Student Bloggers
London Trip!
Date
January 29, 2015
I had a fabulous trip to London! It was very busy and tiring, but it was a blast! I left Friday morning and managed to sleep through my alarm… so I had to sprint to the train station at 6:30am. I also went to a Ceilidh the night before and made the mistake of wearing new boots- so I had fresh blisters on my feet for the train station sprint. But alas, I was on the train and headed south to London. One of my favorite things has to be train travel. I love being able to see the countryside and cities that we pass through, it may have taken longer, but I got to see a lot of England! One of the things that I noticed most was the number of sheep! Coming from the Midwest- I’m used to seeing a lot of cows on long car rides, I suppose it’s the same for the English.
Anyways, we packed a lot into two days. We went to the Harry Potter Studios Tour (which was one of the best moments of my life), Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Camden Market, Harrods, Big Ben/Parliament, Tower Bridge, and five museums (Victoria & Albert, British Museum, Natural History, Science Museum, and National Gallery). Fun fact: Big Ben isn’t the name of the tower. The tower is actually called Elizabeth Tower, and the bell is called Big Ben.
One of the most important lessons learned from my trip, is know the location of every single Starbucks in the city. Seriously- Starbucks is the only place where there is truly free wifi and you don’t have to sign in with your mobile provider. Lots of tourist attractions have free wifi: Harry Potter, all the museums, etc.
Harry Potter was totally worth it. It was a huge pain to get there, because the studio is actually 20 miles outside of London, and the tour was pretty expensive. But even if you aren’t a huge fan, I think you’d definitely love the tour. My friend and I drew lightning bolt scars on our foreheads and we left them on for the train ride home and got way too many looks on the tube. I got a chocolate frog as a souvenir and I have yet to eat it- I want to save it, but I know it’s just chocolate!
Our train left Monday morning from King’s Cross station- which was also amazing being a Harry Potter nerd. I visited Platform 9 ¾ before boarding the train back to Edinburgh for my 1pm class.