..::Dominican In Madrid::..: London, Londres. Potato, Potahto!

My last european country visit before I head back to Boston. A place I originally did not intend to visit but when the opportunity arose, I couldn't say no. Pendle and Yami, two girls in my program had already booked their flight so Brandon (who lived in London as a kid) and I jumped on the bandwagon. We ended up booking a fairly priced hostel recommended by my host sister in Hammersmith, London.

After escaping death, as usual, on our RyanAir flight, we got to the Hostel and realized that it's on the second floor on a Bar/club. First thought, sh!t I won't be able to sleep at night. Second thought, I will probably be down here until they close. That second thought turned out to be somewhat accurate. As guests of the hostel, we took advantage of the deals on drinks/food and met a group of Russians while watching the Real Madrid Vs. Atletico de Madrid soccer game. Funny story: After finding out we were American, the Russians wanted to talk about Ice Hockey but due to their incredibly thick accents we thought they had asked about "Ice Cocaine." That made for quite a conversation!

We had to make sure we took advantage of the sunlight and explored the city as much as possible. Weird/depressing thing, the sun never did its full circle, it went up in the morning and then back down around 4pm. Along with the lack of sunlight, it was insanely cold. Despite all this, we made sure we got up early, had free hostel breakfast and took London by the horns.

How did we occupy our 3 day stay? We put our tourist hats, tried not to get hit by the cars driving on the let side and saw all the big time sights of the city. We went to see the queen's estate, Buckingham Palace, and learned that the changing out the guards was the following morning so we went back to see it. Took pictures by Parliament and my dude Big Ben. Walked across London Bridge, strolled down Hyde Park and saw the "Winter Wonderland" fair, saw Shakespeare's Globe, rode the Tube (most comfortable metro seats I've sat on), spent hours inside Harrods, saw Brandon's old house and had lunch as a nice restaurant near by. I must thank Brandon and his family for treating us to lunch at the "Enterprise," I had some delicious fish cakes (London's favorites).

All in all, I had a great time in London. It's truly a european version of the US....Brits may not like that comment but that's what it feels like to me. I would highly recommend visiting if you're in Europe.