I have been doing a lot of touristy these days. It’s nice to have this week and most of next week having nothing planned. Once we start our internships, I have a feeling I will not be seeing a whole lot of London, so I’m trying to see everything that we’re not doing during the group field trips now.
Yesterday we went to Covent Garden, which was a lot of fun. I would really recommend it. There were a lot of street performers and a ton of shopping—both cheap and high end stores so there was stuff for everyone. Therefore, I did not mind the shopping part. The stores were all really cute and there were a few toy stores, which were really interesting to see how they compared to the U.S. Of course, there was the Disney Store and other American places, but most of the stores were local. They also had a market place that had a lot of the touristy stuff as well as locals selling some really cool things. And, they had some amazing looking food there, however we had eaten earlier, so I did not get the opportunity to take advantage of that, but when I go back, I definitely will.
It is London, therefore, it was rainy and damp so we didn’t feel like walking around much longer. Lost for what to do, we went back to the Tube where chaos reigned because the line back to our flat was “severely delayed” because of a signal failure or something like that. Still lost of what to do, we decided to take the other line to Notting Hill for no other reason than the fact that we had all seen the movie and it sounded fun. So, we got off the Tube in Notting Hill and were still completely lost of where to go, so we decided to try and find the Blue Door from the movie “Notting Hill.” We asked a few people who all probably thought we were crazy American tourists—which I suppose we were. It wasn’t until the last person we asked on our long trek that said that that building had been sold and the door was shipped back to the U.S. Oh, the irony. So, wet and cold we gave up and headed back to our flat.
I then did some serious planning for what we were going to do over the weekend and next week. There’s a lot I want to do, but I think I can fit it all in. Earlier today, I went on an optional tour of Westminster Abbey. I woke up very concerned because it was pouring rain once again. I was worried that would put a damper on the tour, however it was not that bad when the tour started.
The tour was pretty early in the morning, but it was really interesting. We had a really nice tour guide who was very informative. The only downside was that he was a little too talkative and long-winded, so the tour sometimes got boring. But it’s really cool all the famous people buried or have monuments in the abbey—basically every famous English person has something.
After we walked out of the Abbey, it was miraculously sunny with blue skies! I do not think I’ve seen such a clear day since I’ve been here. It was somewhat cold, but not terrible, so we decided to make use of the day and take a very touristy bus tour around London. We felt kind of jipped after our last tour, so we decided to do another one, which came with a boat tour. The top level of the double decker bus was really cool, although a little scary at first. We saw a lot more of London than we did on the first tour. The boat tour on the River of Thames was pretty cool too. We were going to go on the London Eye too, but by that point in the day the coldness and cloudiness of the city had returned so we’ll save that for another day.
It’s been fun to be a tourist in the city that I’m living in, at least until we finally get a regular schedule sometime next week. Until then, it’ll be all museums and tourist destinations for me!
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