We started out our trip on Sunday afternoon. Jess, Newly and I took the bus from Valladolid to the airport, and then flew to the London-Stansted airport. Once we arrived, went through customs, and exchanged our money, we quickly learned that the London-Stansted airport is actually a two-hour bus ride from the city of London itself. So, we took the bus to London, then the metro to our hostel, arriving around 9pm and not having a chance to see any of London on Sunday night. Once we got to the hostel, which turned out to be in a horrible location for nightlife, we had to wait for half an hour for the two people ahead of us checking in. We were not very happy about that, because when we checked in, it only took them five minutes. We ended up staying in a 12-person mixed room. This was the first time I’ve traveled in a group too small to get rooms for just us, so the 12-person room was quite a different experience for me. The beds were uncomfortable and not the cleanest and one guy always came in late and turned on the light, waking everyone up. It was lovely. People staying there also didn’t seem very open to meeting new people so we didn’t get to meet anyone.
On Monday morning, we got up around 8:30 and h
eaded right out. We started our day in Hyde Park, which was right across the street from our hostel. The park was HUGE, and very pretty. There were so many dogs there! I loved it! Once we made our way through the park, we headed over to Buckingham Palace, but before we got there, we met a really nice lady who gave us some pointers on things to see and where to go. One constant thing I noticed was how incredibly nice British people are. They were so polite and so happy to talk to you and he
lp out in any way they could. After we talked with the nice lady, we walked over to Buckingham Palace, where there were TONS of cops and a million people. We were wondering what could be going on because this was definitely not just a bunch of people wanting to see the palace, so we stayed and eventually the policemen started moving people out of the street and organizing everyone. It turned out to be the changing of the guard! I
t was a huge production and I cannot believe this happens every day. It was crazy! Unfortunately, we were across the street from the palace so we didn’t get to see what was happening inside the gates but it was still pretty cool. After it was all over, Jess and I made it our mission to get a photo with a policeman and his funny hat. Once we got our picture, we headed over to Westminster Abbey. On the way there, we saw people feeding a squirrel right out of their hands!! Yuck! My mom has definitely passed the squirrel-hating trait on to me. I was so freaked out by this. Anyway, we made it to Westminster Abbey, which was very impressive, but we only saw the outside. I can only imagine how much prettier it was on the inside. Later, we headed to Trafalgar Square, wanting to feed the pigeons. On our way there though, we found a huge bookstore and obviously had to go in. Being the bookworms we all are, we spent about an hour and a half there. It was super exciting to have such a wide selection of books in English! If you go to a bookst
ore in Spain, there is only one bookshelf of books in English, if any at all. After the bookstore, we crossed the street to Trafalgar Square, where we were shocked to find that there were no pigeons at all. Apparently, they don’t allow pigeon feeding anymore there. We were super disappointed about that. However, they did have four statues of lions, which was super exciting because I am obsessed with lions. Obviously, I had to get my picture taken with them. We didn’t stick around Trafalgar Square for too long and next we moved on to Covent Garden. Once we got there, we were under the quite false impression that Covent Garden was actually a garden. So we kept walking around looking for the gardens only to find that it was just a big shopping center! We felt so dumb, but were excited to see all the shops. It was a very fun atmosphere. After we saw everything around Covent Garden, we went to a Japanese restaurant my friend recommended to me called Wagamama. It was delicious! It felt super weird to go back to the normal eating schedule after being so used to eating late in Spain. One thing about London, it is SO expensive! The dollar is
very weak there now, so everything was incredibly expensive. The dollar is also weak to Euros, but not as bad. I am now discovering why foreigners love shopping in the US. Also, we loved the British accent. I think it is so funny listening to everyone speak with it all the time. I had so many urges to just speak in a British accent all the time, but I figured the natives would not appreciate that very much. The thousands of tourists might’ve believed it though. Also, it was so confusing having to walk on the left side of the path all the time. London is so full of tourists, and many of them still walked on the right side, so we never knew what to do. The cars driving on the left side of the road always got me, and often I would look in the driver’s side of the car and freak out because there was no driver there, only to realize the driver was on the other side. Anyway, after Wagamama, we walked over to where we could see the London Eye at night. It was lit up in dark blue, so I didn’t get any clear pictures of it. After that, we went back to the hostel. We were going to make Monday our night to go out to a pub, but we were so tired and I had an awful headache, so we stayed in and rested, figuring we’d need our strength for another jam-packed day.
