"There's no place like London"

Yes, the title is kind of a cop-out, but I had to.

Getting to and from London was probably the most stressful travel experience I've ever had, but the middle part was worth it! It took me 50 minutes door-to-door to get from my dorm to the airport, which was great. Everything went smoothly at the airport, until I got to security, which was closed. It kind of freaked me out a little, because in New York security would never be closed at 8am on a Friday morning! In general, the airport was really quiet. Then, when I went through security (less than an hour before we were supposed to board, even though I had gotten to the airport really early!), there was no staff at any of the desks at the gates, which was also weird. We did not board at the scheduled time, but there was no angry mob demanding to know what was going on, and still no flight attendants or anything around. Finally, AFTER my flight was supposed to take off, there was an announcement that there was a technical malfunction with the plane, and so there was going to be a delay of a little more than an hour. All in all to get to my three friends studying in London for the semester, I took the Metro, a bus to the airport, a shuttle to the plane itself, the plane, a shuttle to the train station, and then a train to St. Pancras station, a five minute walk from the NYU in London housing:



Since I was only in London for less than 48 hours, we did a lot of sight-seeing. One of the first things I saw was one of the famed telephone booths:



The first day, I also saw Leichester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, the National Gallery, the West End, Platform 9 and 3/4, the British Library (which has lots of really cool original manuscripts) and Covent Gardens. Then, I had British pub food for dinner (Shepherd's Pie!) and my friends and I went out dancing, just like the old days in New York:



The second day was also crammed with a lot of sight-seeing. First, my friend and I stopped at Borough Market for lunch (fresh food market, with lots of free samples!) and I actually saw the sun! Here's proof:



Then, we headed to the Thames, and walked along the Queen's Walk. I saw the Globe, the National Theater, the Tate, Big Ben:



Some beautiful cathedrals surrounding it and Westminster Abbey:



and then, after managing to navigate London streets, Buckingham Palace:



That night, because of all the walking and because my friends and I were all feeling slightly under the weather, we had a night in, but I was really happy just to be there and spend time with my friends. On the way home, my train back to the airport was delayed, and I got to the gate just as my flight started boarding! That also turned out to be delayed because of a software malfunction...oh well.

I'm really glad I got to go to London and see many famous sights, especially accompanied by my lovely former roommates. It proved to me that Prague is the right place for me to be, though, as I wouldn't really want to spend four months there. I can't believe its already been over a month since I landed in Prague, although it also feels like I've been here forever. Next up for me is a day trip to the Labor Camp Terezin on Friday, and most likely Budapest from Saturday to Monday! Don't worry, I'm getting all my homework done...