Ah, there is so much to write! London was so much more than I expected it to be, and I expected a lot. I travelled with two really good friends, which definitely made my experience all the better. I spent five days there and four nights - five nights if you count sleeping in an airport (check that off the bucket list). We conquered the vast city, and I will never complain about walking far distances again.
Day 1: After an early flight on the unexpectedly pleasant RyanAir, we arrived just outside the city. From the Baker Street tube station, we made our way down to the Marble Arch, peeked at Hyde Park, walked the whole way down Oxford Street, down to Piccadilly, found our way to Trafalgar Square, snaked our way down to the River Thames, then came upon the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben. Then, after navigating our little group so successfully all day, I determinedly led us the opposite way from our hostel. We all make mistakes, right? We walked the London Bridge to get to our hostel and then made our way down to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. It was a wonderfully fantastic, beautiful, adventurous day! The sun was shining, and we discovered so many gardens, parks, historical places and breathtaking architecture. It made for the most perfect first day in London.
Day 2: Our second day went a lot like the first, where we just walked around and saw as much as possible, thankfully without the added weight of our backpacks. We were able to see the London and Tower Bridges by day, walked to the Millennium Bridge, strolled through the South Bank, came upon Parliament again, saw Westminster Abbey, went in search of Buckingham Palace (of which I was thoroughly disappointed, I saw no baby George), made our way back up to Oxford Street and did some shopping, and just discovered a lot more of the city.
Day 3: Friday was filled with more zigging and zagging through the streets of London which you can never do enough of because there is simply so much to see! We saw the famous Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Covent Garden, the National Gallery and some of Hyde Park. That night we tubed to Piccadilly Circus to Her Majesty's Theater to see Phantom of the Opera! Okay, no big deal, but it took my breath away and was so much more than I dreamed it would be.
Day 4: We started out en route to our next hostel because our second was a tad sketchy. However, it fulfilled the important experience of staying at a dodgy hostel. In this day's journey, we discovered Regent's Park, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, the wonder of Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall and London's West End. That night we decided to take a little walk around the area of our new hostel and stopped to get wine at a cozy bar nearby. It was another lovely day, minus the calluses on my heels from walking. For all my photos of the city, visit my Facebook album
here.
Day 5: Sunday we went on the Harry Potter Studio Tour at the Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden, an hour train ride from London. When we arrived, a little piece of me came alive. I won't go into full detail of the tour, since that would take me hours and hours, but just know that the best comparison I can come up with is being Charlie inside the Chocolate Factory. The first part of the tour was a short movie about the creation of the films and interviews of the filmmakers, etc., which gave me goosebumps. Then as the movie ended, the projection screen rolled up and behind it was the doors to the Great Hall. I had a mini-heart attack right then.
The reason the tour was so amazing is because you got to see the real sets and props used in the films. We saw the sets of the Great Hall, the Gryffindor common room and boys' dormitory, Dumbledore's Office, Hagrid's Hut, the Borough, the Ministry of Magic, Diagon Alley, Potions Classroom, the wooden bridge, the Riddle gravestone, the house on Privet Drive and the Potters' cottage in Godric's Hollow. The props included the wigs, props and major costumes of all the characters, all the horcruxes, the Triwizard Cup, Dumbledore's pensieve, the door to the Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts' Door, the Mirror of Erised, the marble staircase, Hagrid's (Sirius') motorcycle, Mr. Weasley's flying car, the Knight Bus, the Black family tapestry, the Vanishing Cabinet, giant wizard's chess pieces and so much more! At the end of the tour there was a massive model of Hogwarts. The lighting around the model changed colors to reflect night and day. In a word, it was magical. I took hundreds of photos, but you can find the best of them in my
Facebook album.
Thanks as always for reading! Next week I'm off to Paris with my two roommates. I look forward to gushing about the wine...
- Ali
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