Tuesday morning, we got up at 8:30 again and took the metro to King’s Cross Station to see the ever-famous Platform 9 ¾. Jess and I were so p
syched to see the actual place where the train station scene was filmed, especially since we had been uncontrollably referencing Harry Potter the whole trip. Newly is not really a Harry Potter fan, so she couldn’t share our sparking enthusiasm, but that did not get in the way of our excitement. Little did we know, though, this would be the biggest disappointment of all. We got to King’s Cross, which was under major construction, and followed the signs to Platform 9. Once we got there, there was no Platform 9 ¾ to be found. I’ve seen pictures of it and known people who have seen it so I knew it was real. When we were walking out of Platform 9, a lady asked us, “are you a Harry Potter family?” so we said “Yes!” and she directed us to Platform 8. Fully confused as to why it would be located in Platform 8, we followed her directions anyway and once we got there, we still couldn’t find it. We walked up and down the platform, so determined to find it, when we finally came across a tiny little corner where people were taking pictures. We found Platform 9 ¾. It was just a backdrop of a brick wall with a sign that said “Platform 9 ¾” and half a cart in the wall. Apparently they no longer have the real platform because of all the construction that was going on. We were so disappointed but took tons of photos anyway, making the most of what we had. After we left the station, we headed over to the Tower of London and London Bridge. The bridge was super impressive – it was so huge! Once we crossed it, we found a cute little cobblestone street and were so happy because we finally found something that was close to how we had pictured London. We ate lunch at
a pizza place there and then walked down the cobblestone street along the river heading for Globe Theater. After a long walk, we found a building that said “Globe Theater” but was obviously not actually the theater itself. It was a building that surrounded it. So we went in, and discovered that only people possessing show tickets could go out and see it from the outside. Just one more disappointment to add to the list. However, when we walked back out onto the street a little ways further, we found that we actually could see the theater very well and got some good photos of it. While sitting outside by the river, we met a really humorous lady from Boston who was now living in London. She told us to go and see the Tate Modern where there was an exhibit of over 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds that an Asian artist had decided to make for the museum. So we went and saw it, and it was very impressive. After that, we took the metro over to Piccadilly Circus and guess what… it’s just like Covent Garden. There’s no circus there! This was not as much of a surprise as the garden situation, but we found it funny how misleading everything in London is. We h
ung around London for a while, checking out shops and buying gifts for family and friends. Once dinnertime came around, we knew that we had to get fish and chips. I was originally not going to get fish and chips because of how sick I am of fish, but I did anyway, figuring I’d probably never go back to London. It was good, though. It’d probably be better if I still liked fish like I did before I left for Spain, but I still liked it. After dinner, we didn’t know what else to do, so we took the metro back to the hostel to rest before hitting the pub. Once we got in our room, however, I noticed my sleeping bag was missing! The hostel workers left a note saying they took it because they didn’t allow sleeping bags. I was so mad! I use my sleeping bag at hostels because one, the beds are gross and two, I just got it for Christmas and I love using it because it is so small! So I went and asked to have it back, expecting them to tell me I couldn’t have it until we checked out. I showed the note to the girl working the reception desk and she looked at it like she didn’t even know they had that rule, and then started searching. She searched around for about five minutes before telling me she couldn’t find it and I should come back later. They took my sleeping bag and then lost it! Arggg. Anyway, we hung out in the lounge for a while and watched the movie that was playing in there and I went back to the reception desk an hour later. Luckily, they found it, and she gave it right back to me. So I used it when I slept that night. Pretty dumb situation in my opinion, but whatever. I’m happy I got it back. Later, we headed out to the pub, because obviously we had to see a pub in London. We got there and ordered drinks, but the bartender asked for our IDs and, of course, I was dumb and forgot mine. We NEVER get carded in Spain at the bars, so I was just used to not needing it. So, we ended up not drinking. It was a pretty lame pub anyway since we were in such a bad location for nightlife with young people. So we went back to the hostel, got ready for bed, talked for a while, then went to get some sleep before we had to get up at 5 am the next morning.
