Arriving in London

Trafalgar Square

  I didn't sleep well the night before my flight to London, I was worried I would oversleep and miss my bus to the airport. The journey ended up being a smooth one, however, and I arrived at Hotel 65 in London just in time to drop off my bags and join my group for our first walking tour.

The lions at Trafalgar square

A few short blocks from our hotel is the London Underground which can take us pretty much anywhere in the city that we want to go. We have about 30 people in our group, ages ranging from 18 to 24 with me being one of the oldest. On the walk to the tube I had the opportunity to meet two girls from California, Alexa and Justine. We got off at the "Piccadilly Circus" stop and walked to Trafalgar Square, home of the national gallery, buskers of every type and war monuments that reach for the sky. The bustling, brick-paved square had pigeons brave enough to fly right at your face and buskers including everything from old-time violin music to ill-choreographed, dancing Korean teenagers. At the center of the square children climbed bravely on the backs of huge, stone lions and splashed water from the mouths of dancing mermaids. Branching off in every direction of the Trafalgar square are streets crammed with double-decker red buses headed for Big Ben,  Westminster Abby and the changing of the  guards.

A London street performer

After Trafalgar square we walked to Covent Garden, a fashionable shopping center that had food stalls and clothing stores. After carefully selecting a mozzarella, tomato and basil ciabatta and fresh squeezed lemonade I was forced to take shelter from the rain in a small and dusty bookstore. With another 30 minutes to spare before I was scheduled to meet my group back at the train station I browsed delicate lavender soaps and pitied a small french boy held captive by a mime for the sake of entertaining a small crowd.

A soap stall at Covent Garden

On the subway ride back to Hotel 65 I had the opportunity to get to know a friendly group of brothers and sisters from Utah. I have been surprised at how many people came on this trip with friends or family members and it makes me wish I would have had time for Erica, Chris or Jonathan to plan on joining me. I eventually found my room with three girls in it waiting for me. We ended up having five in our room total and spent the evening getting to know each other, journaling and reading. Tomorrow we have a hop-on hop-off bus tour of London and I plan on spending a pretty solid chunk of time in the National Gallery.