London

January 2015

Over winter break during my senior year in college, I decided to study abroad. I had never had the time to do it any of my other years because of volleyball, so now that athletics were over I finally got to do it. I knew that I wanted to go somewhere in Europe, and when I saw the AIFS trip to London and Paris, I knew that was the one I wanted to do.

Now since this trip was nearly 3 years ago and I am just now getting around to starting my travel blog, this is going to be more of a highlights and things you HAVE to do blog and less of a minor details and day-by-day journal. I did, however, keep a calendar with notes about what I did each day of my trip, so I will use that as an outline for the entry.

Friday, January 2, 2015 - Depart the US

Saturday, January 3, 2015 - Arrive in London, tour of Hammersmith (the city that we would be staying in, just a short Tube ride away from all major London attractions).

Sunday, January 4, 2015 - Orientation in the morning, followed by an afternoon sightseeing tour via bus. On the bus tour everyone was full of so much excitement as we saw some of the London icons, such as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, for the first time in person.

Monday, January 5, 2015 - Classes start! We got to meet Professor Lucas and his puffy green coat for the first time. After class, we went to the British Museum, wandered through the suburb of Kensington for the first of many times, and then went on a "Jack the Ripper" tour in the evening.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015 - During class we took our first field trip to the City of London and London Museum. After class, we went to the Natural History Museum, and then came upon Kensington Palace for the first time.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - We spent majority of our day wandering around Harrod's, which is one of the largest shopping centers in the world. It had to have had at least 6 stories, each completely filled with anything that you would ever need to buy. That evening, we took a class trip to see Wicked: The Musical at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in the West End Theatre District. The West End Theatre District is considered to have one of the highest levels of performances in the world.

Thursday, January 8, 2015 - We explored the Tower of London, located near the River Thames, during a class field trip. One of the coolest parts of the Tower of London is the "Crown Jewels" exhibit, where over 23,000 stones are under guard at all times.

Friday, January 9, 2015 - During class, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum, which is dedicated to arts and design. After class, we headed down to Piccadilly Circus, which reminded me of New York's Time Square, just at a smaller scale. Here, there are tons of gift shops, street performers, and of course - M&M's world. When getting a bag of M&M's, I mistook the London currency of pounds for the American weight and ended up with about $20 of M&M's - definitely not what I was going for but tasty nonetheless.

Saturday, January 10, 2015 - Today was our first free day since class had started, so we loaded up and took a bus tour to Oxford! We got to tour the University, which looked like it was straight out of a Harry Potter film with the old majestic buildings and English students. This University is the oldest University in the English speaking language, with teachings dating back to the year 1096. It is also the second oldest University that is still running today! The school has been home to many famous alumni, such as 27 British Prime Ministers, Stephen Hawking, actors and actresses (Hugh Grant, Kate Beckinsale), famous Olympians and philosophers.

Sunday, January 11, 2015 - We spent the second free day of our weekend going on another bus tour - this time to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. Stonehenge, located in Wiltshire, had been something that I was always fascinated by and to finally see it in person was unreal! It's literally in the middle of no where - one moment your driving past a grassy, abandoned field and the next you are stumbling upon one of world's biggest mysteries. No one knows for sure who built Stonehenge, or why, but the fact that those rocks, that are 13 feet tall and weigh 25 tons, were placed how they were, built upon each other, that long ago is a mystery within itself! The next part of our bus trip lead us to the City of Bath, where the ancient Roman Baths are. The Roman Baths are one of the most well preserved religious spas in the world. The thermal springs from throughout the city heat the water naturally, even to this day!

