London, England

January 20-22 I traveled to London, England for a short holiday. I just so happened to have three days off in a row and I wanted to take advantage of it. I decided to take the trip alone. So, instead of just finding a hostel or hotel I "couch surfed". (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) For those of you who don't know, couch surfing is like facebook for travelers. You literally surf on their couch (well not actually surf). It is a social networking site where you can message people and ask them if you can stay with them for a short period of time for free. I found a really nice girl named Lucy and she agreed to let me sleep on her couch for two nights. She lives in Uxbridge, which is in London, but is the farthest tube stop from the central train station. She is in "uni" which is what they call university studying to become a psychiatric nurse. She lives in a house with six other people. She was extremely nice and very accomodating.

I took the train to Munich and then another train to the Salzburg airport (about a 3 hour trip) to catch my Ryan Air flight. Ryan Air is an inexpensive airline that flies to Dublin and London. I arrived in London Stansted (airport) about 4 PM and had to take the hour long "Stansted Express" to the Liverpool train station in the center of London. Then, I got on the tube to Uxbridge where Lucy met me at the airport. When I arrived at her place she and her boyfriend made us dinner. We had traditional British cuisine: Fajitas, beans, and rice. It was pretty funny. I told them that was the last thing I expected to eat in London. Although, their roommate was eating "beans on toast". I got to her place pretty late, so that evening we just relaxed and chatted and I went to sleep.

On Wednesday, I woke up early and Lucy dropped me off at the train station. I took the tube back into the city to Liverpool station and then got on another train to meet my tour group. I decided the best way to see London in one day was to go on tours. My friend, Natalie, told me about the "New London Tours" which are ran by people my age. (http://www.newlondon-tours.com/) I decided to go on the "Old City Tour of London" our which was a three hour walk around the old part of London.



We visited:
St. Paul's Cathedral
London Bridge
Shakespeare's Globe Theater
Millennium Bridge (The wobbly bridge)
The Church of the Knights Templar (of Da Vinci Code fame!)
The Monument
The Tower of London
Mansion House
World War II Blitz
Covent Garden
The Bank of England
The Royal Exchange
HMS Belfast
Tate Modern
RAF Church
Tower Bridge




It was so much fun. The tour guide was an American girl from California and all of the people on the tour were either from Australia and New Zealand. There was one girl from Germany and I was the lone American. London is so big and full of history that going on a tour is a nice way to get a lot in in just a few hours.




After the tour, I went and had some pizza and a glass of wine at a little restaurant across from the King's College of London. Then, I ventured out on my own. I visited the National Gallery, Westminister Abbey (where Big Ben is), St. James Park, and Buckingham Palace. I also did a little shopping on the way.



It was starting to get dark so I decided to kill a little time before I went on a pub crawl with the tour group. I saw billboards for an IMAX theater so I hopped on the tube and found it. The only movie playing was a kids animated movie called "Fly Me to the Moon". It was cute, but it was literally about flies flying to the moon. I ate some salt and vinegar chips, put on my 3-D glasses, and was a kid again for about an hour. After the movie, I went back to where our tour group met and met up with everyone that was going on the pub crawl. We went to five different pubs and luckily I made it on the last train back to Lucy's. The crawl was about 20 of us from all over the world. Mainly Australians, but you will have that in London. It was an interesting experience talking and hanging out with strangers from such diverse backgrounds.



I left London on Thursday. I had such a wonderful time. If any of you are hesitant about traveling alone, DON'T BE. It is not a big deal. You can always find people to talk to or help you. Especially in an English speaking country.