Casey's Semester Abroad in Europe: London, England

London Calling! My trip to London on February 15-17th was amazing! On this trip our whole group of friends went which made it a lot more enjoyable and a lot more hectic all in one. There was a total of 8 of us, 4 guys and 4 girls. We all stayed in a hostel in London. We were fortunate to have 8 of us because we were able to buy out en entire room in the hostile rather than sharing it with strangers. The hostel was decent, definitely not a 5 star hotel but it worked well for us. Since we had a makeup class on Friday our weekend was cut short. This made for a whirlwind of a trip in London. We pretty much took London by storm in one day.
We got there late on Friday so we just walked around he neighborhood of the hostel. It was located close to the Tower Bridge and London Tower. From that first night I had already fell in love with London. The city is so pretty and has a magical feel to it. We called it an early night on Friday because we had our Saturday booked with plans. On Saturday we bought tickets for one of the double-decker tour buses. We hopped on one of those at 9 am and toured the city. We got off at any of the stops we wanted and walked around.

The Group

Some of the places we saw were of course Big Ben (the famous clock tower), Parliament, West Minister Abbey (where the Prince and Princess got married), Tower Bridge (often mistaken for the London Bridge), Buckingham Palace (where Royalty lives), and we rode the London Eye which is the huge Ferris Wheel thing that lets you see stunning views of the city. We saw so many picture worthy monuments. I feel like that's just how London is though- very touristy. Everything we did was the typical London thing. All the sights, phone booths, cool taxis and even the food. We of course ate Fish n' Chips. And yes, they were actually the best fish n' chips I have ever eaten. Saturday night we went out and found a Karaoke Bar. We had the best night of our lives! All of us got up and sang some crowd pleasers including Smashmouth, Rihanna and our specialty, The Spice Girls. We were the life of the party without a doubt.

Sunday morning came too soon but we still had places we wanted to see- Abbey Road (the famous Beatles' crosswalk picture) and The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. We attempted Abbey Road but later found out after traveling 45 mins it was the wrong Abbey Road. Who knew there were 2 Abbey Roads in London. We then tried to go the the Changing of the Guards but the metro was under construction so all the trains were delayed and off normal routes. We ended up spending our entire day trying to get back to the main train station for our departure back to Paris. We finally made it and hopped on our 2 hour train ride.
Overall I have to say that I loved London! Although it was tough getting places and making decisions with 8 teenagers, we made it work. All of us got along and became a lot closer as friends. The memories we made in London will last us a lifetime. I definitely want to return to London someday and take on the city all over again!