.M. It was not the nicest hostel I've been in, but definetely not bad either.









London is a VERY large city, and since I'm so used to my quaint little San Sebastian city, I have grown to dislike the chaotic bustle of larger metropolitan areas, but London has a charm unlike Rome and Madrid that I enjoyed a lot. Since it is so large, we decided that we would take the CitySightSeeing tour bus (yes, the same bus company I used in Rome and Luxembourg) to see the city along with commentary on interesting facts and history. Like I've said twice before, I HIGHLY recommend these tours for travelers who don't have a lot of time in one place. They are quite efficient and hop on hop off is very convenient as well. The ticket was 19 pounds. Yes, that is nearly $40 USD, but London is the world's most expensive city. I enjoyed the tour tremendously. We saw EVERYTHING and the guides were fantastic. We actually rode it twice through it was so good.







We did get off the bus eventually to do a bit of exploring and find food. Finding food in London is...easy. Just go with American franchises. Honestly, it's the tastiest and cheapest thing you will find. There are more KFC's, McDonald's, Starbuck's, and Pizza Hut's in London than I have ever seen in any city in my entire life. We went to Pizza Hut for the 5 pound buffet. Yep, $10 is the cheapest you can do there. Ouch.








At night we did a walk along the Thames River, which is beautiful at night with all the bridges. I would totally recommend any tourist to walk there at night. It is lovely. Infact, most European cities are lovley in the early night hours (before stuff gets creepy...except Rome..just don't even leave after dark there ever).











This particular weekend in London the weather was great, which has its definite ups and downs. Obviously, London is known for lousy weather so to have sun and 70's was a treat. But, it certainly brought out ALL the tourists and locals, and created huge lines with hours of waiting to every attraction in the city. Therefore, I "saw" London, but I didn't get to "visit" London. Most things we didn't get to go in because they were either too long of a wait or RIDICUOSLY expensive...









The second day in London we started out at the changing of the guard at Buckingham. No, we did not see the queen because she was infact at the Kentucky Derby the weekend we were there. The changing of the guard may have been cool to see...and we got there early to get good spots but some lovely Italian and Japanese tourists shoved there way infront of me to the gate and blocked my view. I then got extremely outraged and left, because its pointless to stand there looking at the backs of rude people's heads. The pictures that I have were from putting my camera up way over my head and taking pictures without actually seeing what I was taking a pic of. Swell.








We took the tube around the rest of the day, we meaning Pacifico and I. We bought a daily pass, which is by far the most economic option. We first visited Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station, which only a Harry Potter fan can understand and appreciate.








Then we went to St. Paul's (had graduations going on), Tower of London (too expensive), Westminster (closed early on Sunday), and a few other sites. Pacifico wound up going home to get some rest and I went on a 4.5 hour stroll through London's royal parks, which are gorgeous and the world's largest.








Then I went to sleep around 11 P.M. only to wake up at 2:50 to be at Victoria Station for my 3:45 A.M. bus back to the airport for my 7:30 A.M. flight. I did a lot of sleeping in transit.

Overall, I liked London a lot. It is a very enchanting city. It is beautiful at night. The only downsides are the mass amounts of tourists and the horrendous exchange rate not to mention over priced goods and services. But, it was a relief to speak English.

I would definetely love to go back to the United Kingdom and tour it in its entirety and go back to London as well. There is just so much to see. And, it really is a great place to visit...if only it was cheaper...

Winston:


Abe:


MLK JR.