Wednesday morning, we got up at 5:30 am to catch our flight. We took a double-decker bus to the bus station, had some stress trying to find our bus but caught it just in time, took the bus to the airport, and flew home to Valladolid.
It was a really tiring weekend full of random disappointments, but it was worth it and I’m so glad I went. We really did have a great time, even though it wasn’t what we expected. Now I’m glad to be back in Valladolid and resting. We have mid-terms next week so I’ll be studying hard all weekend. Then possibly Morocco the weekend after? We’ll see.
Also, it is FREEZING in London. It's warming up here in Valladolid, though. If the weather stays like this, I no longer need my jacket when I go outside! Definitely not laughing at all of you in Minnesota. Nope.
Sorry this post is so long! Thanks for reading all the way to the end!
This last Saturday we went on another school excursion – this time to Salamanca. It was about an hour and a half bus ride to the city. When we arrived there, we started out separating into groups and taking a tour with our professors. It’s always the same professors that take us on the excursions. The tour lasted about an hour. We saw a few historical buildings (I wasn’t really paying that close attention so unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you most of what we saw) and the outside of the University of Salamanca. The outside entrance of this building is so intricately sculpted, like most Spanish buildings, but everything that is shown in the building is symbolic. It is divided in thirds, the upper third representing the father, the middle third shows the symbol for Carlos V, and the bottom third representing the “Reyes Católicos,” Fernando and Isabel. While in the region of Castilla y Leon (which is Valladolid, Salamanca, and Segovia’s region), you can’t really go anywhere without seeing something representing Fernando and Isabel somewhere. They are very much worshipped here. The building is also divided vertically in two sides. The left side represents good. It displays heroes like Hercules and many other good things. The right side represents bad. It shows Venus and skulls to symbolize death and other things to symbolize lust. There is also a frog hidden somewhere on the right side and many people believe that if you can find it, you will have good luck. For example, if you find it before a test, you will pass the test. However, I just learned in my Art class today that it does not actually represent good luck, but sex. Very interesting. There are two doors, one on each side, which represent the choice to walk into good or bad. 
nch, then ice cream, checked out a really neat bar, and hung out in Salamanca’s famous Plaza Mayor and soaked up the sun. While sitting in Plaza Mayor, we saw many very interesting characters. We probably saw ten bachelor/bachelorette parties, most of which the bride or groom was dressed in a full costume. There were also just a lot of random people dressed up. We also saw a marching band type thing parading around there and much more. It was really interesting. We noticed that Salamanca has a much bigger younger population than Valladolid. Both Salamanca and Valladolid are college towns but it’s much clearer in Salamanca. 
nch, then ice cream, checked out a really neat bar, and hung out in Salamanca’s famous Plaza Mayor and soaked up the sun. While sitting in Plaza Mayor, we saw many very interesting characters. We probably saw ten bachelor/bachelorette parties, most of which the bride or groom was dressed in a full costume. There were also just a lot of random people dressed up. We also saw a marching band type thing parading around there and much more. It was really interesting. We noticed that Salamanca has a much bigger younger population than Valladolid. Both Salamanca and Valladolid are college towns but it’s much clearer in Salamanca. 
my time here is up. The outside of Salamanca’s cathedral was pretty cool. I was a bit unimpressed with the inside, though. It’s probably because of how many cathedrals I’ve seen now. After the cathedral, we had 45 more minutes of free time, during which we got more ice cream. There’s definitely no such thing as too much ice cream. Later, we met back up at the cathedral and got on the bus to head back to Valladolid. 
my time here is up. The outside of Salamanca’s cathedral was pretty cool. I was a bit unimpressed with the inside, though. It’s probably because of how many cathedrals I’ve seen now. After the cathedral, we had 45 more minutes of free time, during which we got more ice cream. There’s definitely no such thing as too much ice cream. Later, we met back up at the cathedral and got on the bus to head back to Valladolid. 
