London Bridge is falling down...Because I'm in town!*

I went on my first "big" trip this past weekend, and where else to go first but London? After all, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life," according to Samuel Johnson. All right, so maybe there are other places in Great Britain outside of London. But being there was so surreal, like stepping into a novel. Even things as mundane as Tube stations and streets brought up connections in my mind:

Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes (and Basil of Baker Street!)

Fleet Street: The Demon Barber of...

Tottenham Court Road: My Fair Lady

King's Cross Station: Harry Potter

And then we ate dinner at Ye Old Chesire Cheese, a pub on Fleet Street from the seventeenth century that was a frequent haunt of Johnson and Charles Dickens, and well, it blew my mind. ;)

It was such a whirlwind trip--Friday night we explored a lot of the different neighborhoods of the city, from Chinatown to Little Italy to the West End, to the Theater District (which reminded me of NYC).

We saw the Tower of London Saturday morning (really it should be called the Towers of London) and the British Musuem that afternoon. I had a totally inaccurate perception of the Tower of London; it was actually a massive area enclosed behind castle walls, with several towers. Some parts of it were scary (the torture exhibit and seeing the inscriptions of prisoners on the walls gave me chills). But given how infamous the Tower is, it wasn't the dark, dungeon-like place I thought it would be. There's still guards there, though, to protect the amazingly beautiful Crown Jewels. The British Musuem was also incredible, though I have to go back because we didn't get to see it all. The Egyptian Room was my favorite, and not just because of the Amelia Peabody novels!

Sunday we saw the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery, again not all of it because by then we were dead tired! The Tube, as nice as it was (way more reliable than the Metro in DC) had closures on the very lines we needed, so we ended up having to do a lot more walking than we planned. The upside was that we saw more of the city. The downside was that it was hard to walk around the musuems, especially with a heavy pack on your back. But it was worth it for the famous artwork, and I especially enjoyed the portraits. And I got to see the actual portrait of Richard III!! I'm a bit ashamed to admit I flipped out a little when I saw it. ;) But then again, I also had a breakdown seeing Parliament and Big Ben for the first time.

The last bit of the trip was seeing Buckingham Palace, in the rain, unfortunately. It was at the end of a long Mall, weirdly similar to the National Mall in DC. The flag was flying, so the royal family was in residence! I didn't get to meet them this trip...maybe next time... ;)

This trip was also the first time I'd stayed in a hostel, which was...interesting. On the whole, it was all right for a cheap place to sleep. It was like staying in a slightly dirtier-than-usual dorm for the weekend. The room was ok, though I was glad I was with friends, it made it more fun. I learned a couple of lessons for future reference: Like Arthur Dent, never travel without a towel! And soap. Hostels don't provide anything. But it wasn't sketchy at all, so I have no issues with roughing it in a hostel again in the future.

And the food was delicious--I had Yorkshire Pudding and Spotted Dick (don't snicker, that's what it's called) for the first time. Yorkshire Pudding was my favorite; it isn't pudding at all, but a fluffy, crispy biscuit with a hole in the middle for gravy. Funnily enough, Spotted Dick isn't...never mind. It's actually a dessert of fruitcake and custard.

I can't wait to go back!

*Apologies for the awful title