London Calling

 

After finally getting use to the cold winds of Iceland we left on a morning flight to London. The city first reminded me of New York with it's landmarks like Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus and Tralfalgar Square. Soon though I realized that even the Brit's can't match the city that never sleeps. We capitlized on the free museums, 3 pound lunch deals and were able to stay with friends the whole time.

Our living situation was drastically different staying with friends compared to the hostel in Iceland. The first three nights we stayed with a friend that I met at a MUN conference. Shareen was very busy working and setting up a MUN conference when we were there, so we were almost residents of the house with how little we saw her. It made it easy to come and go but interesting with other renters of the house. After the first day though, everyone just accepted the fact that random people were sleeping in the living room. The last two nights a friend from my freshman year of college came to the rescue and allowed us to sleep on the floor of her dorm room. Huge thanks to both Shareen and Courtney for letting us stay with them!

We spent almost the entire first day wondering through Hyde Park and Kensington gardens, while stopping at the Peter Pan statue. The next day we spent some time in Camden town and discovered thrift stores all over where Lynn bought a coat for 10 pounds and I bought a scarf for one. While we were there we made it to Piccadilly Circus to try Ben's Cookies and quite a few museums. 

Peter Pan

When I was 16, I came to London and was awestruck by it. This time it didn't captured heart the same way. The things that I did fall in love with were Nando's (peri-peri chicken), riding double decker buses, having lunch in Hype park, finding a scarf for a pound, eating at a baklava shop and helping 8th grade students discover Model UN.

Our first encounter with falling leaves!

Beautiful river view

Off to Hogwarts!