Let's Get British! (Weekend Trip in London Part 1)

So, you may notice that I have decided to start breaking up my posts.  Why am I doing this you ask?  Well, I have been told by certain resources that a lot of my posts are quite long, and I agree.  So, to make things more interesting (and to bore people less), I have decided that breaking things up would be a better option.  Well, this weekend (along with three other friends from my program) had the opportunity to go to the English capital of the world: LONDON!  It really doesn't get much more English than that folks.

Baby's first set of pounds!

It was really spectacular.  We left on thursday right after we finished lunch with our families, made our way to the Madrid airport, and finally hopped on the plane to come to jolly ole' England.  And upon arriving we got to take a bus very late to the area near our hostel, got to take a trip through the signature underground for the first time ever, and got situated.  The next day, the adventure began!

After getting off the bus, we caught the LAST underground of the night to get close to our hostel.  King's Cross just happened to be the stop that was closest. ;) Sound familiar to anyone?  Riddle to be answered later.

I will get to the first day of the trip a little later...

The second day of our trip was our trip through London day.  We checked out of our hostel, holstered our city maps in our back pockets, threw our backpacks over our shoulders, and started hoofing it through the streets.  On our way through the city we made a few stops, such as:

The British Library... (we stopped here to view century old written texts such as musical scores, sacred books, and the original Magna Carta)

THE King's Cross station... (before, I mentioned it. This place has significance in my life as well as the life of many other people...)

Because it houses Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. IT WAS WHERE HARRY POTTER STARTED HIS JOURNEY TO HOGWARTS FOR THE FIRST TIME!

The British Museum... (we looked at all kinds of artifacts from all over the world, and also the original Rosetta Stone - the original decipher of hieroglyphics)

The Tower of London...

The Tower Bridge...

The London Bridge right after that...

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre...

The London Eye... (fun fact: this was the rest of our group, taking the chance to chill and do nothing for a few minutes, considering we walked all over downtown London)

The ever popular bright red telephone booth facing Big Ben...

Big Ben and the British Parliament building...

Westminster Abbey...

Buckingham Palace...

And Trafalgar Square.

It was a long day to say the least, and our feet certainly agreed with us.  But it was so spectacular.  We started walking the streets at 9 AM and didn't stop moving until we boarded the bus to come back to the London Luton airport at midnight.  We made only two stops to sit for meals (once at a local bistro for pie and mash [pot pie and mashed potatoes - a local favorite] and a Chinese buffet in Chinatown), once during a quick metro ride to the Tower of London, and another break during a night walk in the park.

This experience was unique in another way.  For the first time, we were actually back in a place where English was once again the dominant language.  And, after spending over two months in a country where English is not the norm, it was quite surreal to be back in the majority.  We learned some things really quickly.  First, we learned just how weird it was to be back in a place where we didn't have to think as much about what we were saying, why we were saying it, and how we were going to say it.  But the other thing is that we realized just how quickly it was to adapt to the language and feel at home in our own language.  I guess it's a good sign that when we return home in April that it won't take very long to get accustomed to the home language again.  It was quite the interesting experience.

But what about that first day? Well...that is it's own post in itself!  You will find out shortly...talk to ya later next time folks!!!