Monday, January 12, 2015 - Today was the day that we finally took a tour of Kensington Palace, home to some members of the Royal Family ever since the 17th century! Unfortunately we didn't see Will, Kate or George, but we did get to see several interesting exhibits, including one of Princess Diana's old dresses. Another important fact was that this was the first day that we saw sunlight on our London trip.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015 - Now this was one of my favorite days during the entire trip. We traveled to the Warner Brothers Studios to take a tour of the Harry Potter set! Everything Harry Potter was here - the costumes, the Golden Snitch, the cubbard under the stairs, the Goblet of Fire - literally everything you've ever seen in the movies. And what's fun was this was the REAL stuff that was actually used in the 8 films! And what's a trip to Hogwarts without Butterbeer?

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 - During class today, after much convincing, Professor Lucas let us leave class early in order to go see the Changing of the Guards outside of Buckingham Palace. They don't do this everyday, so in order for us to witness this iconic London act we had to miss class to do so. That evening, we went back to the West End Theatre District to see the Phantom of the Opera - a play that I've always loved and was so thrilled to finally see it in person!

Thursday, January 15, 2015 - We made a special trip to Kings Cross Station to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. But we quickly found out that there isn't even a sign in between the real Platform 9 and Platform 10 as they are actually working platforms. The station does have a special photo op station set up to simulate Platform 9 3/4 in a different area of the station where you can get your picture taken wearing your House scarf while crashing into the wall! After this quick Harry Potter detour, we visited the Abbey Road crosswalk - home to the famous Beatles album cover! I can only image how frustrating it is to have to drive through that crosswalk on a regular basis because there are always people posing in the street! Something that is cool about this spot is they actually have a live online feed where you can watching people going across it anytime you want!

Friday, January 16, 2015 - This morning, our class took a field trip to St. Paul's Cathedral, where from the top of the 528 step staircase you can get a beautiful view of downtown London. After class, we left for our 3 day trip to PARIS (but that's for another blog).

Saturday & Sunday, January 17-18, 2015 - Paris

Monday, January 19, 2015 - Our class took a morning field trip to Greenwich, where we got to see a few places where scenes from the Thor movies were filmed. We also went to the top of Parliament Hill, which is another great place for a stunning view of London. Later that evening, we went to our third and final play, Shakespeare in Love, which I had never heard of it but it was actually very good and comical.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - Today, we took a quick trip to Hyde Park, however London in January is pretty chilly, so we didn't spend too long. Later that night, we visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (ps I LOVE wax museums). Here we spent several hours laughing and taking photos with waxy celebrity look a likes, such as One Direction and the Royal Family.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - We skipped class this morning because we had all had more than enough of Professor Lucas at this point. We used our free time wisely and went and had a huge English brunch, filled with pastries and tea. This was one of the best meals I had the entire trip, and by far the best breakfast (since every other day I ate cereal in bed because we didn't have time to go eat proper meals before class). After our big brunch, we went back to Piccadilly Circus to do our final gift shopping.

Thursday, January 22, 2015 - This day was full of museums and tours. In the morning we went to the Tate Modern Museum, followed by the National Portrait Gallery, which had beautiful paintings of members of the Royal Family (you weren't supposed to take pictures but I still did). We ended the day with a tour of Westminster Abbey, where the Royal Weddings take place. It was gorgeous on the inside but it is also filled with visible tombs of previous Royals, which was super creepy and not somewhere that I would care to have my wedding.

Friday, January 23, 2015 - We had our final exam this day (for being in London to study abroad, it doesn't really sound like I did a lot of studying). After that was over we finally rode the London Eye. It is almost like you are riding in a spaceship when you get into the giant 20 person glass baskets that take you around the wheel. The sun was setting and so was our time in Europe. The next morning we would get up and leave one of the best cities in the world, as well as the friends we had made abroad.

Other Important Notes:

- You must go to the Cereal Killer Cafe. It is a restaurant that ONLY serves cereal and milk and it is amazing.

- If you're traveling in the winter, make sure to bring more than one coat so it doesn't look like you're wearing the same outfit the entire time.

- Get an unlimited underground pass... so convenient and you'll use it constantly!

Have any other London tips or recommendations? Comment below!