Bloody Hell! My Year Abroad: London

On a whim, myself and ten other UMD students decided to spend two days and one night in London this past weekend. We all got up disgustingly early (4:30 in the morning) so that we could catch a train to London by 6. And I say, "got up" very loosely, because if you never actually fell asleep I hardly think it counts. I did, however, sleep for most of the train ride over which really just means I missed a lot of pretty countryside.

We got into Paddington station at about 8:30, and since we couldn't check into our hostel until 2 we started sight seeing right away. London is beautiful, it really is, but I was a huge dumbass and wore "comfy boots." Of course after they turned my feet into huge blisters I decided they really were not that comfy. So while, yes, I did see all of the main attractions (and I really do just mean see, because it was way to expensive to go into anything) I mostly just limped through that first day. Although to be fair, I limped past some really cool stuff. Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the first day, but here are some of the things that I saw: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (GORGEOUS), Buckingham Palace, and Green Park.

Eventually my feet couldn't bear the comfy boots anymore and I had to stop at H and M and buy some better walking shoes (only 8 pounds!). After that I could still barely walk, but at least I was no longer walking in agonizing style. We went out that night to see the local nightlife, but since everyone was pretty tired we didn't stay very long. Pretty much as soon as we all saw that a single shot was 5 pounds we hightailed it out of there. Because holy crap, I do not have 5 pounds to spend on a shot. I think the only people that do must be billionaire alcoholics.

The next day was slightly less painful and a lot more relaxed. We walked over and saw the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, which is a very large building but a very short tower. At the Tower of London I had one of the best ice cream cones of my life. It was like if they turned marshmallow fluff into ice cream. I could have stolen that ice cream truck. Then we made our way over to Harrods, which is like this big, terrifying, museum-like department store where they have things like luxury rooms and Egyptian halls, and where everything costs an arm, a leg, and your soul...

I didn't buy anything.

Then, and this was the absolute best part of my day, we took the rail to Hyde Park and took a nap. I know it sounds a little sketchy to be sleeping in a public place like that, but we were in a group, it was a beautiful day, and I held onto my purse really tightly the whole time. It was by far the best nap of my entire life. After that we caught an early train back to Worcester (which after seeing how big London is, I am so happy to be living in) and I went back to sleep while pretending I was still in Hyde Park.

I got my Starbucks!