Hello Friends,
So I’ve spent the last couple of days in London. It has been a sort of rest-stop between adventures in Turkey and what is to come in Austria. I know I haven’t updated too much about Turkey since about the midpoint from when I was there, but things just got super busy while I was there. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to at least a bullet list of some good trips/stories from my time there. But I am in London now, and it has been fantastic.
My friend Josie and I will be traveling to Austria together, thus we have also been traveling together since we left Seattle. We left my house at about 5:30am Sunday morning and arrived around 7:00am Monday morning in London. Upon landing we took a train from the airport to Victoria where our hostel was.
Once we stored our luggage away, we spent a couple of hours exploring before meeting up with her aunt. We found this amazing little Italian coffee shop very much near the Buckingham Palace and had a wonderful brunch – mind you I’m sure our body thought that it was a midnight snack. Later we explored the “Muse” which is a museum that shows the different types of transportation that have been used by the royalty of the palace, but primarily focuses on carriages and the horses are still kept there. It was pretty cool. Then we rushed back to Buckingham Palace to see the change of the guards, which was super awesome.
Later we went back to the hostel and met up with her aunt and were whisked away on a whirlwind tour of London, which included just about every major attraction you could think of. It was incredible to have her aunt as our guide since she was very knowledgeable and could pretty much answer any question we had. P.S. The British Museum is amazing!
After we separated ways Josie and I were dying of hunger and we found this little Indian restaurant on the way home. I know…Italian brunch, Indian dinner…what’s going on here? London is a really interesting city, it’s very much a total melting pot of different cultures. I know we are in a touristy part of town, and that definitely explains the fact that I have heard very little English spoken on the streets, but have pretty much heard any other language that you can imagine. However, being able to find any cuisine you can think of is something I find to be a sign of a diverse city.
Anyway, today was pretty awesome as well. We started the morning off with breakfast at our hostel then headed to the London tower, where the first stop was coffee. I am pretty sure that Josie and I have been living off of coffee the last couple of days. I have decided that the best way to get over jetlag/time zone shifts is to immediately “live” in the time zone you are and massively caffeinate. At least it’s worked for me so far…
We explored every inch of the London Tower, and before we knew it we had spend close to five hours there and had just missed the tour of London that we had planned on joining. But we were also starving at this point and thus went on a search for a true ‘London’ meal…Fish and chips in a pub was the goal. We had seen pubs everywhere when we weren’t in search of one, but when we wanted to eat at one there was none to be found. Funny how that always happens…Finally found a good one and ordered some food, fish and chips of course. And our drink of choice: water! To which the waiter definitely giggled a little bit to himself…after all we were in a pub. Oh yeah, and he also asked if we were twins, because we ordered the same exact thing and said everything in unison, which caused us to erupt in laughter. We have noticed that sleep deprivation or something similar to it causes us to have random miniature laughing attacks, which have been quite entertaining to say the least.
This of course was also a signal that we needed more coffee, but we decided that we wanted to get dessert and coffee at a different place. After dinner we were on our way back to the hostel when we saw a sign that read ‘seats still available’ in front of the theater that was showing ‘Wicked.’ On a whim we went in to see what kind of seats were available and it turns out that they had some cheap ones. We were still not caffeinated enough to make a decision and asked if they thought the tickets would still be available when we got back. With an assuring yes we headed in search for dessert. But not before a quick stop back at our hostel to grab sweaters, because it gets chilly here in the evenings. After delicious cake and coffee. Oh random side story: We were sitting at a table that was inside but the café had big window-like things that they opened so we were right next to the outside tables, but not quite. After a coupe of minutes of sitting down we caught a whiff of this strange smell, which we quickly decided was definitely pot. Someone was literally smoking pot a couple of tables away from us, and no one seemed to blink an eye or care the slightest! How strange…Anyway, back to my day. After dessert we decided that we were pretty tired from walking around and that a musical might be a good idea. Thus we ventured back to the theater.
Upon arrival there we found out that they had a fantastic deal for students when they bought their tickets the night of the show. We got the best seats of the house that were available for an amazing price, and the seats really were pretty incredible. The show also was incredible! Both Josie and I are not the biggest fans of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ and didn’t go into it with super high expectations, but it was incredible! What an awesome musical and all in London!!!! Let’s just say that tonight has been incredible, incredible, incredible!!!!!!!!
As for what’s next on the schedule. Tomorrow bright and early we leave for the airport and go to Graz, Austria where we shall study for the next five months. Thankfully one of our friends will meet us at the airport and take us to our apartments, which is a HUGE relief!
I will update again when I get a chance, but I make no promises as to how soon since I don’t know when I’ll have internet access again…
With much love from the queen’s land,
Ajla
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